Root Canals & Informed Consent

If you follow health news much, you may have noticed quite a few more stories lately about the importance of “saving” teeth with root canals instead of extracting and replacing them with implants. May is “Save Your Tooth Month,” after all.

Yet the conventional root canal doesn’t so much save a tooth as embalm it. All the living tissue is removed along with the infection, leaving only the dentin and enamel. The tooth is then filled and capped. While it can still basically function, the fact remains that it’s dead.

And for some people, this can have a significant impact on their overall health.

This risk is seldom disclosed and often dismissed by mainstream dentists unfamiliar with the issue of root canal toxicity – a strategy from the same playbook that’s been used to insist that it’s safe to fill teeth with mercury amalgam, for instance, or to ingest fluoride to prevent decay.

Biological dentistry came about, in part, to properly deal with negative outcomes from well-intentioned dental treatments that wound up doing harm – and to investigate and promote treatments that work with the body instead of against it. It’s because we have seen just what dental toxicities can do that we are committed to supporting robust informed consent for our patients.

So in addition to providing dental services, we also do a lot of teaching with our patients. We want to be sure they have enough information about their treatment options – including the option of no treatment at all – so they can make truly informed decisions about their oral health.

That includes sharing as much as we can about both the benefits and risks of any given procedure.

That mission to teach was one of the things that inspired Dr. T to start her own podcast. Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, Your Mouth Matters is one more platform for helping people learn more about mouth/body health and each individual’s choices as a patient.

One popular episode on the show focuses on root canals and how, as with any invasive dental procedure, it’s vital to consider the potential health impacts in the context of your total health picture. Your dental history is, of course, a key part of it. Just as important is your medical history, your lifestyle, and the current state of your teeth. In addition to discussing the realities and risks of root canals, Dr. T also explores the possibility that in some cases, regenerative procedures could be employed to truly save dying teeth.

As ever, it all depends on the individual case.

Give the full episode a listen now: