Before people even know what a root canal actually is, they might already have a negative association with the term. This is due mostly to TV and movies, where the clever, sarcastic character says something like, “I’d rather have a root canal” when faced with a seemingly easy task that they simply don’t want to do (usually for their own good — or not so good — reasons). That leaves room for a lot of people’s imaginations to run wild, especially children.
So these children who hear about the root canal from TV and movie characters go through their childhood with resilient teeth. Maybe when they’re older they come face to face with the possibility of having to get a root canal, and they fall back on the only information they’ve been given, no matter how false or embellished it is.
One huge misconception about root canals is that they’re the most painful dental procedure. The root canal procedure is actually meant to reduce pain, rather than create it. Living your life with an infected tooth is more painful than getting a root canal procedure. You might experience some level of discomfort, but due to technological advances as well as anesthetics, the procedure is no more painful than getting a cavity filled. People who undergo the root canal treatment are far more apt to call the procedure “painless” than someone who has not experienced the procedure.
Another big myth is that root canal treatments cause illness or disease in the body. This is due to arcane methods of dentistry that favored tooth extraction over endodontics because it was believed that infected teeth could not be treated and should be yanked out and done with.
There is no real evidence that links root canal treatments with disease elsewhere in your body. A root canal is a safe and effective procedure designed to keep your original teeth. The treatment is designed to remove bacteria from your infected root canal in order to prevent reinfection.
Ironically enough, it is tooth extraction that can potentially put your body in contact with bacteria that can enter your bloodstream. The root canal treatment causes much less trauma and is far more conservative when it comes to incidence and magnitude of bacteria entering the body’s bloodstream.
We cannot stress enough that saving your teeth is always the best option. Artificial teeth might look and feel like real teeth, but they are simply not the same as your real teeth. You want to hold onto those for as long as you can, preferably for your entire life.
Another myth is that root canals are expensive. At Bedford Dental Group we have affordable, cost-effective options. When it comes down to it, it can be more expensive down the road if you ignore an infected tooth, which can cause you to lose not only that tooth, but surrounding teeth and bone structure. This will be cause for more extensive and expensive restorative procedures in order to bring your mouth back to normal. We’d like to avoid that. That’s where the root canal comes in.
We guess what we’re trying to say is that sometimes we have to look beyond the obvious a little bit. When it comes to root canals, ignore what you hear on TV, in movies, and maybe that crazy aunt who has lived with a bad tooth her entire life, too scared to get the procedure done. It’s utterly amazing the things human beings will put up with simply based on misinformation.
Rant over. If you feel like you could benefit from the root canal procedure, then contact Bedford Dental Group today. We’ll help you achieve and maintain that million dollar smile that you deserve.
