Root canals-A Victim of bad Publicity!

By Dr. Angeletti, published in Our Town, May 2007

 

The root canal treatment (otherwise abbreviated as RCT) is one of the most feared procedures in general dentistry. Patients make bad jokes about it while shaking in their boots before getting one done. Some patients even need a tranquilizer just to enter the office!

 

The problem is most of their fear is needless! I believe this stigma came about through a perception problem with patients and Hollywood.  There are plenty of movies made over the years where the RCT is feared and even one movie comes to mind that used it as a torture device. The movie Marathon Man came out in 1976, 2 years after I graduated from dental school. After its release,  it felt like every other patient I treated had seen it and couldn’t wait to tell me about it! I went to see the movie and the director did a wonderful job scaring the heck out of people about root canals, even though nothing is shown graphically. However, doing a fadeout with the drill coming at Dustin Hoffman’s face and his subsequent screaming gave me the chills too!

 

Back to reality. I believe that patients fear RCT because when they call me up, they are already in some degree of pain and  swelling and they associate that with the procedure which actually relieves the problem. Most cases, the patient has to be on an antibiotic first to calm the tooth down so it will get numb and also to prevent putting more bacteria into their bloodstream. Once the tooth is opened and the antibiotic is working, the pain and swelling go away. Then when the root canal is finished the tooth can be restored or crowned and it becomes just another tooth in your mouth.

 

So don’t panic if your dentist recommends a root canal. It’s an effective way to save your tooth, if you don’t give into fear and Hollywood!