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If you have been found wanting when it comes to your oral hygiene, the chances are you’ll be running the gauntlet of tooth decay and if it gets really bad, it will break through the surface of the tooth and infect everything inside and the tooth will cause you a lot of pain. Now, at this point, the only way you can save your tooth is to have a root canal- and for some people in central London, this conjures nightmares and horrible memories because in the past, this procedures could be notoriously painful and to be fair, they may have a point- on paper, it is scary reading. In order to get to the infection that the decay has caused, the dentist has to take the top of the tooth off and then remove all of the diseased pulp from inside, but that isn’t the painful bit- it’s the drilling out of the roots that causes the most discomfort, no matter how well the tooth is anaesthetized. Roots don’t grow to order- they grow curly and getting a drill in there could be difficult. Once this has been done, then the tooth can be filled and crowned, but even then, the pain could be with you for days after. Such stories however tend to be a generational thing, as today’s dentists have the luxury of using a laser to do the job and it does it quickly and without the pain and you are in and out of the chair very quickly indeed.