The 'joy' of root canals in the City of London
The treatment of excessive tooth decay by root canal has never been good reading in the city of London, in fact it has thrown up some very bad urban legends as well. It is by its very nature a tricky little treatment and sometimes in the past, a bit grotesque too. It all starts with you allowing your teeth to get into a state and the onset of tooth decay: acids and bacteria have been allowed to eat away at the enamel and have broken through to the inside of the tooth infecting the pulp and the roots.
The only chance you have to save the tooth is to remove the infected pulp and remove the roots by drilling them out- tricky situations could involve the cutting of the gums and coming in from the side of the tooth in order get to them. Once all of this has been done, the tooth would be filled and then royally crowned. The bad press that came from this treatment was that it could be very painful because of the use of a physical drill, that sometimes couldn’t remove all of the root, hence the side entry scenario. But procedures like root canals have been made a lot easier to do and virtually pain-free thanks to the introduction of lasers into dental surgeries.
Physical drills cause vibration and often do further damage because of it. It can also affect the nerves in the gums around the root causing the pain. A laser however, burns it way forward removing the pulp and the roots without any vibration at all making it one of the most pain-free, routine treatments around; in a sense, having a root canal has almost become a joyous affair!