Root canal work not so bad after all
Friday, 12 July 2019
Root canal work is not as bad as people think when compared to other dental procedures. Self-reporting of their dental health suggests that patients find the procedure no worse than other dental work which overturns the popular belief that root canal work is the most unpleasant dental treatment.
Dr Tallan Chew, postgraduate student, ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ Dental School, University of ÐÂÀ˲ÊƱ co-authored the study.
“Information about 1096 randomly selected Australian people aged 30-61 was collected through questionnaires, dental records and treatment receipts in 2009. Their self-rated dental health score was checked when they had their dental work and two years later,” she says.
“Patients who had root canal work reported similar oral health-related quality of life as people who had other types of dental work.
“The effect of root canal work on patients’ oral health-related quality of life was compared to other kinds of dental work such as tooth extraction, restoration of teeth, repairs to the teeth or gum treatment, preventative treatment and cleaning.”
Every year millions of root canal treatments are performed globally (more than 22 million in the USA alone), which may have a profound positive effect on the quality of life of patients. A root canal treatment repairs and saves