Do you need a root canal? Know your options.

We're going to discuss root canals. This infection that's festered inside can burst out. Dentists may say, "We can watch that cavity. " I would never say that to you. And you wonder, gosh, I just had a cavity filled. Why? Why is it so sensitive? Putting white fillings where you had silver ones, I believe, should be done with great caution. I know by this point in my life, had I not used the strategies I use, I would already have root canals, crowns, dead teeth, all kinds of things. Take action before you get there. That's called prevention. And I'm here to stop you feeling nervous and scared. Thank you for joining me today. and I hope to cover exactly what they are, why you should get a root canal done if you have a dead tooth, and the consequences if you don't. There are many ways pretty much to completely avoid the need for a root canal, but you have to start early enough. And there are some root canals that need to get done quickly and some situations where perhaps you can wait. And there are really two kinds of occasion when a root canal becomes necessary. One is when a tooth is injured. This is the classic baseball bat to the mouth, an accident, somebody falls down, they fracture a tooth. When that happens, the chance of that tooth living when the nerve has been exposed, part of the tooth has broken off. It's very unlikely in most cases that the nerve and the center of that tooth is going to survive the accident. Sometimes the death occurs more slowly. Maybe you were in a car accident or something occurred where your tooth was hit maybe the side of your face in some way and it takes a few years for the death of that tooth to occur. So if you're in an accident and your tooth gets broken, I would go immediately to see an endodontist. This would be a specialist in root canals. They know how to treat a tooth like this. And what they will today do if they possibly can is something called regenerative endodontic therapy, RE. And regenerative endodontic therapy is very exciting because they can take stem cells from your body and inject it into a kind of gel and potentially regrow the removed part of the tooth. Now an endodontist is a specialist who does nothing but root canals. And they do root canals all day every day, one patient after another. The chair goes in a certain position, the x-rays go in a certain position. and the treatment is repetitive and these really are the experts who can take teeth that require this treatment and do it in such a way that they have incredible success. The second kind of reason for a nerve inside the tooth to die would be after the tooth has become infected. And this is different from the first case where there was no infection. Worst case is simple. You have really have no choices apart from extracting the tooth and having an implant or doing a root canal treatment and saving that tooth, which I would always recommend. When there's been an infection in the tooth, the infection can spread right through the internal structure of the tooth depending on the length of time that infection has been there. So why does a tooth become infected? Well, there are lots of different reasons. Suppose as I mentioned you had an accident and you didn't realize that your tooth was slowly dying year after year. That death could occur without you having any pain, any sensation. The tooth is basically just numb and the nerve has just died. The problem is that empty space inside your tooth can become a space where bad infectious the bacteria that cause an infection find a space and multiply. They make liquids and that expansion liquid puffs up the material in the center of the tooth. This infection that's festered inside can burst out of the tooth and that unfortunately is what we call an abscess. Incredibly painful. People are in intense pain. Usually for several days beforehand, the tooth will have been very tender to bite on. And if that's happening to your tooth that you feel it every time you bite on it, it's throbbing and it's painful. Particularly when you lie down at night, that's an indication that there's this infection, this pressure building up almost like a

volcano in the inside of your tooth just waiting to explode through the end of your tooth. And you don't want that to happen. And that is why the minute you have precious sensitive teeth, teeth when you bite on them that feel really painful, seek help. Seek somebody who can take a good X-ray. When teeth have multiple roots, this can occur sometimes in an oddball root, one root. Maybe you've already had a root canal on three roots of a molar tooth and they didn't notice that there was a fourth root and this pressure is building up in this fourth root. So that's why you need the endodontist special X-ray techniques, the equipment they have, the skill and knowledge sometimes to find a part of the tooth that hasn't already been treated or in the case of a new tooth, something that's just occurred, a really good cleaning to that tooth. Once there's been infection, the concern is that every bit of that infected mess needs to get cleaned away. And this is the most difficult thing to do. And this is one of the reasons that an endodontist is the person to go to. A tooth that has died can be symptomless until it starts to get infected. The pressure builds up and these bad things of pressure explode into the gum. So just because you're not feeling pain doesn't mean that you don't have a dead tooth. It's confusing for people because they expect that a dead tooth would be painful and that is not the case. And one of the main reasons that people end up with dead teeth is because they have cavities. A decay, a cavity, a infection in a tooth that destroys the tooth. It causes the tooth to actually crumble into a cavity. And if that cavity is not taken care of either by you with good oral care, which I'm going to talk about in a few minutes, or you go to a dentist and have a filling done fairly quickly, if you do neither of those things, if you don't take care of this infection, and if you don't have a filling done, it's really simple for the cavity bacteria to gradually creep deeper and deeper into the tooth. And once they've killed the center of the tooth, once they've killed those nerves, again, the same sequence, the bubbling up of infection, the pressure and so forth. So cavities that are untreated or if you're not using the strategies I recommend, don't just sit and watch a cavity. Or dentists may say, "We can watch that cavity. " I would never say that to you. I would say you have two choices. refill that cavity or you use my strategies to stop the disease in its tracks. So that's one reason that teeth die because a cavity isn't filled quickly enough. The next reason for a tooth to die, the nerve to die is because you have fillings replaced. And this is the very tricky topic because today a lot of people are worried about the mercury and silver fillings. So much so that they will go and have silver fillings replaced with plastic white ones. That's not my recommendation, not a blanket statement. There are some occasions when it might be useful, but generally I would give you a warning that taking out silver fillings is incredibly dangerous. Not just because of the mercury that is released when you take them out, but most importantly because of the damage the taking out can do to the nerve inside your tooth. Not only that, and it's the heat generated and the different change that occurs, especially if you've had a filling for a long time, and now you're taking it out. The other problem is that they the not only the heat of the drill can pretty much fry the inside of the tooth, which we hope a dentist is not doing, but does sometimes happen. The other problem is that the glue used to stick the white filling or crown or inlay or onlay into that space where the old filling has come away. That glue can be very toxic to the inside surface of your teeth to the cells and the chemistry of that glue is such that it can really upset the nerves inside the tooth. See, part of the sticking process is that the tooth is etched with acids that this glue is then set with a light. Uh, and you may have seen this where the dentist has this white composite material and then

shines a light at it. The problem with that light is it stretches the material. It's so tiny you can't see it or feel it at the time, but it can actually change the way that the glue that's gluing the tooth the filling into the tooth operates. This is when you've had a filling done and you bite on it and it hurts or it's sensitive after you've had a new filling put in your tooth and you wonder, gosh, I just had a cavity filled. Why? Why is it so sensitive? And often it is the pressure because the inside glue is behaving almost like chewing gum expanding and contracting as you bite on that tooth. And the cells in the dentin, the cells, the adonttolasts that live inside the dentin in your tooth are extremely pressure sensitive. That's why if a dentist is cutting your dentin, you will feel it as very ouchy or very painful. And it's the same thing when you glue these white fillings in. They can easily upset the pressure on your tooth. And that's why it hurts every time you bite up and down on it. It's usually the reason. And so putting white fillings where you had the silver ones, I believe should be done with great caution, real good consideration of the risks and benefits and do it slowly, one tooth at a time in case you find you are becoming very sensitive to this ch change, this transition. The other problem of putting white fillings in, and today people have a lot of white fillings where in the old days they might have had silver, is that the shelf life or the lifespan of a white filling and there was a study recently done uh by the dental associations uh national group of practitioners that do studies. They were looking in the practical world of dental practice, how long does a white filling usually last? I love that study because it's really clinical. Looking at patients who've had white fillings and they did this big national study and a white filling usually lasts, just in case you'd like to know, 13. 3 years. So, if you're 20 years old having a white filling put in your tooth, you can expect by the time you're 33 that you're going to need another one. And if you're 33, having another filling done when you're 46 and so on. So, how many times can a tooth actually endure the changing of a filling, the replacement of a filling before it has had enough? And I don't have a study to show that, but my guesstimate from many years, 50 years of dentistry is that most teeth after two replacements are so irritated the nerve will die. So if you've had a filling and you've replaced it once, you should be very concerned if that filling is starting to deteriorate. That's pretty scary. And I'm here to stop you feeling nervous and scared because my complete mouth care system, which again we will mention in a little bit more detail, helps you to preserve not the filling but the edges around the filling. You see, it's not the filling that deteriorates. It's the supporting enamel, the tooth structure that surrounds this filling that breaks down. Because most people are not using the products necessary to stimulate the material of the tooth, the enamel and the dentin to keep itself tight against the filling. And if it's not tight against the filling, liquids percolate down. And the other problem with white fillings is that they are really plaque magnets. They attract plaque to the edges of the filling, which is why they tend to decay around the edges very quickly. every 13. 3 years. And the only way to get out of that problem, you see, you cannot floss the edge of your fillings very well. It it's you can brush them, you can try and floss them, but the minute you stop, more plaque will deposit from your saliva. This is why my recommendation is not to rely on floss, but to rely on the use of xylitol. I am very explicit about how to use xylitol to have small amounts at the end of meals so that you change the bacteria in your mouth and over a period of six months you can eliminate plaque. You

won't have that risk for your white fillings. And if you use the strategies that I recommend, your enamel will stay strong and you should be able to maintain a white filling for life. I have one that was put in when I was at dental school and I've had mine checked last year by an Austin dentist and told it's in great shape. You can keep your white fillings for life and that is one of the main preventive ways to avoid the need for root canals. And if you're not using the strategies I recommend, I believe the chances are, and I can almost see heads nodding out there, you had a filling changed, maybe a silver one to a white one. You had that white one replaced some 10, 15 years later, and then 10 years after that, if you think back, you needed a root canal, and then you needed a crown. And then another tooth went the same way, and then another tooth. Replacement of fillings is another huge factor in why teeth die. And the prevention of that is enormous. And of course, you will never know what you missed. But I know what I missed because I know by this point in my life, had I not used the strategies I use, I would already have root canals, crowns, dead teeth, all kinds of things. So, I know what I've missed and I would invite you to take action before you get there. That's called prevention. People love home treatments and I'm all about taking care of your teeth at home. And preventive measures at home are far more effective in my opinion. something you do twice a day using the products that I recommend I believe gives you this strategy that keeps your sustainable oral health and your teeth really mineralized and healthy and that is the way to go when you have a dead tooth. I want to say this so clearly that you understand there is no way to bring a dead tooth back to life. There isn't a way. The closest is to do that regenerative endodontic therapy, but that can't be done if your tooth is very infected. So once your tooth has died, your tooth has died. My complete mouth care system cannot bring it back to life. That is one time you absolutely must go quickly to an endodontist and get the therapy. And this is probably the biggest message because if you don't, not only will that infection spread into the bone, it can loosen teeth either side. It can cause it to burst into your sinus. I've had a patient that had a sinus problem that was really difficult to resolve from an abscess in a top tooth that actually went into the sinus. You need help. And putting clove or garlic isn't going to help. Should you extract that tooth? It's an option. And if you don't want a root canal, it's about your only other option. It really is your other option. Do I think an extraction followed by an implant is a better option than a root canal? No, I don't. And if you listened in 2018 to the documentary Root Cause which was on Netflix that was produced by an individual who was very opposed to root canals. He believed that a lot of his medical problems had come from a dead tooth and they may well have done. They may have come from a dead tooth. I don't know enough about his particular problems. He could have had a fourth root canal that wasn't found. He may have had his work done by a dentist who wasn't qualified. Between 2000 1980 and 2000, those years, a lot of very bad root canals were done because the technology wasn't the technology of today because lots of people were having them. They were very lucrative. So many dentists decided to do the root canals and not to send them out to the endodontic specialists. They were done with materials that initially certainly were quite toxic. Uh they were products designed um almost I won't say they were exactly like a creassote but they were a really bad uh toxic kind of uh antiseptic that was put into the root canal and sometimes bleach was squirted all over the root canal. I mean terrible things that today that's not they clean with ultrasonic cleaners. It's so different. don't listen to the myths that have really many times been

debunked although there is an element of truth and certainly I have great respect for the the documentary was kind of based on Weston Price's theory and won Price was an excellent dentist in the late 1800s early 1900s he was simply saying Weston Price was saying teeth can impact your body health and I 100% % believe and know and look at studies that show that. So, if you leave an infected tooth in your mouth, can it affect your heart, your brain, your joints? If you're a pregnant woman, can it affect your birth? Absolutely. And you cannot leave a dead tooth untreated. I hope that message has come through. I hope you understand that there are myths out there that could make you fearful. I think some myths are being perpetuated potentially by the implant industry because they gain and it's much simpler for a dentist if he wants to take out a tooth and put in an implant. Uh I believe there's great value if you can quickly get a root canal done and preserve the original tooth for many reasons. And we will do another video on the difficulties and dangers of implants and why I would believe that saving that tooth often is preferable. So, I hope that's helped you understand what a root canal treatment is and how important it can be for you to get done. And in order to prevent it, my complete mouth care system, you'll want the details of that and they are laid out on my website, drlellie. com, where you can download a booklet, a free booklet. I've written books about how it all happened. Uh, my complete mouth care system was originally for my mother to save her teeth and then it's been something I have recommended over the years. I've used myself for 40 years. So, please visit drlellie. com. I have an oral health video boot camp if you want to know even more details. And I do recommend that every single person who's taken that boot camp has found lots of good information that's helped them understand why this system works. But if you really would like to understand why it works, I highly recommend my boot camp so that you feel comfortable with these products and embrace what they're doing to help you keep your mouth healthy so you can enjoy natural, healthy, shiny, white, comfortable teeth the rest of your life.