Few dental words cause as much fear as “root canal”. Most of that fear comes from stories that are decades out of date, or simply wrong. Here are the five we hear most often — and the truth.
Myth 1: “Root canals are extremely painful”
A root canal relieves pain; it does not cause it. The pain people remember is the toothache before treatment, when the nerve inside the tooth is inflamed or infected. With modern local anaesthesia the procedure itself is comparable to getting a filling. Some tenderness for a few days afterwards is normal and manageable with ordinary painkillers.
Myth 2: “It is better to just remove the tooth”
Nothing we can put in your mouth works as well as your own tooth. Extraction leaves a gap that causes neighbouring teeth to tilt, the opposite tooth to over-erupt, and bone to shrink — and replacing the tooth with an implant or bridge costs more than the root canal would have. We recommend extraction only when the tooth genuinely cannot be saved.
Myth 3: “A root canal kills the tooth”
The procedure removes the infected nerve and blood vessels from inside the tooth. The tooth remains attached to the bone by its ligament, is still nourished from outside, and continues to function normally for chewing. It does become slightly more brittle, which is why we nearly always recommend a crown on a root-canal-treated back tooth.
Myth 4: “The infection will just come back”
A properly cleaned, shaped, sealed and crowned tooth has a very high long-term success rate. Failures usually trace back to a delayed crown (the tooth cracks or re-infects), a missed canal, or a tooth that was already too damaged. If a treated tooth does flare up years later, it can often be re-treated rather than removed.
Myth 5: “It takes many sittings”
The number of visits depends on the tooth and the infection. A front tooth with no active infection is different from a back molar with a large abscess. We assess each case and tell you how many appointments to expect before we start — and we do not rush an infected tooth to finish faster, because that is exactly what leads to failure.
When you actually need one
- Lingering pain to hot or cold that does not settle quickly
- Pain on biting, or a throbbing ache that wakes you at night
- A swelling or pimple on the gum near a tooth
- A tooth that has darkened after an injury
- Deep decay on an X-ray close to the nerve — sometimes with no pain at all
The tooth that hurts and then stops hurting has not healed — the nerve has died and the infection is spreading quietly. That is the tooth to bring in soonest.
Have a question about this?
Been told you need a root canal and putting it off? Come and let us show you the X-ray and explain exactly what is involved for your tooth. Delaying usually makes it more complicated, not less.