No dental procedure carries more unearned fear than the root canal. As an endodontist, I spend a good part of every week un-teaching things patients have heard from well-meaning relatives. Let's go through the big ones.
Myth 1: "Root canals are extremely painful"
The pain people remember is the toothache before treatment — an inflamed nerve is genuinely miserable. The treatment itself happens under complete local anaesthesia. Most patients tell us afterwards it felt no different from a long filling.
Myth 2: "It's better to just pull the tooth"
Nothing we can make — implant, bridge or denture — functions quite as well as your natural tooth. Extraction also starts a cascade: bone loss, drifting neighbours, a gap to restore. When a tooth can be saved, saving it is almost always the better long-term investment.
Myth 3: "The tooth is dead afterwards, so it will fall out"
A root canal removes the infected nerve tissue, not the tooth's attachment. With a crown on top, a treated tooth chews, feels and lasts like any other — often for decades.
Myth 4: "It takes many long appointments"
With rotary instruments and digital measurement, the majority of our cases finish in a single sitting of about an hour. Complex or re-treatment cases may take two.
The bottom line
If you've been told you need a root canal, the riskiest thing you can do is wait. Infections don't pause while we gather courage — they spread. Come in, ask every question you have, and let us show you how routine this procedure has become.