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Potential connection between root canal and cancer/autoimmune diseases has been giving me anxiety

T

toraflora

Member
Joined
May 8, 2019
Messages
36
Location
Pasadena
I read this article: https://beatcancer.org/blog-posts/root-canals-and-cancer
(unsure about the legitimacy of the claims, though)

And it pretty much sums up my fear. I got a root canal around two years ago without really giving much thought into it. Lately, this idea that root canals act as “ticking time bombs” because they apparently leak toxins into other parts of your body is really worrying me. Some people are claiming that it’s pseudoscience, and I even went to my dentist to check up on it (he claimed B.S.). Others claim that dentists aren’t the best people to consult for these issues because they tend to be more biased/may only be well-versed in dentistry and not how it may affect one's overall health.

I wanted to ask you guys if you had any thoughts, opinions, or advice on what steps to take about this. I’ve been extremely stressed and worried about having the potential likelihood of harming my health and would like some second opinion to help ease my mind.

It seems like the common claim is all root canals go bad/infected eventually and will cause problems down the road even many years after, and I was wondering if any of you who had root canals in the past have experienced anything like this or no issues at all.

Did any of you all have root canals? How long did you get them, and have you had any issues (infection and/or other health issues) happen since that may associate with the RC? Any info, advice, or anecdotes is much appreciated!
 
There are a lot of scare tactics out there. I've had at least half a dozen root canals all saving my teeth which helps my health. Of course only your dentist can look and see if a root canal is the safest and best route. For you based off your situation.
 
Hi there, it sounds like the same issue a recent movie about root canals is talking about. I haven‘t seen it but there is a thread where it gets discussed so you might want to check it out.

The short version: do not believe everything you read, especially if there are no real people with medical background behind that.
 
The only connection known is between dental and autoimmune is NOT with root canals but with periodontal disease. Periodontal disease is inflammatory by its nature. It is associated with and is a probable precipitator in susceptible people for rheumatoid arthritis.
 
Others claim that dentists aren’t the best people to consult for these issues because they tend to be more biased/may only be well-versed in dentistry and not how it may affect one's overall health.

If you look at curriculum for dentistry you will find that dentists actually have all the main subjects that medicine students do, such as biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology and others. Dentists use and prescribe medication and work with all kinds of people from who have different health issues and it's critical for them to know about how the human body works. Not sure how about UK or US, but the country I originally come from dentists even have full medicine degree like any other doctors, with a specialization on dentistry, however not sure whether this had changed in between.
 
Thanks for the responses! I wasn't aware of the "potential harms" of root canal before until someone I know personally who has had two root canals talked about how he had problems (inflammation and cancer) at the same exact body parts as the same exact teeth with the associated tooth meridians (which is the idea that each tooth has some vessel connecting it to some part of the body) that he had root canals done on. Someone else also said how she had a tumor on her right breast, which was the same side as her root canal and how extracting the tooth helped the tumor go away.

I think these anecdotes of people I personally know are scaring me the most, so I'm wondering if anyone had any anecdotes of long-lasting, problem-free root canals after many years.

Thanks everyone again!
 
I personally do not believe that a certain tooth is connected to another part of the body, as there really is no scientific basis. People put toxins in their bodies every day, way more than you would get from a root canal.
My father had a root canal at age 10, from an injury to his tooth. He still has the tooth, and he is 70 now. He is one of the healthiest people I know. My grandfather had two root canals after serving in WW2, and lived to age 94, still driving and active up to the week he died.
I know lots of others who also have had successful root canals. There are a lot of factors that contribute to illness, cancers, diseases, etc.
 
I had a slight freak out session after watching a pseudo-science documentary about the auto-immune/cancer connection to root canal. I didn't want to alarm anyone on the forum so I asked a dentist about it in a private message. He assured me that is regarded as bad science. That gave me the confidence to ask my endodontist about it - and he told me that he has two root-canal treated teeth, and that he's done a root canal on his daughter. My father has had a root canal treated tooth for 30ish years and the only health issue he has ever had is a knee replacement due to osteoarthritis from abusing it. He's 65 this year.
 
There is so much that can go wrong with us from a health perspective and so focusing on a made-up issue based on no science whatsoever is foolish. This is especially true when these are the same people who will not treat periodontal disease in a highly effective non-surgical approach but instead make up more harmful advice. If you care about your health then start by first doing the most important basic steps.
1. Do not smoke
2. Keep a normal weight
3. Exercise
4. Sleep well
5. Be mindful to stress/ Decide to be happy
6. have regular dental cleanings as you need/ Floss and brush
7.Eat/ Drink Healthy- Eat real food and cook- No sodas (carbonated drinks), no fads, no boxed or packaged foods, no fruit juices as you are better with whole fruits. regularly eat vegetables and nuts. For those 50+ who might get night cramps. The answer isn't to take another pill its to drink more water and a lot of it.
8. and others
 
Thanks everyone for the replies -- it helped me ease some anxiety! I have had constant fear about this for ~2 weeks already and cannot get it off my mind. I visited my family dentist (who just said that the root canal disease connection is rubbish) and just came back from my visit to another dental specialist who did a pano x-ray. Based on the x-ray, he said that the RCT tooth was "done perfectly" and has no issue at the moment. I know that some claims posted on the internet could be false, but I was mostly freaked out by anecdotes of people who claim this notion as true.

For instance, a teacher of mine had a skin cancer spot on the exact spot on his face as stated by a tooth meridian chart (basically a chart that shows which tooth leads to which part(s) of the body) in relations to the tooth he got root canal on, and he also had an appendix issue on another tooth that apparently is connected to his appendix he had an infection on. He also stated his cousin had a gallbladder issue and immediately was able to predict that he had a root canal on the exact tooth that was supposedly connected to the gallbladder. As I'm looking at some stories online, it seems like many people had similar haunting stories.

I know I'm not supposed to trust everything that's just posted online, but it seems like what my teacher and his relatives had experienced seemed too odd to just be a coincidence. I know my root canal is "okay" now, but I don't want to worry about the potential chance of having issues tied to a root canal I have right now if it gets infected later.

Any thoughts about this?
 
How about anecdotal evidence the other direction? I have an auto-immune thyroid disorder. I've had it since I was 17 years old. I looked up the teeth associated with the thyroid gland according to this connection - I have had no root canals or infections on any of the teeth associated with the thyroid (premolars and first molars on the top apparently). I did have one extraction due to trauma (hockey) but there was no infection associated. Tooth broke below the gumline due to me not wearing a mouthguard, and it was many, many years after being diagnosed with my auto-immune condition.
 
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