When I built the OraMedia site back in 1997, I had absolutely no idea that the hottest topic on the site was 'root canals.'  I thought people would come for the idea of prevention.  Recently I read that you cannot sell prevention successfully, that there simply isn't enough interest.

    Year after year, I watched as the page, Do I Really Need A ROOT CANAL?, pulled 10-20 times more hits than any other page at the site - especially during late summer and early winter.  Dr. Nara wrote that article perhaps 30 years ago and not much has changed until now.

     I recently ran across a couple of articles about dentists in Kentucky and California doing a procedure called 'direct pulp capping.'  This procedure has apparently been around for many years but the materials used in sealing over the nerve weren't that great and failed half of the time.

     When decay has eaten through the enamel, the dentin and into the pulp, the dentist would conventionally dig out the root, fill the root 'canal' with a filler material and cap off the tooth.  That, in a sentence, is a root canal.  The tooth is dead, but it is still there, which is better than nothing.  Better to have a dead tooth than no tooth or a false or prosthetic one.

     With 'direct pulp capping' the decay is cleared away and the nerve is sealed off and then capped.  Apparently the nerve deals with this just fine.

     This treatment is available IF the nerve is still alive and is considerably less expensive than a root canal.  PLUS, it'll save your tooth!

     An even more promising technique is done, researched by a company called Dentigenix, whereby an agent (DTX.DR-1) is applied to the exposed pulp and sealed off.  The agent actually converts or mineralizes, forming new dentin and sealing off the pulp in a more natural sense than the technique above.

     I do not know which dentists may be applying this technique in place of doing root canals, but if you are a candidate, you may want to start making inquiries in your area.  Ask about 'direct pulp capping' or DTX.DR-1 as an alternative to root canals.