Ring the alarm

I was disappointed to read a number of articles that claimed 97 per cent of terminal cancer patients have had root canal treatment in the past. This upset me on a number of different levels, not only because of the implied causal link between root canal treatment and cancer, but also the fact that this alarmist nonsense can be pedalled out so convincingly by and to apparently intelligent people.

It is worrying that in the 21^st century there are still people out there regurgitating the work of Dr Weston Price and his ilk. Even more concerning is the thought that articles such as these may well be putting patients off root canal treatment based on this misguided ‘science’.

An awful lot of the pseudoscience that can be found on endodontics can be linked back to Focal Infection Theory (FIT) that was popular for the early part of the last century. According to the theory a localised infection will disseminate micro-organisms or their products to a distant site in the body. As a result of focal infection theory conservative dental treatment was avoided for many years and extraction was recommended instead.