Root Canal Toxicity: Are Root Canals Toxic or Do Teeth Simply Take Time to Heal?

Today’s tooth story chronicles one of my favorite patient journeys of my career, because it’s a powerful reminder of what our bodies are made of and what can be accomplished when we believe in the magic within.

You see, there was a time when my dental beliefs came from a place of fear, and I thought that certain teeth couldn’t be saved. If an infection seemed too severe, or if it looked like too much bone had been lost on the x-ray, I assumed the tooth had to be removed. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! Big lesions heal, baby, and root canals and the magic of time are what make it possible.

There’s another reason, though, that I’m eager to tell this story: It makes a convincing argument against the root canal toxicity myth that continues to circulate among both patients and dentists.

Despite the focal infection theory being disproved time and time again, there are an alarming number of people who lack trust in root canals, and it only continues to grow thanks to misinformation and sensationalism by biohackers and influencers spreading like wildfire on social media. This concerns and saddens me, because as today’s story will demonstrate, root canals (when done correctly) are a powerful and crucial part of the healing process.

So if you’ve ever found yourself doubting that a tooth could be saved—or, God forbid, the efficacy of root canals altogether—then this one’s for you!

Quashing the Myth of Root Canal Toxicity With an Inspiring Tooth Story

The patient in today’s tooth story had experienced some dental trauma when she was a child, and ever since then, she had pain that would come and go. However, because it wasn’t constant or severe, she didn’t realize she had a significant problem. So it was six whole years before she sought help and landed in my dental chair for treatment.

As you can imagine, six years of waiting caused a hell of a lot of damage. Here’s what her x-ray looked like before we started treatment:

That’s a HUGE periapical lesion (a.k.a. bone loss due to the infection caused by her accident)! In this case, the bone loss was so severe that most of the bone that normally supports the front of the tooth was completely gone.

Now be honest—if you were in my shoes and saw this kind of damage, what would you think? Would you believe the tooth had a chance, or that it was a total goner? Most people—dentists and patients alike—would probably assume it was beyond help. And honestly, that used to be me too. That’s because we’ve been taught to think that teeth with this much damage can’t heal.

If that’s you—and it’s totally okay if it is—I’m here to tell you that it’s time to leave the old beliefs behind, and that includes the question of “Are root canals toxic?”. There are SO many more teeth than you think that can be preserved with a well-performed root canal, and you’re about to experience that vicariously through the rest of this tooth story.

Are Root Canals Toxic? If So, Explain This!

While at another time in my career, I may have thought my patient’s tooth was beyond saving, by this point I had seen enough evidence to the contrary that I was not about to go down without a fight. So I went ahead and treated the tooth following the two cardinal rules of root canal care: find every canal and clean to the bottom of every one. Then, I sent her home to begin her healing journey.

Six months later, I brought her back in to evaluate her progress, and I was absolutely delighted by what I saw:

Can you see how the bone is already starting to grow back around the area where the periapical lesion (dark shadow) was? And this was only 6 months post treatment!

Fast forward another two years and the patient was showing even MORE impressive results at her recall. Look at how beautifully that bone is coming back:

Sure, it’s not fully filled in yet, but that’s par for the course! If it took six years to develop a lesion that large, do you really think it’s reasonable to expect it to heal in two years or less? That’s the kind of thinking that perpetuates the root canal toxicity myth.

Now take a look at her radiograph another two years later—because, yes, I was still following up with the patient even then. With lesions of this size, it takes YEARS for the bone to properly regenerate:

Now, that whole area has filled in with healthy new bone. If this doesn’t prove just how powerful a good root canal is—and just how miraculous our bodies are—then I don’t know what does.

When It Comes to Saving Teeth, Time Is Everything

Simply deciding to try to save a tooth is a crucial step toward actually saving it. But as this story shows, that’s not where the journey ends! Once an infection is removed with a root canal, the body needs time to shift gears—from breaking down bone to rebuilding it. And the bigger the problem was to begin with, the longer the healing can take.

But if today’s tooth story shows us anything, it’s that when you let time do its thing, it makes all the difference in the world! If I hadn’t trusted the process, this tooth might’ve been written off as a failure. Worse, it could’ve been used as an example to support the myth that root canals are toxic. And that would’ve been such a shame because it’s just not true.

So be patient, and trust the body! It knows how to heal—and it will, when given the right care. If root canals really were toxic, stories like this wouldn’t be possible. But they are possible, and it’s all thanks to our incredible bodies. Even on their own, they work wonders… but when we support them the right way—such as with well-performed root canals—they heal beyond what we ever thought possible!

– Sonia