In this episode, I discuss the need to distinguish between individuals with good oral health and minimal dental work, and those with extensive dental treatments, which may contribute to systemic health issues. Not all dental care is created equal, and there are significant gaps in diagnostic techniques within the field. Many patients may be unaware of chronic inflammation in their mouths, which can go undetected for years due to these gaps and a lack of standardized diagnostic tools in dentistry.

It's crucial to shift our perspective on the oral biome and the connection between oral health and overall health. Educating the public is essential; people with healthy teeth and minimal dental work generally face lower health risks. However, those with poor dental health and extensive treatments may need a comprehensive diagnostic overhaul, utilizing advanced techniques like 3D CBCT scans.

For this reason, we developed an artificial intelligence tool that scans panoramic x-rays to detect hidden inflammation (see more at https://www.missinglink.ai/). This innovation aims to identify issues that, once confirmed by CBCT scans, can lead to the necessary medical interventions.

It's important to note that chronic oral inflammation is directly linked to over 22 noncommunicable diseases that can severely affect our lives. Awareness and education about these connections are vital to improving health outcomes.

Root canals have been round for hundreds of years, and are incredibly effective way to remove pain and to salvage the tooth structure. However, when poorly executed, can lead to some complications. The definition of poorly executed can vary a lot, but its not always possible to get the treatment 100% and this can lead to many health issues in the long run. One of the basic and many times overlooked and very important steps, is setting up a dental or rubber dam to isolate the tooth against saliva contamination. If this was not done, then the likelihood that things can go wrong is very high. Also, the use of sterilised instruments and making sure that all canals even the hidden ones have been properly treated and cleaned, for if not, the possibility of inflammation and even the formation of a cyst around the tooth in the long run is quite high. This is not good for systemic heath.
The use of CBCT to make sure there is no ongoing inflammation is imperative and we must remember that no treatment last forever. If you have systemic illness, you might want to look into alternatives however, I believe that went well performed by a trained Endodontist using state of the art protocols and instruments, it can be a very effective treatment to help patients with tooth ache as opposed to extraction, but must always be done under optimal conditions.
So, no! Not all root canals are bad, just the poorly executed ones. Always make informed decisions about your health.

I have been following the evolution of Artificial intelligence in dentistry for quite some time, and I think that there are a lot of amazing companies out there doing incredible things. The foundation of all of these developments is to ensure better diagnostics, treatment planning and to help Dentists and dental teams around the world improve the quality of care. Or is it? Could it be that some companies will try and utilise artificial intelligence to enhance volume of sales and not quality of care? We have seen some examples in the industry where companies are incredibly focused on sales alone and not quality of care. As such, I think we need to ensure that different artificial intelligence organisations within healthcare do different things, and there should most certainly be organisations that focus on ethics and quality of care alone, ensuring that patients get exactly what they are paying for and what is sold to them.
I think with augmented reality and wearable cameras, it's going to be a very interesting time moving forward , is there will be a lot more information to monitor and control, and I trust that we can all work together ensuring that at the end of the day we can create healthy ecosystems where diagnostics are improved dramatically, treatment planning is the best possible, execution is gold standard and everyone can win and be profitable at the end of the day.
Ive been saying in my lectures for quite some time, "it's a very good time to start practising ethical gold standard dentistry"