Root canal without rubber dam?

[Hetty241]

I have to have a root filling done on back upper molar. Asked my new dentist if she would be using a rubber dam and she said no. I thought a rubber dam should always be used for RCT to reduce chance of infection. Can anyone advise?

My Dentist has never let debris fall down my throat. Nor are they lazy/slow in sucking excess water.

Maybe they are just more skilled at this than some.

Well Mignonette if you want bleach down your throat that is up to you.....but you are mad if you do. I must stress I am a patient and not dentally qualified in any way so am not trying to sound pompous.

Because of contamination by saliva the treatment is also less likely to be successful. I doubt there are many root canal specialists (endodontists) who do not use a rubber dam in any civilised country.

There are dental fear patients who have issues with the concept of a rubber dam but I have found as a patient that it helps you feel like you are at one remove from what is going on - it is happening to your tooth and not to you if you see what I mean.

I'll hopefully get some answers from the dental practice as I'm genuinely curious as to why such an eminent practice would not use one.

I would not cope with one of those. It wouldn't have the positive impact that other patients report of making me feel removed- I panic if I take too much time pulling clothing over my face (silly i know) and my phobia stems from a former dentist who was subsequently struck off for harming two other patients even worse than he did me.

I suspect they were dispensing with it in your case because of your phobia which I think is fine, but you have to know the downsides of doing it that way. It says in the GDC guidelines (just looked it up) that if dentists deviate from accepted standards of care, they need to justify and document the reasons why.

Yes they took advice from my Hypnotherapist.

Very interesting debate and pause for thought.

I had a RCT recently. The dentist used a dam & after reading this thread I now understand why she asked if I had a RCT with a dam before & was I OK with it.

I hadn't had it before, but I can reassure people that the dam was fine, I have a very sensitive gag reflex, I really struggle with the X ray, but the dam isn't any where near the back of the throat, it is fine.

My main request was a rubber wedge to keep my mouth open. With that, once the dam was fitted I could close my eyes and go to my safe place through the procedure. I don't think a dam is anything to be scared of.

As I mentioned on the other "crown" thread i've had more RCT than I can recall, the first being over 40 years ago and the last 12 months ago. At least 5 different dentists, 2 private, 3 NHS and I really did not know what a dental dam was - have never been aseked for consent for one to be used and had to look at the link to see what it was.

Another thing that I suspect is contentious. My first dentist always used to ask me to hold teh Xray thingy with my finger. Last year with a dentist i don't usually see at my surgery I said I would do this as I kept gagging and couldn't cope with the clamp thing. She went through the rooof at the suggestion. A couple of months later on a visit to my implant dentist he asked if I would ....... hold teh exray thing with my finger!

It's not so contentious, the x ray thing. It's called bisecting angle technique and we use it if we can't use a proper x ray holder. It's a recognised technique and still taught to dentists, nurses and radiographers.

In fact, going through the roof is quite odd, they're not common, maybe one in 100 x rays are taken like this.

Rubber dam is also not contentious, it is best practice. A quick google will tell you that.

Mignonette, I totally know where you're coming from. The rubber dam was worse than the root canal for me, I was gagging on it and the dentist had to stop, I really felt like I was going to be sick. (It was also very painful as the anaesthetic hadn't fully frozen the area). I got another dentist to finish it.

I had a root canal treatment last year. I have NO IDEA whether the dentist used a rubber dam. I think I should google this!