Excellent article by Drs. Mehra, Clancy and Wu on hematoma during endodontic therapy ("Formation of a Facial Hematoma During Endodontic Therapy," January JADA). It brought back bad memories and reinforced my personal view that the dangers of NaOCI as a rinse far outweigh the benefits.
After an incident 25 years ago similar to their report, I began using anesthetic as the irrigant. My reason was that it was sterile, prepackaged and inert by comparison to the accepted irrigants. I also felt that adequate mechanical débridement does not require subsequent strong chemical treatment.
It is interesting to me that we concern ourselves over such politically correct, near-nonentities as biofilm, yet place something so potentially dangerous in a canal.
Our office does probably four to six root canals a week, and I believe our percentage of failures is as low as anyone’s. I would like to know if others have departed from the accepted route and also found anesthetic to be an equally efficacious but safer treatment.
