Back in the early 1970s at my office in Omaha’s Old Market Passageway just above VMertz Restaurant I learned a critical step in doing root canals with calcium materials. We had designed our nonsurgical Calcium Hydroxide Method of Endodontic Sealing (for root canals) and were teaching it to small groups of dentists at our downtown office in the Medical Arts Building. It was finally published in the Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology Journal 1982.
The afternoon half of the seminars were held in the Old Market office with the delicious aroma of the restaurant below until about 4:00 pm, and were completed with a lively dental discussion over wine and cheese at VMertz.
One of the dentists mentioned that there should be a better way to get the calcium to the apex for the canal before obturation (sealing). The idea stuck in my heard and about week later while doing a root canal on a patient there, I picked up a long paper point used to desiccate (dry) the canal and remarked, "I wish there was a way to get the calcium powder up to the end of your tooth."
Without skipping a beat the fellow in the chair looked at me like "Daahh. Hey, stupid" and said, "Why don’t you use that long white thing in your hand?"
Obviously! So, we now fluff the paper points in the calcium powder while they are stored and then use them to dry the canal AND carry the calcium hydroxide powder to the apex. Brilliant idea!!!
There you have it, one of the most important steps in the success of root canal therapy. You see, our root canal method started years earlier when I read an article in Scientific American Magazine about when calcium is deposited at the root tip (apex) while doing a root canal on Rhesus monkeys, the root tip is stimulated to close and heal better. Well, why not? If it works on my cousins it should work on me.
It did and still does, thanks to the rather strange, commonsense fellow in the dental chair.
Listening and sharing our ideas can be magical.