Yes, molars can have unusual structures below the gum line. But it’s hard to believe that an endodontist (the type of dentist that does root canal work) would proceed on a tooth without first x-raying the area to determine what s/he was up against. They don’t just turn on the drill and hope for the best.
You are correct.
FWIIW general dentists do more total root canals than endodontists.
If you’re not telling all your doctors (and pharmacists) about every med you’re taking that’s the (huge) problem right there. The internet need not be involved at all.
I prefer to think of it as merely common sense advice. 
Yes, it’s terrible that they are still considered so separate. In no other area of healthcare is the phrase ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ more true than in dentistry. IOW if insurance companies better covered basic dental checkups & preventative care they would avoid billions of costs in later reconstructive and repair procedures ((not to mention often painful ones at that!)
Gyne. Or, rather, Obs.
I don’t have to read past the headline to know that this article is deliberately attempting to mislead us. “97% of Terminal Cancer Patients Previously Had Root Canal Procedure”. Well, 100% of dead people breathed air, so I guess air is fatal.
My dentist told me that some people have additional small roots that don’t always show up very well on a single X ray. I believe some of these are sometimes located by examination after clearing out the pulp - using a special kind of microscope.
I don’t think your analogy holds, unless somewhere near 97% of all people have had a root canal. I’ve done a bit of googling to try to find what the actual percentage is, but no luck. Still, I find it hard to believe that it’s that high.
Here’s what the linked article specifically says:
If that were an accurate report of results seen in an unbiased sample, and the 97% figure were significantly different from the percentage of non-cancer-victims who’ve had root canals, then I’d agree that there’s something going on here.
no
Yeah, but even then, I’d be more inclined to believe that cancer leads to bad teeth (possibly indirected through financial distress) than the other way around. Correlation/causation and all that.
It’s even better to know the difference between getting ideas and taking advice.
Technically correct; my analogy was a quick top-of-the-head one to show how ridiculous the headline is, because it doesn’t examine causality. The “study” referenced was information from a single oncologist whose methods for cancer treatment were controversial at best. This was not a published, peer-reviewed study.
I think the word you’re looking for is “quack”.
As part of the statistics, you’d need to do an age-matched sample. The older you get, the more likely you are to have caught cancer, and the more likely you are to have had a root canal.
Being one who plans on erring on the side of safety, I hereby resolve to never have a root canal. Yeah, I know…but this is a better reason than the one I previously had. 
If one has radiation for oral cancer there is a good chance that the salivary flow can be greatly reduced. Dry mouths are at a much greater risk for decay. This could lead to the need for RCTs as we don’t usually want to extract a tooth if we don’t have to if it has been in the radiation field. This is due to the potential for osteoradionecrosis.
My WAG is 10-20% of people have had RCTs. I don’t have a cite or statistics just thinking about my patients.