Recently, major dental organizations created an uproar about the Root Cause movie.
The American Association of Endodontists (AAE), American Dental Association (ADA), and American Association of Dental Research (AADR) all requested Netflix remove the film because it’s so misleading.
Update: Netflix quietly pulled Root Cause from their library as of February 27, 2019. No explanation has been given, but experts believe this might be to protect the integrity of the high-quality documentaries offered on the streaming service.
But I’m already not a member of the ADA because I don’t necessarily buy into all their methods. I was intrigued…Could this movie be uncovering something new?
The Guardian covers the topic from a free speech perspective, but I was eager to look at the movie from the perspective of a functional dentist. I might add that I’m also committed to being honest about proven science when it comes to natural dental and oral health—so I can still be a bit of a skeptic.
(Plus, who doesn’t want to watch a dentist movie? Those don’t come around often.)
From articles like “Root Cause Movie: Debunked” to “Is Your Root Canal Causing Cancer,” I found most of the information on the movie to be limited and questionable.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the Root Cause movie, so I watched the film myself. I’ll share with you now what I think was right, wrong, and downright unethical.
So, are root canals making us sick…or worse?
What is the Root Cause movie about?
The Root Cause documentary follows a filmmaker through a re-enactment of a period of about 10 years. In the film, Frazer Bailey shares his experiences including a root canal, concussion from a punch to the face, and subsequent fall into a sickened state.
Bailey describes his time as a nearly invalid man as one filled with searching. He looked to every medical, emotional, and spiritual avenue for an answer to his pain and had nearly given up by the time he found it.
According to Bailey, it took an entire decade for someone to point out that he had a failed root canal. Through a series of alternative medicine “diagnostics,” they determined the root canal was making him tired, depressed, and generally ill.
Then, Bailey interviews many experts with lots of letters behind their names. The titles of each subsequent expert seemingly gives a lot of credence to the progressively startling and extreme claims made throughout the movie.
For example, Dr. Dawn Ewing connects root canals and breast cancer in a shockingly certain manner. 98% of breast cancer patients have root canals on the same side as their cancer?!
Dr. Minkoff, the first expert to speak, essentially insists that his patients constantly have chronic, systemic diseases arising from root canals.
This new Netflix documentary raises many questions for patients who have had or may need root canals. Below, I’ll take you through what the Root Cause movie says and the facts we’ve proven. Then, let’s go through some Q&A about the movie.
