The tiny tubules in a tooth can harbor a large amount of anaerobic bacteria and their toxic by-products — even after a root canal has been performed.

No dental procedure can eliminate all the bacterial toxins in the tubules.

Because the sealing materials shrink over time, bacteria eventually gain access to the jaw bone and the marrow inside it — which is where the immune system of the bone resides.

So essentially, a root-canalled tooth is an infected mess with access to the immune system. And if it remains in the jaw, the infection level can increase, requiring the immune system to work harder to contain the problem.

My partner, Dr. Rick Ng, has called root-canalled teeth “ticking time bombs” waiting to wreak havoc in the body.

But what may shock you even more is that it has been known since the inception of root canals that the procedure is inadequate to properly treat an infected tooth.