Virus role in root canal

I have long believed that our knowledge of the role of viruses in the causation and proliferation of diseases in the human body was in it’s infancy.  HPV and oral cancer is the big link getting lots of publicity right now, but a less popular problem from viruses is occurring on a regular basis and few have probably heard about it.

Human herpesviruses, Epstein-Barr virus, and human cytomegalovirus are all associated with teeth needing root canals.  These viruses appear to cause an otherwise quite bacterial apical problem to become an aggravated apical lesion.  There is quite a bit of research on these viruses that can be found referenced in this article about TNF.

Pain management for acute abscesses

Sabeti JOE 2021 shows that valacyclovir has a big reduction in pain levels for acute infections. This is likely due to the fact there is a high correlation to viral infections and pain when we look at apical bacterial infections. There are many good studies in the reference section.