In the controversial 2019 documentary Root Cause, the filmmaker claimed certain chronic illnesses are due to root canal treatment. Although these claims were widely debunked at the time, … the years have done little to halt its influence as snippets continue to pop up on social media.
The film piqued Professor Alex Holden’s interest in misinformation in dentistry. It subsquently led to his new study, ‘Root Canals and Conspiracies: A Social Semiotic Analysis of Digital Narratives on Social Media and the Promotion of Misinformation’.
His methodology involved analysing 100 Instagram posts collected over a single day using the hashtags #rootcanaltreatment and #rootcanaltherapy.
[A] key finding was that a significant number of practitioners advertising themselves on social media as holistic dentists were not actually that different to those practising mainstream dentistry. What was different, Prof Holden explains, was the former had a commercial layer underpinning their messaging, such as selling their own range of dental products.
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“It presents as ‘I’m here to help you’ but there’s commercial interests very much at play,” he says, particularly with the promotion of alternative treatments and products.
