Clove Dental Blog

Will Bleach Kill a Tooth Nerve?

Written by Clove Dental Team | Sep 26, 2024 8:47:56 PM

Bleach has the potential destroy your tooth nerve but under ordinary circumstances it'll be completely ineffective, such as rinsing with it at home. We recommend against attempting this supposed home remedy myth due to major safety concerns. It is not safe to do this. 

Some people have considered doing this when they have tooth nerve pain but this is not advised at all. There are effective ways to alleviate tooth nerve pain that won't send you to the emergency room. 

Bleach can actually kill the nerve of your tooth because it is the main irrigant that is used to disinfect the canals during a root canal treatment. The sodium hypochlorite is potent enough that it dissolves the pulp and the nerve tissues within the tooth.

There are many negative effects of this:

  • Biosynthetic changes in cellular metabolism
  • Phospholipid destruction
  • Formation of chloramines that interfere with cellular metabolism
  • Oxidative action with irreversible enzymatic inactivation in bacteria
  • Fatty acid and lipid degradation

Summary: the pulp interacting with bleach causes in liquefaction of organic tissue. Not good. 

Is bleach really used during endodontic therapy?

Yes, in root canals dentists insert a rubber dam on your tooth during the entire procedure, and the dentist is continuously disinfecting and flushing out the tooth with nerve disinfectant killer that includes sodium hypochlorite. The main ingredient in the nerve disinfectant killer is predominantly sodium hypochlorite, which is bleach. This is why if you have had to get a root canal before you may have smelled a bleach smell.  It is all for the sake of permanently eliminating your aching nerve in a controlled, highly targeted, and safe way without causing damage to other areas. 

At Clove Dental we want our community and everyone to be safe and be informed. There is a danger trying out  what are touted as “home remedies” on Tik Tok or whatnot. And although bleach is a component of the nerve disinfectant killer used in root canal surgery at your dentist’s office it is highly not advised not to ingest bleach. It can cause a lot of damage and endanger your life and health. 

If you are suffering from a toothache or other issue please schedule a consultation by calling us or going online to clovedds.com. We have amazing emergency dentists that can take care of your dental issues. 

We pride ourselves on having state-of-the-art equipment in our offices in Riverpark, Oxnard, A Street in Oxnard, Ventura, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, and Beverly Hills and offering you the best standard of care with our dream team practices in Ventura County and Los Angeles County. 

Our Locations and numbers are: 

Oxnard Riverpark: 1000 Town Center Dr, Suite 250, Oxnard, CA 93036 805-983-7674   

Central Oxnard: 140 North A Street, Oxnard CA 93030 805-483-9537     

Thousand Oaks: 509 Marin Street, Suite 220, Thousand Oaks CA 91360 805-374-8484

Camarillo: 2107 Pickwick Drive, Camarillo CA 93010 805-819-2043

Beverly Hills: 9001 Wilshire Blvd, Suite 303, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 310-273-0726

Ventura: 3555 Loma Vista Rd Suite 217, Ventura, CA 93003 805-643-4184