Sir, I work in an emergency dental department at a local dental hospital and I am continually appalled at patients arriving at the department with a tooth which has been put on 'open drainage'.

The canal system has been open to the oral cavity and has been, as an endodontist friend used to say to me, open to 'raw sewage', ie saliva.

If these teeth were heavily infected and the tooth was going to be extracted the following day, 'open drainage' is reasonable treatment, but in these cases the patient has been assured that these teeth could be 'root treated'.

Recently a patient arrived with a tooth that had been put on 'open drainage' some days before and had to be admitted with an acute spreading infection associated with this tooth.

I do wonder if a bug from his saliva had exacerbated his dental infection.

In these days of CPD and excellence in dental undergraduate teaching could someone tell me what is going on?