Peter Attia believes both of his root canals were initially caused by dentin decay, with one occurring after a dentist replaced an old mercury filling with a white one.

“so they were they were um the first one was actually a dentist that wanted to change an old filling that i had from when i was a child so i had an old mercury filling from when i was a kid and fast forward 20 years he said you know your insurance will cover the changing of this to a white filling we should just change this out keep in mind for 20 years i had no complaint of this filling whatsoever and the moment he changed that mercury filling over to a white one in the process of mucking around that tooth started really hurting and over the next couple of weeks the pain got worse and worse and worse and ultimately i needed a root canal on that tooth”