| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/26/2008 10:05:29 AM | Effective Non-Drug Non-Surgical Solutions for Chronic Illnesses
Dr. Joseph Mercola
1443 W. Schaumburg Rd.
Schaumburg, IL 60194-4065
'phone 847-985-1777
ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT
AN INTERVIEW WITH
GEORGE MEINIG, D.D.S.
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Dr. Meinig brings a most curious perspective to an expose of latent dangers of root canal therapy - fifty years ago he was one of the founders of the American Association of Endodontists (root canal specialists)! So he's filled his share of root canals. And when he wasn't filling canals himself, he was teaching the technique to dentists across the country at weekend seminars and clinics. About two years ago, having recently retired, he decided to read all 1174 pages of the detailed research of Dr. Weston Price, (D.D.S). Dr. Meinig was startled and shocked. Here was valid documentation of systemic illnesses resulting from latent infections lingering in filled roots. He has since written a book, "Root Canal Cover-Up EXPOSED - Many Illnesses Result", and is devoting himself to radio, TV, and personal appearances before groups in an attempt to blow the whistle and alert the public.
MJ Please explain what the problem is with root canal therapy.
GM First, let me note that my book is based on Dr. Weston Price's twenty-five years of careful, impeccable research. He led a 60-man team of researchers whose findings - suppressed until now rank right up there with the greatest medical discoveries of all time. This is not the usual medical story of a prolonged search for the difficult-to-find causative agent of some devastating disease. Rather, it's the story of how a "cast of millions" (of bacteria) become entrenched inside the structure of teeth and end up causing the largest number of diseases ever traced to a single source.
MJ What diseases? Can you give us some examples?
GM Yes, a high percentage of chronic degenerative diseases can originate from root filled teeth. The most frequent were heart and circulatory diseases and he found 16 different causative agents for these. The next most common diseases were those of the joints, arthritis and rheumatism. In third place - but almost tied for second - were diseases of the brain and nervous system. After that, any disease you can name might (and in some cases has) come from root filled teeth.
Let me tell you about the research itself. Dr. Price undertook his investigations in 1900. He continued until 1925, and published his work in two volumes in 1923. In 1915 the National Dental Association (which changed its name a few years later to The American Dental Association) was so impressed with his work that they appointed Dr. Price their first Research Director. His Advisory Board read like a Who's Who in medicine and dentistry for that era. They represented the fields of bacteriology, pathology, rheumatology, surgery, chemistry, and cardiology.
At one point in his writings Dr. Price made this observation: "Dr. Frank Billings (M.D.), probably more than any other American internist, is due credit for the early recognition of the importance of streptococcal focal infections in systemic involvements."
What's really unfortunate here is that very valuable information was covered up and totally buried some 70 years ago by a minority group of autocratic doctors who just didn't believe or couldn't grasp - the focal infection theory.
MJ What is the "focal infection" theory?
GM This states that germs from a central focal infection - such as teeth, teeth roots, inflamed gum tissues, or maybe tonsils - metastasize to hearts, eyes, lungs, kidneys, or other organs, glands and tissues, establishing new areas of the same infection. Hardly theory any more, this has been proven and demonstrated many times over. It's 100% accepted today. But it was revolutionary thinking during World War I days, and the early 1920's!
Today, both patients and physicians have been "brain washed" to think that infections are less serious because we now have antibiotics. Well, yes and no. In the case of root-filled teeth, the no longer-living tooth lacks a blood supply to its interior. So circulating antibiotics don't faze the bacteria living there because they can't get at them.
MJ You're assuming that ALL root-filled teeth harbor bacteria and/or other infective agents?
GM Yes. No matter what material or technique is used - and this is just as true today - the root filling shrinks minutely, perhaps microscopically. Further and this is key - the bulk of solid appearing teeth, called the dentin, actually consists of miles of tiny tubules. Microscopic organisms lurking in the maze of tubules simply migrate into the interior of the tooth and set up housekeeping. A filled root seems to be a favorite spot to start a new colony.
One of the things that makes this difficult to understand is that large, relatively harmless bacteria common to the mouth, change and adapt to new conditions. They shrink in size to fit the cramped quarters and even learn how to exist (and thrive!) on very little food. Those that need oxygen mutate and become able to get along without it. In the process of adaptation these formerly friendly "normal" organisms become pathogenic (capable of producing disease) and more virulent (stronger) and they produce much more potent toxins.
Today's bacteriologists are confirming the discoveries of the Price team of bacteriologists. Both isolated in root canals the same strains of streptococcus, staphylococcus and spirochetes.
MJ Is everyone who has ever had a root canal filled made ill by it?
GM No. We believe now that every root canal filling does leak and bacteria do invade the structure. But the variable factor is the strength of the person's immune system. Some healthy people are able to control the germs that escape from their teeth into other areas of the body. We think this happens because their immune system lymphocytes (white blood cells) and other disease fighters aren't constantly compromised by other ailments. In other words, they are able to prevent those new colonies from taking hold in other tissues throughout the body. But over time, most people with root filled teeth do seem to develop some kinds of systemic symptoms they didn't have before.
MJ It's really difficult to grasp that bacteria are imbedded deep in the structure of seemingly-hard, solid looking teeth.
GM I know. Physicians and dentists have that same problem, too. You really have to visualize the tooth structure - all of those microscopic tubules running through the dentin. In a healthy tooth, those tubules transport a fluid that carries nourishment to the inside. For perspective, if the tubules of a front single-root tooth, were stretched out on the ground they'd stretch for three miles!
A root filled tooth no longer has any fluid circulating through it, but the maze of tubules remains. The anaerobic bacteria that live there seem remarkably safe from antibiotics. The bacteria can migrate out into surrounding tissue where they can "hitch hike" to other locations in the body via the bloodstream. The new location can be any organ or gland or tissue, and the new colony will be the next focus of infection in a body plagued by recurrent or chronic infections.
All of the "building up" done to try to enhance the patient's ability to fight infections - to strengthen their immune system - is only a holding action. Many patients won't be well until the source of infection - the root canal tooth - is removed.
MJ I don't doubt what you're saying, but can you tell us more about how Dr. Price could be sure that arthritis or other systemic conditions and illnesses really originated in the teeth - or in a single tooth?
GM Yes. Many investigations start with the researcher just being curious about something - and then being scientifically careful enough to discover an answer, and then prove it's so, many times over. Dr. Price's first case is very well documented. He removed an infected tooth from a woman who suffered from severe arthritis. As soon as he finished with the patient, he implanted the tooth beneath the skin of a healthy rabbit. Within 48 hours the rabbit was crippled with arthritis!
Further, once the tooth was removed the patient's arthritis improved dramatically. This clearly suggested that the presence of the infected tooth was a causative agent for both that patient's and the rabbit's - arthritis.
[Editor's Note - Here's the story of that first patient from Dr. Meinig's book: "(Dr. Price) had a sense that, even when (root canal therapy) appeared successful, teeth containing root fillings remained infected. That thought kept prying on his mind, haunting him each time a patient consulted him for relief from some severe debilitating disease for which the medical profession could find no answer. Then one day while treating a woman who had been confined to a wheelchair for six years from severe arthritis, he recalled how bacterial cultures were taken from patients who were ill and then inoculated into animals in an effort to reproduce the disease and test the effectiveness of drugs on the disease.
With this thought in mind, although her (root filled) tooth looked fine, he advised this arthritic patient, to have it extracted. He told her he was going to find out what it was about this root filled tooth that was responsible for her suffering. "All dentists know that sometimes arthritis and other illnesses clear up if bad teeth are extracted. However, in this case, all of her teeth appeared in satisfactory condition and the one containing this rootcanal filling showed no evidence or symptoms of infection. Besides, it looked normal on x-ray pictures.
"Immediately after Dr. Price extracted the tooth he dismissed the patient and embedded her tooth under the skin of a rabbit. In two days the rabbit developed the same kind of crippling arthritis as the patient - and in ten days it died.
"..The patient made a successful recovery after the tooth's removal! She could then walk without a cane and could even do fine needlework again. That success led Dr. Price to advise other patients, afflicted with a wide variety of treatment defying illnesses, to have any root filled teeth out."]
In the years that followed, he repeated this procedure many hundreds of times. He later implanted only a portion of the tooth to see if that produced the same results. It did. He then dried the tooth, ground it into powder and injected a tiny bit into several rabbits. Same results, this time producing the same symptoms in multiple animals.
Dr. Price eventually grew cultures of the bacteria and injected them into the animals. Then he went a step further. He put the solution containing the bacteria through a filter small enough to catch the bacteria. So when he injected the resulting liquid it was free of any infecting bacteria. Did the test animals develop the illness? Yes. The only explanation was that the liquid had to contain toxins from the bacteria, and the toxins were also capable of causing disease.
Dr. Price became curious about which was the more potent infective agent, the bacteria or the toxin. He repeated that last experiment, injecting half the animals with the toxin-containing liquid and half of them with the bacteria from the filter. Both groups became ill, but the group injected with the toxins got sicker and died sooner than the bacteria injected animals.
MJ That's amazing. Did the rabbits always develop the same disease the patient had?
GM Mostly, yes. If the patient had heart disease the rabbit got heart disease. If the patient had kidney disease the rabbit got kidney disease, and so on. Only occasionally did a rabbit develop a different disease - and then the pathology would be quite similar, in a different location.
MJ If extraction proves necessary for anyone reading this, do you want to summarize what's special about the extraction technique?
GM Just pulling the tooth is not enough when removal proves necessary. Dr. Price found bacteria in the tissues and bone just adjacent to the tooth's root. So we now recommend slow-speed drilling with a burr, to remove one millimeter of the entire bony socket. The purpose is to remove the periodontal ligament (which is always infected with toxins produced by streptococcus bacteria living in the dentin tubules) and the first millimeter of bone that lines the socket (which is usually infected).
There's a whole protocol involved, including irrigating with sterile saline to assure removal of the contaminated bone chips, and treating the socket to stimulate and encourage infection-free healing. I describe the procedure in detail, step by step, in my book [pages 185 and 186].
MJ Perhaps we should back up and talk about oral health - to PREVENT needing an extraction. Caries or inflamed gums seem much more common than root canals. Do they pose any threat?
GM Yes, they absolutely do. But let me point out that we can't talk about oral health apart from total health. The problem is that patients and dentists alike haven't come around to seeing that dental caries reflect systemic - meaning "whole body" - illness. Dentists have learned to restore teeth so expertly that both they and their patients have come to regard tooth decay as a trivial matter. It isn't.
Small cavities too often become big cavities. Big cavities too often lead to further destruction and the eventual need for root canal treatment.
MJ Then talk to us about prevention.
GM The only scientific way to prevent tooth decay is through diet and nutrition. Dr. Ralph Steinman did some outstanding, landmark research at Loma Linda University. He injected a glucose solution into mice - into their bodies, so the glucose didn't even touch their teeth. Then he observed the teeth for any changes. What he found was truly astonishing. The glucose reversed the normal flow of fluid in the dentin tubules, resulting in all of the test animals developing severe tooth decay! Dr. Steinman demonstrated dramatically what I said a minute ago: Dental caries reflect systemic illness.
Let's take a closer look to see how this might happen. Once a tooth gets infected and the cavity gets into the nerve and blood vessels, bacteria find their way into those tiny tubules of the dentin. Then no matter what we do by way of treatment, we're never going to completely eradicate the bacteria hiding in the miles of tubules. In time the bacteria can migrate through lateral canals into the surrounding bony socket that supports the tooth. Now the host not only has a cavity in a tooth, plus an underlying infection of supporting tissue to deal with, but the bacteria also exude potent systemic toxins. These toxins circulate throughout the body triggering activity by the immune system - and probably causing the host to feel less well. This host response can vary from just dragging around and feeling less energetic, to overt illness - of almost any kind. Certainly, such a person will be more vulnerable to whatever "bugs" are going around, because his/her body is already under constant challenge and the immune system continues to be "turned on" by either the infective agent or its toxins - or both.
MJ What a fascinating concept. Can you tell us more about the protective nutrition you mentioned?
GM Yes. Dr. Price traveled all over the world doing his research on primitive peoples who still lived in their native ways. He found fourteen cultural pockets scattered all over the globe where the natives had no access to "civilization" - and ate no refined foods.
Dr. Price studied their diets carefully. He found they varied greatly, but the one thing they had in common was that they ate whole, unrefined foods. With absolutely no access to tooth brushes, floss, fluoridated water or tooth paste, the primitive peoples studied were almost 100% free of tooth decay. Further - and not unrelated - they were also almost 100% free of all the degenerative diseases we suffer - problems with the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, joints, skin (allergies), and the whole gamut of illnesses that plague Mankind. No one food proved to be magic as a preventive food. I believe we can thrive best by eating a wide variety of whole foods.
MJ Amazing. So by "diet and nutrition" for oral (and total) health you meant eating a pretty basic diet of whole foods?
GM Exactly. And no sugar or white flour. These are (and always have been) the first culprits. Tragically, when the primitives were introduced to sugar and white flour their superior level of health deteriorated rapidly. This has been demonstrated time and again. During the last sixty or more years we have added in increasing amounts, highly refined and fabricated cereals and boxed mixes of all kinds, soft drinks, refined vegetable oils and a whole host of other foodless "foods". It is also during those same years that we as a nation have installed more and more root canal fillings - and degenerative diseases have become rampant. I believe - and Dr. Price certainly proved to my satisfaction - that these simultaneous factors are NOT coincidences.
MJ I certainly understand what you are saying. But I'm still a little shocked to talk with a dentist who doesn't stress oral hygiene.
GM Well, I'm not against oral hygiene. Of course, hygiene practices are preventive, and help minimize the destructive effect of our "civilized", refined diet. But the real issue is still diet. The natives Dr. Price tracked down and studied weren't free of cavities, inflamed gums, and degenerative diseases because they had better tooth brushes!
It's so easy to lose sight of the significance of what Dr. Price discovered. We tend to sweep it under the rug - we'd actually prefer to hear that if we would just brush better, longer, or more often, we too could be free of dental problems.
Certainly, part of the purpose of my book is to stimulate dental research into finding a way to sterilize dentin tubules. Only then can dentists really learn to save teeth for a lifetime. But the bottom line remains: A primitive diet of whole unrefined foods is the only thing that has been found to actually prevent both tooth decay and degenerative diseases.
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/26/2008 2:34:29 PM | I heard of that book awhile back acouple years some gal told me about it because I had rotton teeth and I was afraid to go to the dentist I had horrible infections for many years..I went to see a dentist here in town finally and he wanted to do all these root canels I'm on disablity so he was just charging the shit out of medicare and he really did not do a very good job and ended up being quite abusive. I liked him at first because he wasn't afraid to work on me I'm a very big man anyway one day he gave me too much caine and ny heart damn near popped out of my chest so the next time he worked on me there was no pain killer involved. Well that was it I let my teeth go after that for a long time but I finally found a great dentist and he pulled out all my teeth and afterwards scraped all the infection out I did get real sick once ending up in the hospital but it was from all the poision in my system...I got so sick of not smiling all the time..It's funny now I still don't have my dentures so it looks real funny when I smile now.. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/26/2008 8:16:03 PM | Now root canals cause cardiovascular disease?
Stop posting this empty rubbish. Your nonsense tabloid science threads are annoying. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/26/2008 9:08:37 PM | There is a well- and long-known association/linkage between periodontal disease and CVD.
http://www.perio.org/consumer/mbc.heart.htm
Who's the rubbish man now? | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/27/2008 5:22:58 AM | It maybe rubbish in your mind, as rubbish as having to come on here and be negative. Heys its your life live in a negative state if you wish. Im here to give info that i find interesting and if it helps anyone or makes them think about it, then maybe i helped maybe not either way its makes you think and at least research and get the info for yourself.
If you do not like what i post then dont read it. Its like if you dont like what is on TV(i dont watch TV) then you turn the channel you dont call in saying stop broadcasting that rubbish do you ?
If there are any people who read this article fully i have read this in a few medical books i been reading as well as the newest one i have now which is by RON GARNER called
CONSCIOUS HEALTH - its worth every penny.
http://www.namastepublishing.com/garner.asp
http://www.spiritcircle.ca/articles/body/0505-3.html
It got an award for best book 2007 i fully agree with that choice. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/27/2008 7:57:45 PM | We've had decades of denial from dentists assuring us that having mercury in our mouths was a wonderful idea. Bacteria, viruses, pathogens of all types do have the ability to mutate and move to new sites in the body and much will always remain unknown. It certainly pays to have a healthy mouth and to do all we can to be as vigilant about our health as possible and of course to be extremely skeptical and deeply mistrusting of arrogant health professionals as possible.
I had difficulty walking for more than an entire year with my knees giving me pain etc, I moved like an old woman and had difficulty with steps. There was no physical injury, scans all showed clear and there seemed to be nothing I could do about it. I got a kidney infection, was prescribed antibiotics and the knees healed before the kidneys did. It makes you wonder. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/27/2008 9:02:16 PM | I bet the info is dead on right, also im happy I didnt have one, I mean get this: I was told even though my broken tooth was not rotten, and was perfectly healthy aside from being broken that I needed a root cannal, so I said to them "uh I cant pay for that anyways" and then the they gave me a written cost if I was to have one: 1200$!!! plus they wanted to build a crown on my one broken tooth for another 600$!!!!
you would think this was not happen: for goodness sakes I'm only 21, and only have one broken tooth.
doctors in my opinion are CROOKS. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/28/2008 5:42:25 AM | Teeth aren't indestructible, root canal therapy isn't fun but filling the space prevents the other teeth from falling into the gap. Joey if you have a gap, you might consider getting a fake one stuck on a post drilled into the jaw, there is a nice name for it. It is a 2 year operation overall I believe, and your crown and the root canal were really cheap quotes. I'm still saving to get the crown but I still get intermittent pain from a dead tooth...so I'm pausing a while.
Cardiovascular disease has been associated with inflammatory/ bacterial activity elsewhere in the body so the it is no stretch of the imagination that teeth can be implicated. I think the Italians are really onto something with their garlic. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 6/28/2008 12:53:32 PM | the tooth isnt rotten and I get no pain
im not gonna worry about it for now
thanks for the advice though
I still have all of my teeth, plus ZERO rotten ones thus far, im quite happy about that, seeing how i nthe past id eat cadies too much,and NOT brush my own teeth | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 7/1/2008 10:11:20 AM | | yes this is correct. I believe at they can put in another one in its place so the other teeth do not fall in. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 7/4/2008 12:51:55 PM | I had a tooth infection, the bacteria went into my blood stream and into my heart...
so cardio-vascular from root canals is not rubbish. A lawyer friend of mine passed out and a heart monitor machine showed his heart to be okay. I told him about my loss of health including heart pains from the bacteria travelling fr0m my teeth through my blood to my heart. The next day his dentist told him that his root canal had become infected and that it likely was the contributing factor to his heart ailment and passing out and that it takes up to 9 months for the infection to completely clear out.
Another friend that was on a plane to Rome Italy passed out and was in the hospital there for 3 months, a bacteria that started in his root canal moved into his heart.
Any horse buyer will first check the teeth of the horse looking for signs that the horse has disease elsewhere in it's body. We have to know that if we suspected disease in the mouth then we must take action to clear it up immediately or we risk death or damage to our health and organs including heart kidney liver...brain. Jim | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 7/10/2008 7:41:08 PM | | Root canal can equal dybosis of the bowel by having the infection bleed into the blood stream causing excessive adrenal stress over time burning out adrenals and thyroid. Seen it happen to alot of clients I have came across. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 7/11/2008 1:16:29 AM | Pulling the tooth and getting an implant sounds like a good alternative
I had a root canal because of an abscess - but the tooth had no decay
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 7/11/2008 7:58:45 AM | i had problems with root canal (infection) did not wanted a extraction cos was a bridge link and when i had an x-ray after another infection the dentist discovered that i had the bone damaged,had an extraction and i end up with ''oral antral communication''.
because the tooth was on the upper jow every time i eat or drink the liquid comes out thru my nose.
now.2 mth after i still save money to be repaired.
for more details please just look on the web. | |
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| ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT ??
Posted: 7/11/2008 1:44:38 PM | .............................................................................................
I have two copies of George Meinig's book, about the work of Weston Price that all dentists should know.
A dentist here, who I refer to as Mr. Personality, did terrible work on my teeth. At the beginning he said all of my teeth were in excellent condition. Then after a few months he said I needed a half dozen root canals! I said, what is this, you said my teeth are in excellent condition and now you are trying to sell me on root canals. His answer was that now he had worked on my teeth he could see that I needed them. I had gone to him with the condition he didn't try to sell me on root canals but he paid no attention on that, instead focusing on his greedy profits and the destruction of my teeth.
As example, one of the things I had him do was replace an old gold crown that was fine and gave me no trouble at all. However, his new crown did not fit, was jagged and not the same shape as the previous. I told him this and that it needed to be redone but he insisted he would be able to adjust the bite later on, a lie which was never accomplished. Additionally, the crown kept coming off over the next few weeks and months, and he kept trying to charge me more for putting it back on again. Finally it stayed on for a year, came off again and I noticed he had drilled holes on the inside of the crown, which were filled with food that I was not able to clean out. Worse, the crown never did fit properly and caused cracking of my tooth.. This kept breaking off more of my tooth, along with his drilling, which was causing the remainder of my tooth to vanish.
Eventually this caused pain and infection in my gums, from his shots, the drilling, and the improper fitting of the crown. He again recommended a root canal. I was at this point fed up with him and looking elsewhere, but asked him to give me an estimate for his work, which was $750 for a root canal, $750 for an additional crown, on top of the $750 already paid for the first one. I'd had many sleepless nights, bad dreams and uneasiness for the 11 years I had been seeing that CROOK of a dentist, Mr. Personality.
I decided to drive and see a highly recommended dentist in Mexico, who I have continued to see for the last 4 years and am VERY very happy with them. In fact I have twice taken friends of mine there to see them since then, and there are people who go there from all over the world. In my case of that particular tooth, there was no question but that there was infection in the root and the tooth needed to be pulled. This was easy and painless, a $40 extraction, and a partial for $150 that fit in it's place. When you wear a partial, you soon forget that it's there and it looks just like the tooth.
I am thankful that I have never had a root canal in my mouth. A root canal is only done when a tooth is dead. They clean out the inside of infection, but cannot clean the infection from all the tubules that constantly leaking infection through the gums, into all the rest of the body! Weston Price demonstrated that the infection can cause health problems in any part of the body including heart attacks! Never have a root canal, never leave a badly infected tooth in your mouth, and there is no reason to get dangerous implants. The only good choice when the tooth is dead is to have it pulled out. Then you can wear a partial that looks just like your tooth, and this is inexpensive and easy.
It very annoying to me that most dentists treat the people who come to them so badly. I have heard they are taught in dental school to aim for $25,000 for each person who walks in the door. To me that is unconscionable. | |
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