Sunday, October 19, 2014
Root Canal Dangers from The Weston A. Price Foundation
Root Canal Dangers
Posted on June 25, 2010 by Hal Huggins, DDS, MS • 15 Comments
DNA Studies Confirm Dr. Weston Price’s Century-Old Findings
Toxic dental materials have created much havoc in the dental profession, as well as in patient health, for nearly two centuries. Dental mercury fillings, nickel crowns (especially in children, called “chrome crowns”), root canals and cavitations have been the target of concern for a long time.
Dental
mercury was first exposed as a health-compromising product in 1840. The dental
profession finally overcame the perception that putting toxic mercury in the
mouth might be detrimental to human health; organized dentistry still considers
the current fillings containing 50 percent mercury as “state of the art.”
The toxicity of root canals was disclosed by Mayo’s Clinic and Dr. Weston Price
jointly back in about 1910. Close to a century ago. Price’s textbook on root
canals, published in 1922, upset the dental associations at that time, and
still does today. The American Dental Association (ADA), denies his findings
and claims that they have proven root canals to be safe; however, no published
data from the ADA is available to confirm this statement. Statements, but no
actual research.
My attention was drawn to the increase in autoimmune disease after the
high-copper amalgams of 1975 were initiated as “state of the art” fillings,
which ADA claimed released no mercury. On the contrary, studies from Europe1
found that the high-copper amalgams released fifty times more mercury than
previous amalgam!
In watching these changes regarding the onset of autoimmune disease, I noticed
a blip in the statistics—an increase in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or
Lou Gehrig’s disease) in 1976 (See Figure 1).
Note in Figure 2 that the actual number of cases of multiple sclerosis
increased tremendously, from an average of 8800 per year during the period 1970
to 1975, to an increase of up to 123,000 in one year. That year being 1976, the
birth date of high-copper amalgams.
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Figure 1 |
Figure 2 |
ROOT CANAL HAZARD
Is mercury
the only dental hazard that can create conditions favorable to autoimmune
diseases? No. There are bacteria in root canals that favor destruction of the
nervous system and many other systems, resulting in the creation of autoimmune
reactions.
What is the common denominator? The formation of a hapten (see page 46). A
hapten is a small molecule that can elicit an immune response only when
attached to a large carrier such as a protein; the carrier may be one that also
does not elicit an immune response by itself. In general, only large molecules,
infectious agents, or insoluble foreign matter can elicit an immune response in
the body.
Healthy cells have a code imprinted on them. It is called the Major
Histo-compatibility Complex (MHC). This is your personal code called “self.”
Your body considers other code or alteration of this code to be “non-self.” The
immune system is trained to kill and eliminate any “non-self” invaders.
If an atom of mercury attaches to a normal healthy cell, a hapten is formed and
the immune system immediately identifies that cell as “nonself.” The immune
system then proceeds to kill the contaminated cell. If mercury attaches to a
nerve cell, the result is a neurological disease, such as multiple sclerosis,
Lou Gehrig’s disease, seizures or lupus. If mercury attaches to a binding site
on a hormone, that endocrine function is altered. Mercury can attach to almost
any cell in the body and create autoimmune diseases in those tissues.
Lately, it has become evident that toxins from anaerobic bacteria have the same
ability to create non-self autoimmune diseases by interfering with the MHC.
This is the project that Dr. Price began to study a century ago. Resistance
from organized dentistry was the same then as it is today. Price wondered why
dentistry was considered a “health” profession.
Price was concerned about the pathological bacteria found in nearly all root
canal teeth of that time. He was able to transfer diseases harbored by humans
from their extracted root canal teeth into rabbits by inserting a fragment of a
root canal root under the skin in the belly area of a test rabbit. He found
that root canal fragments from a person who had suffered a heart attack, when
implanted into a rabbit, would cause a heart attack in the rabbit within a few
weeks. Transference of heart disease could be accomplished 100 percent of the
time. Some diseases transferred only 88 percent of the time, but the
handwriting was on the wall.
Dr. Price discovered that root canals had within them bacteria capable of
producing many diseases. They had no place in the body. Which is more
important? The life of the tooth or the life of the patient? This is still the
primary argument facing us today.
ROOT CANALS AND NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE
Considering
the difficulty of culturing anaerobic bacteria, it was hard to identify them
with 1920s technology. Most of the bacteria reported by organized dentistry at
that time were aerobes of unknown significance. Today, with DNA analysis
available, anaerobic bacteria (the dangerous kind) can be identified whether
dead or alive by the presence of their tell tale DNA signatures.
Let’s go back to the graphs of ALS up through the year 2000. Note an increase
in 1976 and another increase in slope in 1991. In 1990, the dental association
“suggested” that dentists perform thirty million root canals per year by the
year 2000. Dentists accomplished that goal by 1999. As I understand it, the bar
has now been raised to sixty million per year.
The unexplained increase in MS (8800 to 123,000) coincided with the advent of
high copper amalgams. The increase in ALS in the same year is suggestive of the
same cause. ALS also increased in 1991 as more root canals were performed.
Statistical coincidence?
The goal of dentistry is to save teeth. Root canals allow dentists to maintain
many teeth for years instead of extracting them. But is this goal appropriate
considering the biological expense exposed with DNA research? What is more
important? To save the life of the tooth or that of the patient?
HAVENS FOR BACTERIA
Dr. Price,
while head of research for the now-defunct National Dental Association, took
one thousand extracted teeth and reamed them out as dentists normally do, prior
to filling the canals with wax. Price sterilized the canals with forty
different chemicals far too toxic to be used in a live human situation; he
wanted to see whether the canals could be permanently sterilized. After
forty-eight hours, each tooth was broken apart, and cultured for the presence
of bacteria. Nine hundred ninety out of one thousand cultured toxic bacteria
just two days after treatment with chemicals designed to make the tooth
sterile. Where did these bacteria come from?
An overview of the structure of a tooth (see Figure 4) shows the outer layer,
known as enamel, the second layer, known as dentin, and the inner portion,
known as the pulp chamber, where the nerve lives. On the outside of the tooth
is what is called the periodontal ligament. Teeth are not attached directly to
bone. Fibers come out of the tooth and intertwine with fibers coming out of the
bone, and they unite to form what is called the periodontal ligament.
The second layer of the tooth, the dentin, is not really solid but composed of
tiny dentinal tubules. In a front tooth, if all these tubules were attached end
to end, they would reach over three miles.3 Note that the tubules
have adequate space to house many thousands of bacteria (see Figure 5). This is
where the bacteria were hiding in the thousand teeth Price tested. From the
dentin tubules, bacteria can migrate either into the pulp chamber, where space
is left as the gutta percha—a natural form of rubber used to fill the space
inside the cleaned-out root—shrinks upon cooling, rebounding from the force
applied to push the wax down the canal, and losing the liquid portion (see
Figure 6), or into the periodontal ligament where a plentiful supply of food
awaits them.
A tooth has one to four major canals. This fact is taught in dental school, but
never mentioned are the additional “accessory canals.” Price identified as many
as seventy-five separate accessory canals in a single central incisor (the
front tooth). Figure 7 shows one of these canals filled with necrotic (dead)
tissue.
There is no way that any dental procedure can reach into these accessory canals
and clean out the dead tissue. This necrotic tissue creates a home for multiple
bacterial infections outside the tooth in the periodontal ligament. With added
food supply from this area, the anaerobic bacteria can multiply and their
toxins can contribute to the onset of disease (see Figure 8).
Of course, the root apex (terminal end) is the primary area of concentration of
infection. Even though this may be the last area to show infection, dentistry
generally considers a tooth sterile unless areas of bone resorption show up on
X-ray. Upon cooling and shrinking of the gutta percha, space is left at the
apex in which bacteria can thrive, where neither white blood cells of the
immune system, nor antibiotics can reach them.
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Figure 4 |
Figure 5 |
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Figure 6 |
Figure 7 |
Figure 8
TOXIC MICROORGANISMS
Our first
DNA studies examined bacteria retrieved from crushed root tips. We can identify
eighty-three different anaerobic bacterial species with DNA testing. Root
canals contain fifty-three different species out of these eighty-three samples.
Some are more dangerous than others, and some occur frequently, some
occasionally. Selecting those that occur more than 5 percent of the time, we
found:
Capnocytophaga ochracea
Fusobacterium nucleatum
Gemella morbillorum
Leptotrichia buccalis
Porphyromonas gingivalis
Of what significance are these? Four affect the heart, three the nerves, two
the kidneys, two the brain and one the sinus cavities. Shouldn’t we question
the wisdom of supplying a haven for these microbes so close to our brain and
circulatory system? Does this information validate the claims of “sterile” root
canals?
Dentists claim they can “sterilize” the tooth before forcing the gutta percha
wax down into the canal. Perhaps they can sterilize a column of air in the
center of the tooth, but is that really where the problem is? Bacteria
wandering out of the dentinal tubules is what Price was finding, and what we
were finding in the crushed tooth samples. But does the problem end there?
Hardly.
Just out of curiosity, we tested blood samples adjacent to the removed teeth
and analyzed them for the presence of anaerobic bacteria. Approximately 400
percent more bacteria were found in the blood surrounding the root canal tooth
than were in the tooth itself. It seems that the tooth is the incubator. The
periodontal ligament supplies more food, therefore higher concentration of
bacteria.
But the winner in pathological growth was in the bone surrounding the dead
tooth. Looking at bacterial needs, there is a smorgasbord of bacterial
nutrients present in the bone. This explains the tremendous increase in
bacterial concentration in the blood surrounding the root canal tooth. Try
sterilizing that volume of bone.
Apparently, the immune system doesn’t care for dead substances, and just the
presence of dead tissue will cause the system to launch an attack. Infection,
plus the autoimmune rejection reaction, causes more bacteria to collect around
the dead tissue. Every time a person with a root canal bites down, these
bacteria are flushed into the blood stream, and they start looking for a new
home. Chemotaxis, or the chemical attraction of a specific bacteria for a
specific tissue, assists the anaerobes in finding new quarters in the heart,
nervous system, kidney, brain, etc., where they will perform their primary
damage.
Many of the bacteria in the surrounding bone are present in far more than 50
percent of the samples tested. Streptococcus mutans was found in 92 percent of
the blood samples. It can cause pneumonia, sinusitis, otitis media, meningitis
and tooth decay.
Streptococcus mitis was found 92
percent of the time. This microbe attacks the heart and red blood cells. It is
a rather hearty bug, for it went to the moon (hiding in a camera) on an
unmanned expedition, stayed there over two years in an environment without
atmosphere, exposed to temperatures of 250 degrees Fahrenheit during the day,
minus 250 in the shadow. Upon returning to Earth with the astronauts of Apollo
12, over two years later, this microbe was still alive.10 In humans,
S. mitis binds to platelets and is involved in the pathogenesis of infective
endocarditis. Want this guy living in your dead root canal tooth?
Of the top eight bacteria in the blood adjacent to root canal teeth, five
affect the heart, five the nervous system, two the kidney, two the liver, and
one attacks the brain sinus, where they kill red blood cells Of these, Prevotella intermedia (present in 76
percent of the samples) attacks heart, kidney and sinus; Strep intermedius (present in 69 percent of the samples) attacks
heart, nerves, lungs, liver and brain.
DNA examination of extracted root canals has shown bacterial contamination in
100 percent of the samples tested. This is quite the opposite of official
claims that root canals are 97 percent successful. Do they need a new
definition of success?
CAVITATIONS
Cavitations
are the next big problem that result from dental procedures. Cavitations are
areas of unhealed bone left over after a tooth extraction (see Figure 9).
Dentists are generally taught to remove a tooth and leave the periodontal
ligament in the socket, a procedure which would be like delivering a baby and
leaving the placenta in the uterus.
These socket areas with the ligament left in place rarely heal. After tooth
removal, a cap of about 2 millimeters (one sixteenth of an inch) covers the
extraction site, leaving a hole the size of the root of the tooth behind. In
records of five thousand surgical debridements (cleaning) of cavitations, only
two were found to be healed.14 When the periodontal ligament is left
in the bone, the body senses that the tooth is still there, and the order for
healing is canceled. These holes are lined with many of the same bacteria found
in root canal sockets, but actually more different species. Whereas root canal
teeth contain up to fifty-three different species of bacteria, cavitations
yield up to eighty-two of the eighty-three we test for.
Of the five most frequently present bacteria found in cavitations, three affect
the heart, two the nervous system and one the kidneys and lungs. They are as
follows:
Streptococcus mutans (occurrence 63
percent of the samples), affects the nervous system, can cause pneumonia,
sinusitis, otitis media and meningitis. It has also been blamed for causing
dental decay in teeth, but this may be more the result of the fluid flow
pulling bacteria into the tooth than actual active invasion by the bacteria.2
Porphyromonas gingivalis (occurring
in 51 percent of the samples), damages the kidney, alters integrity of
endothelial lining of blood vessels, and induces foam cells from macrophages,
contributing to atherogenesis. It contains proteases that lyse red blood cells
and extract nutrients (primarily iron) from the red blood cells. This action is
called porin forming, which can destroy red blood cells rapidly. (By the way, P. gingivalis can both up and down
regulate about five hundred different proteins critical to maintaining our
normal biochemical actions.)
Candida albicans (present in 44
percent of the samples), in its yeast form is beneficial in the process of
demethylation of methyl-mercury as well as its ability to destroy pathogenic
bacteria in the intestinal tract. When converted into the fungal form by a
shift in pH in the digestive system, candida can penetrate the intestinal wall,
leaving microscopic holes that allow toxins, undigested food particles,
bacteria and other yeasts to enter the blood stream. This condition is
sometimes referred to as Leaky Gut Syndrome, which can lead to environmental
intolerances.
Prevotella intermedia (occurrence
rate of 44 percent) has as its primary concern coronary heart disease (CHD). P. intermedia invades human coronary
artery endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. It is generally located in
atheromatous plaques. Cellular invasion of cardiac muscle is central to the
infective process.11
ANTIBIOTICS
So, if all
these diseases of “unknown etiology,” that is, of unknown origin, are the
result of bacterial invasion, why not just flood the body with antibiotics?
They kill bacteria, don’t they? Ever hear of someone who was sick, was given
antibiotics, and then got even worse? Most of us have heard the story. Perhaps
the following information explains what happens in these cases, and why
antibiotics cannot be used in infections of this nature.
Most antibiotics are “bactericidal”—think suicidal, or homicidal. Antibiotics
kill. But this is not the same type of killing that John Wayne was noted for.
When he fired at the bad guy, the bad guy fell over dead. Was then presumed to
be buried. But when bactericidal antibiotics kill a bacterium, the bacterium
explodes (see Figure 10).
The fragments are not eliminated immediately, for each piece is a
lipopolysaccharide called endotoxin.12 By way of contrast, exotoxins
are the toxic chemicals that are released by pathogenic bacteria, and
endotoxins are toxic entities (fragments of the original bacteria) that are the
result of the bacterial explosion caused by the antibiotic. Endotoxins present
a huge challenge to the immune system, for now, instead of facing one
bacterium, it has to process and eliminate perhaps one hundred endotoxins. With
dozens of bacteria to confront from each single root canal or cavitation, no
one antibiotic can kill all of them, and if there were one, the resulting dead
bacterial corpses would overwhelm the body and produce either greater disease or
death.
Broad spectrum antibiotics cannot be used for this reason. Sometimes even one
capsule of antibiotic produces more problems than the immune system can
tolerate. Plus, of course, it takes only two or three capsules to completely
sterilize the gut of its four or more pounds of friendly bacteria.13
Antibiotics are far more powerful and potentially devastating than I ever
thought they were. Antibiotics should be used with ultra caution, not routinely
given for ten days or so after oral surgery, “just in case.”
There are other ways to get these microbes under control, and several are being
tested at this time. It is advantageous to have intravenous vitamin C and
occasionally a non-killing antibiotic is added to this solution. This
combination does reduce the challenge to the immune system, but, overall, root
canals represent the rock-and-hard-place situation.
Leave the root canal or cavitation in the body, and there is the potential of
creating an unwanted autoimmune or degenerative disease that could be life
threatening. Toxins and bacteria can both leak from these contamination sites
wreaking havoc with a person’s cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous and immune
systems. The public needs to be informed, so they can make educated choices in
the trade-off between toxic convenience and health.
Removing the offending tooth presents problems that must be confronted, or
other problems can be induced—problems not as dangerous as the continuous
bacterial spill, but ones that need to be avoided if possible. In order to allow
the immune system to focus on healing, all other offending dental materials
should be removed (mercury, copper, implants, tattoos and nickel crowns) so
that the immune system can deal with the bacterial challenge instead of the
bacteria plus toxic metals. Nutrition should be calculated from the aspect of
the blood chemistries commensurate with one’s ancestral diet and in line with
the dietary principles formulated by Dr. Price. Recovery from a root canal is
complicated, but your patient’s life is worth salvaging.
These studies in DNA analysis of bacteria in root canals and cavitations
confirm the fact that Dr. Weston Price, despite being one century ahead of his
colleagues, was absolutely correct in determining that bacteria-laden root
canals have no place in the body of people interested in their health. This
toxic waste spill can be stopped, but not with the assistance of dental
associations, which continue to insist that the procedure of root canals is
perfectly safe. The recent increase in suggested quota up to sixty million root
canals per year is not in the best interest of their patients, nor can that
action do anything but increase health costs for the innocent patient.
Price was right. Root canals are not worth the price.
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Figure 9 |
Figure 10 |
SIDEBARS
HAPTENS
A hapten is a
small molecule that can elicit an immune response only when attached to a large
carrier such as a protein or toxic metal such as mercury; the carrier may be
one that also does not elicit an immune response by itself. In general, only
large molecules, infectious agents, or insoluble foreign matter can elicit an
immune response in the body. Once the body has generated antibodies to a
hapten-carrier adduct, the small-molecule hapten may also be able to bind to
the antibody, but it will usually not initiate an immune response; usually only
the hapten-carrier adduct can do this.
BACTERIA LURKING IN ROOT CANALS
Let’s look at five major bacterial species lurking in root canals more closely,
keeping in mind that these are only five of the fifty-three that are routinely
found in root canal teeth.
Capnocytophaga ochracea: Found in
brain abscesses associated with dental source of infection. Causes human
disease in the central nervous system. Also related to septicemia and
meningitis.4
Fusobacterium nucleatum: Produces
toxins that inhibit fibroblast cell division and wound healing processes.
Causes infection in the heart, joints, liver and spleen.5,6
Gemella morbillorum: Linked to acute
invasive endocarditis, septic arthritis and meningitis.7
Leptotrichia buccalis: Reduces the
number of neutrophils (a critically important white blood cell), thus lowering
immune competence.8
Porphyromonas gingivalis: Destroys
red blood cells by drilling holes (porins) in them, causing the cell to “bleed
to death.” Low red cell counts that do not recover after dental revision are
frequently responding to the porin activity of this microbe. P. gingivalis also alters the integrity
of the endothelial lining of blood vessels, which leads to inflammation and
bleeding in the inner lining of blood vessels. This is the key step in
formation of atherogenesis that leads to heart attacks. P. gingivalis can change friendly bacteria into pathogens.9
REFERENCES
1. Brune, D, Metal release from dental biomaterials, Biomaterials, Vol. 7, May 1986.
2. Steinman, RR, Leonora, J, Relationship of fluid transport through the dentin
to the incidence of dental caries. J
Dental Research, Vol. 50, No. 6, Nov-Dec 1971.
3. Price, WA, Dental Infections, Oral and
Systemic, Vol. I, Penton Pub Co. Ohio, USA, 1923.
4. J. Clin Microbiology Vol. 45, No.
2 p. 645-647.
5. Apoptic cell death in PMNs, J.
Infection and Immunology Vol. 68, No. 4, April 2000, p. 1893-1898.
6. Can Family Physician Vol. 53, No.9
Sept. 2007 p. 1451-1453.
7. J. Med Microbiology Vol. 56 2007
p. 1689-1691.
8. Anaerobe Vol. II Issue 6 Dec 2005
p. 350-353.
9. JSTOR: Clinical infectious diseases
Vol. 25 Sept 1997 p. 5284-5286.
10. Science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-has
a Sept. 1, 1998
11. Archives of Internal Medicine
Vol. 166 No. 5 Mar 13, 2006, PP 554-559.
12. Todar’s Online Textbook of
Bacteriology, Kenneth Todar, PhD 2008.
13. Journal of Nutrition Vol. 130
p.4105-4145 – PubMed.
14. Personal communication, Dr. Blanche Grube.
This article appeared in Wise Traditions
in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, the quarterly magazine of the Weston
A. Price Foundation, Summer 2010.
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