Just as the eyes are viewed as the window to the soul, the mouth is viewed as the window to the body.
As a dentist with several decades of clinical experience behind me, I can say this is absolutely true. As to which comes first, dental health or bodily health, it may be difficult to say. But regardless, it is always best to take care of both for super health.
If your mouth is a mess with gum disease, cavities, demineralized teeth or erosion, chances are pretty good that that will be reflected in your general health with inflammation, chronic aches and pains, as well as demineralized bones (osteoporosis).
Based on this understanding, the effect of root canals on our health, is worth exploring. Root canals are usually done when a tooth is so badly infected (usually from cavities or trauma) that the only option is to “save” the tooth with a root canal or extract the tooth in its entirety. I would surmise that millions of these are done annually, and for the majority, there are no obvious health or dental problems afterward.
Root Canal
There are many advantages to having a root canal, but the bottom line is that these teeth become a focal point for a residual biotoxic film that remains with the tooth and its associated meridians. For many people this is not a problem, since our body is used to dealing with billions of harmful bacteria running through our bodies daily. The challenge is for those who have a compromised immune system or an overload of toxins that is already too much for them to handle.
Teeth are similar to other organ systems in your body in that they require a blood supply, lymphatic drainage and nervous innervation. Root canaled teeth are “dead” teeth, and these “dead” teeth typically become a source of chronic bacterial toxicity in your body.
For example, if your liver, gall bladder or kidney (or any other organ) in your body becomes severely infected with necrosis, it is usually removed so that the infection will not spread and kill you. But if teeth have this issue, they are commonly root canaled and left intact in your body.
When dentists perform a root canal, the nerve and blood supply are removed from the main tooth canals; however the challenge occurs with the limited access to the microscopic side canals, which have dead nerves, blood vessels and bacteria, that are left behind in those spaces.
Anaerobic bacteria, which do not require oxygen to survive, thrive in these side canals and excrete toxicity from digesting necrotic tissue that leads to chronic infection. Blood supply and lymphatics that surround those dead teeth drain this toxicity and allow it to spread through the bloodstream and other parts of your body. This toxicity can invade many organ systems and can contribute to a host of illnesses such as arthritis, reflux, autoimmune diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, irritable bowel diseases, and depression. Cancer is also on the list with statistics showing that 97% of breast cancer patients have at least one root canal in their mouth. (Personally, I think this correlation may be faulty, as there are also a high percent of people with root canal who do not develop cancer. Having cancer may be related to other factors as well).
Treatment with antibiotics may help with the overt infection but will not lower the bacterial load for the long term.
It appears that the longer root canal treated teeth stay in your body, the more your immune system becomes compromised, creating insidious long term health challenges that may be difficult to cure as long as the source of infection remains intact.
So the question is: What are my options?
If any dentist says you need a root canal, ALWAYS get a second opinion. I have seen many patients who were told they needed root canal, but we were able to completely avoid it by careful excavation, laser implementation and pulp capping.
Seriously look into the Weston Price diet to see if can help you turn this around.
If you already have a root canal, and severe chronic health issues, you need to sit down with a knowledgeable practitioner to see if tooth extraction makes sense for you.
If you do get the root canal tooth extracted, make sure you are working with an informed dentist who understands the proper way to remove these teeth so that you do not have a lingering cavitation that will keep the infection alive in the remaining jawbone.
Extraction of root canaled teeth has worked miracles for many of my patients with serious chronic health issues. And for others it has not done much. There are many facets to being chronically ill and removing root canaled teeth may only be one part of the solution. Continuously detoxing (read our many other blogs to understand this) and continuously rebuilding the immune system, are critical to regaining health. This is not something to be done sporadically, but needs to be doing on a daily basis (similar to taking vitamins daily), if we are to stay healthy and vital in this toxic world.
If you liked this blog, you may also like Dr. Brand’s book: My Secrets to Regaining Health
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