September 29, 2021 
Your health may well be under assault by toxins coming from the mouth–coming either from poor choices of dental materials such as “silver fillings” (those are mostly mercury) or from toxins released by bacteria living in undetected and untreated oral infections. Of course, if you have an infection causing bleeding gums, your dentist will likely send you to a periodontist for treatment. Unfortunately, many oral infections are not obvious. One recurring question I get is about the safety of root canals, so this page will spend extra time on that particular source of trouble.
My sincere thanks to Tom Levy, MD, JD who is a cardiologist but who studied with some cutting-edge and legendary dentists. He generously allowed me to share some sections of his books as an introduction to the topic. And, thanks to Phillip Kozlow, DDS for his time in answering my questions which will appear next week in the second part of this article. It would be very smart to read the books linked below for details, photos, supplement guidelines and scientific backup. Hopefully, this quick review will call your attention to an extremely dangerous and typically neglected health factor.
Why we should care. In the preface to his book, Hidden Epidemic: Silent Oral Infections Cause Most Heart Attacks and Breast Cancers, Dr. Levy said this about Hal Huggins, DDS patients’ results: “After mercury and infected teeth or infected implants were properly removed, I saw abnormal blood tests normalize or dramatically improve. I watched patients with advanced chronic degenerative diseases, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and even ALS make substantial improvement during the couple of weeks they spent at the clinic. [Emphasis added.] A few multiple sclerosis patients actually took their first steps after being in a wheelchair for years after completing the program. Some individuals with dramatically elevated antinuclear antibody levels seen in lupus and other autoimmune diseases would no longer have detectable levels at the end of their visit. Others would have similar results within a month or two on follow-up blood testing. Repeat blood testing in gout patients who had extremely elevated uric levels for years would demonstrate normalized levels. These and many other incredible, dramatically positive health responses were common.”
Dr. Levy continues: “During the time I spent studying with Dr. Huggins, I learned of the toxicity of the mercury in all the ‘silver’ fillings put in so many people for so many years. I witnessed the enormous toxicity inflicted by many root-canal-treated teeth, along with other infected teeth. I repeatedly witnessed the extremely common finding of infected cavitations at old extraction sites, something that remains largely unknown to “modern” dentistry. And I witnessed the incredible therapeutic power of intravenous vitamin C, something that is not even mentioned in the most current of medical textbooks.”
“Additionally, the literature conclusively demonstrated that regular dental X-rays often miss teeth with significant CAP [that is chronic apical periodontitis…infection at the tip of the tooth root. His Appendix D shows how effectively CAP can “hide” on a regular dental X-ray.] However, the 3D cone beam imaging technology reliably reveals all CAP teeth except when the degree of CAP is very minimal.”
Additional crucial details can be found in another book by Dr. Levy, The Toxic Tooth: How a root canal could be making you sick. Dr. Levy calls also attention to another important work, Root Canal Cover-Up by his colleague George E. Meinig, DDS. Amazon describes the book this way: “Bacteria trapped inside the structure of teeth migrate throughout the body. They may infect any organ, gland, or tissue and can damage the heart, kidneys, joints, eyes, brain, and endanger pregnant women. Learn how these infections were discovered by Weston A. Price, DDS in a 25-year Root Canal Research Program which was carried out under the auspices of the American Dental Association [ADA] and were subsequently covered-up.” [A typical case of “follow the money”? It reminds me of the ADA’s long-standing support of toxic mercury fillings for which the group held a patent.]
Source of big trouble. Untreated oral infections can cause heart disease but surprisingly, so can the treatments. “The studies that demonstrate the pandemic prevalence of CAP in the general population along with the large volume of medical literature linking periodontitis with a host of degenerative diseases, brought me to a startling conclusion. One of the main reasons for the majority of deaths from diseases like heart disease and cancer in the United States and around the world were due to the toxicity and disseminated pathogens from asymptomatic infected teeth! These ‘hidden killers’ are seldom discovered, and they are rarely extracted properly or otherwise effectively treated when they are found by accident.”
Looking deeper. Dr. Levy points out that “fungi, viruses, and over 460 different types of bacteria have been identified and reported in untreated primary root canal infections as well as in root canal-treated teeth.1-3 [As my guests discussed on the September 25 show, these pathogens also turn up in arterial plaque and diseases elsewhere in the body.] The root canal procedure, one of the most [frequently] performed dental treatments of our time, is responsible for the most common chronic oral cavity infection. While some would argue that most root canal-treated tooth are infection-free, recent data showed that literally 100% of 5,000 examined root canal-treated teeth were infected.4 That means that those who have one or more root canal treated teeth can reliably assume that they have a chronic oral infection. Although all such infected teeth are not of equal negative clinical impact, it is still important to realize that none of them are completely free of pathogens and toxins…Certain teeth are especially susceptible.” Dr. Levy notes, “a CAP prevalence of 86% with acanal-treated maxillary molars noted in a French population.5”
No news isn’t necessarily good news. It is important to remember that while an oral infection can be actively causing/worsening cancer, heart disease, dementia, depression, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, lupus etc., most people will not experience dental pain or obvious symptoms from an infection at the root of the tooth or from one hidden in the tubules of the dead tooth. In addition to the toxicity problem, keeping a dead tooth in your jaw interrupts the acupuncture meridians and that short circuit of energy flow is another source of health trouble.
NEXT WEEK. Dr. Kozlow will help us understand the alternatives to root canal and implants as well as how to make them safer if you must have one.
CITATIONS
1Siqueira Jr. J., Rocas I. (2009) Diversity of endodontic microbiota revisited. Journal of Dental Research, 88:969-981. PMID: 19828883
2 Nobrega L., Delboni M., Martinho F. et al. (2013) Treponema diversity in root canals with endodontic failure. European Journal of Dentistry, 7:61-68. PMID: 23408792
3 Antunes H., Rocas I., Alves F., Siqueira Jr. J. (2015) Total and specific bacterial levels in the apical root canal system of teeth with post-treatment apical periodontitis. Journal of Endodontics, 41:1037-1042. PMID: 25892512
3 Gulati M., Anand V., Jain N. et al. (2013) Essentials of periodontal medicine in preventive medicine. International Journal of Preventive Medicine, 4:988-994. PMID: 24130938
4Kulacz R., Levy T. (2014) The Toxic Tooth: How a root canal could be making you sick. Henderson, NV: MedFox Publishing, p. 99-103.
5Lemagner F., Maret D., Peters O. et al. (2015) Prevalence of apical bone defects and evaluation of associated factors detected with cone-beam computed tomographic images. Journal of Endodontics, 41:1043-1047. PMID: 25917943
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