THE teeth are a large part of the puzzle of health and disease. There are many scenarios in which the teeth and the way dentists work with the teeth can play a role in disease. Sometimes we are not aware of some of the consequences we face.

There are common types of metals that are being utilised in dental work such as crowns, amalgam fillings and dentures. These metals, when placed in the mouth, are sitting in a medium of saliva, which turns the mouth into a charged battery. We call this charge “galvanic toxicity”. The brain is a collection of millions of nerve fibres that is essentially a battery emitting electrical charges throughout the body. The galvanic toxicity in the mouth is bombarding and overstimulating the brain. Common signs and symptoms of galvanic toxicity are a metal taste in the mouth, an electrical charge with utensils and insomnia. Occasionally, a person can have a toothache only because there are gold and amalgam in their mouth. The “shocking” sensation is really coming from the battery they have created.

Teeth are similar to organ systems in the body in that they also acquire a blood supply, lymphatic and venous drainage, and nervous innervations. Root canals are dead teeth. It is not one, if not the worst, source of chronic bacterial toxicity. If the heart or liver or any other organ in the body dies, it will have to be removed otherwise septicemia sets in and the patients can die. Yet, the teeth are commonly left dead in the body, often as stumps.

Teeth have roots with main canals and thousands of side canals and contained in those sides are miles of nerves from the main canals, however, they do not have access to the microscopic side canals, which have dead nerves left behind in those spaces.

Anaerobic bacteria, which do not require oxygen to survive, thrive in the side canals to grow and excrete toxicity from digesting necrotic tissue that leads to chronic infection. Blood supply and lymphatics that surround those dead teeth drains this toxicity and allows it to spread throughout the body. This toxicity will invade all organ systems

and can lead to a plethora of diseases such as autoimmune diseases, cancers, musculoskeletal diseases, irritable bowel diseases, and depression.
Gum disease is another vehicle in which bacteria can spread throughout the body. Classic signs of gum disease are bleeding upon brushing or flossing the teeth, red, swollen gums and bad breath.

The following is an actual case study from my office in which I saw a patient who presented for an initial dental visit. She related to a three-year history of breast cancer treated conventionally. Three years later, her cancer recurred and she decided to seek alternative treatment rather than conventional treatment. She sought therapies for five months by two well-known physicians practising these therapies. She then followed up with my office to get a complete dental exam and diagnosis.

I took her history and examined the patient. I discovered that since her diagnosis of cancer, all of the physicians conventional and alternative, failed to ask or even consider her dental history as being a necessary part other treatment or the possible association or connection to the root of the disease. It is not surprising that conventional physicians do not look at the dental history as being associated with any disease process, but is certainly absurd that alternative physicians failed to even consider it.

Upon my examination, there were several acutely infected teeth, a root canal and severe gum disease that were totally missed. Certainly, the conventional therapies and the alternative therapies that this patient received will most likely fail as this patient continues to harbour infection in her mouth that has chronically compromised her immune system and has weakened her overall ability to eliminate toxicity and to heal as a whole.

In reality, the toxicity that continues to thrive in her mouth is being carried by the blood and lymphatic system to all areas of her body and is contributing to her inability to fight cancer. So it’s important to look at the situation as a whole and the mouth as an essential part of our health and to the contribution of disease.