So one of my heroes, Weston Price, which maybe some of you know of, was a dentist, but he was one of the first dentists that was just really looking at the whole picture. He was saying, “Let’s look at nutrition. Let’s look at the effects of what we’re doing on people’s bodies,†and so forth. So he was fantastic. He was amazing. He put together some nutritional research. By far one of my greatest heroes of all time, because he is the father of holistic dentistry, really. So what he did is he actually took some root canal teeth and he implanted them in rabbits, just under the skin, closed it up, and he found that the rabbits got sick. A lot of them had arthritis. The patients had arthritis, actually the rabbits developed arthritis. And some of them died from the infection. Right away, everybody said, you know, looking at this research, “Oh my god, root canals are going to kill you, they’re going to give you cancer, they’re going to give you an infection, they’re going to give you arthritis, et cetera, et cetera.â€
It’s possible. It’s very, very possible. What was about the root canal, though, that created the problems? And I think what was, my opinion is that the root canals that were done traditionally had been performed with hydrophobic materials, which is materials that actually contract in the presence of moisture. There’s moisture in the body, there’s moisture in the mouth, always, so when you have a material that’s hydrophobic, you’re going to actually have the materials contract. What happens when the materials contract inside of this space is that you start getting micro pockets, and in those micro pockets you have bacteria, anaerobic bacteria that creates a lot of damage. Again, being untouched. You can’t really access that, and they become a focus of infection. So was that the problem? Was that why those root canals were the focus of infection? Well, as of maybe seven or eight years ago, there was something called BC sealer which was being used to repair knees and, you know, it had a lot of osteogenic properties. They would put it near, in the bone, and it would actually create bone around it.
So the body actually liked it a lot, and the nice thing about this material was that it actually was hydrophilic – it liked moisture and it would expand. So you can see that if we have a material here that actually expands, there’s a much better chance that this is going to be sealed without any pockets in it. Is this a hundred percent the case? We don’t know. We don’t know. What we do know is that clinically, we’ve had very good results with it, and that from a research point of view, it makes a lot of since. Up to just a few months ago, that BC sealer had to actually be placed with a Gutta Perchavs Point, and Gutta Perchavs, aside from the fact that it has a little cadmium, is basically a fairly inert, but it doesn’t expand, it doesn’t contract, so even in the presence of the BC sealer, the BC sealer’s expanding, but because the Gutta Perchavs, even though it’s just one point versus multiple points with traditional root canals, you still have the possibility of having very small air pockets in there. In Europe, they started using something called a CPoint, and that’s a biocompatible point that’s now taken the place of Gutta Perchavs mostly in Europe. It really hasn’t been brought to this country, and you know, this is something I’ve been very excited about, because now you have [inaudible] that you can use, you no longer have to use Gutta Perchavs, that can actually expand together with the BC sealer and create a nice, even, uniform expansion right on the canal.
And if you obviously get enough expansion, which is usually about twenty, twenty-two percent, that’s enough to really create a nice, tight seal. And, you know, they actually compared the use of Gutta Perchavs with the use of the new biocompatible materials. And this is basically talking, basically, about how the hydrophilic materials expand. Okay, so having said that, when do you do a root canal, when you don’t? You know, I would say when I get a patient in the office, if this patient has a lot of health issues, I probably would not go with the root canal. There are many different options, and you can explore those. Also, you can actually check some of the [inaudible] charts and find out. I have a root canal on tooth number three. How is that connected with what organs in my body? Is there a connection? If there is, then you having challenges with that, I would definitely either remove or retreat that root canal, and if it’s been retreated, definitely remove it. So again, you know, if you understand what’s going on, now you can make decisions. You can ask the right questions to your dentist.
You know, I had a patient that called me from Toronto recently and said, “I went to a holistic dentist, and they wanted to remove nine teeth.†I said, “Okay, send me your x-rays. I’ll take a look at them.†One of the molars was absolutely unsaveable, so I said, “Why don’t you have the doctor remove this molar, live with this for three months, and then multiply times eight, and see what the quality of your life will be.†So we have to balance things out, you know? We can’t get so crazy [inaudible]. Now, of course, if I have cancer, if I have a very, very challenging situation, it might be worth it for me to do this and then see how I’m going to replace them. But we have to think ahead of time. How are we going to replace these teeth? Are we not going to replace them? Are we okay with not replacing them? Do we understand what it means to live without these teeth? If the answers are yes, then go ahead. I just want you to think before we act and the consequences of the decisions we’re going to be taking.
What is best, implants, fixed bridges, removable bridges, Maryland bridges? So this is our sum of the, if you have decided you want to extract the tooth, what are our options now? Implants. Implants are made of titanium. About 99.5 percent of the population is not allergic to titanium. There’s half a percentage that is. We can actually find that out early. We can do a serum test, and we can find out if that’s an issue. From a biological point of view, I’ve seen these implants integrate beautifully. The body loves them. It takes them in. However, there is the magnetic interference with some of the channels. And again, you know, if you’re having, if you’re very healthy individual, this might not be a problem for you. If you are seeing some health challenges, hey, you might want to reconsider. This may not be for you. Now, this is what implants were even, you know, six, seven years ago, this is what implants were like. Very, very large. Very invasive. A lot of the times, you know, so big that we could not place them because there was a nerve here or a sinus, et cetera. There has been some research showing that actually, longer implants don’t have the longevity of shorter implants because the fact that they do this. Zirconia implants. So, because of the kind of practice that I have, a lot of people come and ask me, “How about zirconia implants?â€
Zirconia implants, from a biological point of view, okay. You know, I think they’re a little bit better than titanium. Probably comparable, but a little bit better than titanium. The problem with those implants is that they are one piece, and they are very large, and very invasive. Why is it a problem they’re one piece? If you saw this implant right here, this is one piece, and then you have a second piece coming out of the middle, and a third piece that is the crown. These ones come only in one piece and then you can put the crown on the top. Most of the time, your bone and your jaw is not oriented perfectly well so that you can [inaudible] an implant and have the tooth come out perfectly straight so you can put a crown, so you have to actually grind those things, and when you grind them, you create micro fractures, and micro fractures are a big problem when you have something imbedded in your bone. So I really, until the time where zirconia comes with a two piece implant, I’m not going to be placing them in most cases. We’re eagerly waiting to see if they come up with a two piece.
These are actually the ones we place in our office when it’s indicated, and they’re called [inaudible] implants. They’re bioceramic coated implants, and they’re very, very small, which I like a lot, because even from an electromagnetic point of view, they don’t create interference that these things were creating. And they have found out that the bone integration is great with them because they have a lot of surface even though they’re small. So this is an option. Again, not for everybody, but this is an option. And this is a case we just placed last week. Removable bridge. A lot of people like removable bridges because they feel they are, you know, some of the better, least aggressive invasive materials. And that is true in some cases, you know, but obviously, the quality of life is a consideration here. Taking in and out your teeth all the time and moving around, you know, is not for everybody. Fixed bridges, of course, and, you know, if you, for example, have a tooth that is compromised, and you have two teeth on the side that have crowns already or large amalgams, I would say that’s a no-brainer.
You should really place a bridge there. Remove, you know, use the other two teeth on the side of them, and place crowns on them, and the middle part is actually going to be attached to them. You cement them. Great. So that’s a no-brainer. When you have to think twice about it is when you have two beautiful, pristine teeth to the sides of the tooth that you’re talking about. Do you really want to grind those teeth down the place the bridge on it? So, again, more food for thought. And then we have Maryland bridges, which actually are a lot less invasive. Rather than having to trim the whole tooth and place a crown on it, you know, there’s really, the tooth gets respected quite a bit more. It’s not as aggressive in the preparation. Why doesn’t everybody do this? Because they tend to come off. So you have to be ready to re-cement them every six months, every eight months, you know, you have to re-cement them, because usually the retention is not quite what it could be with a traditional bridge.
So once again, you know, I urge you to listen to yourselves. You have a billion and a half years of evolution and godliness in each one of you. For heaven’s sake, listen to yourself. Get good advice, obviously, but you have to listen to yourself and use your intuition in choosing your health professions as well, and I think if you do that, you’re more likely to make really good decisions, you know? The Chinese talk about the brain and the heart as being one organ, a single organ, and I think they got it right. Anyway, this will be right there if you have any questions or if there’s anything I can do to help you guys out, I’d be more than happy to. So I’ll open it up for questions if you have any.
Female: I have one that came in actually a little earlier on from the webstream, and that is, “Do porcelain fillings cause more sensitivity than composites?â€
Daniel: Okay. What we’ve found I our practice is that a lot of the time when amalgams are removed, you have micro fractures, and those micro fractures, as you remove them, actually relax and open up a little bit more, so teeth get sensitive no matter what you replace them with. So what’s important is the depth of the preparation. If it’s very, very close to the nerve, you’re going to have more sensitivity than when it’s not, and so often we’ll place desensitizers that we have now, [inaudible] based desensitizer, and we can actually put a coat of calcium to protect from the sensitivity. If none of those things are done, then you could experience sensitivity either with the porcelain or with the – do you find that to be the case, Anastasia?
Anastasia: Absolutely.
Female: So you don’t necessarily find a greater sensitivity with one versus the other.
Anastasia: So the calcium base that we use is, again, from a biological standpoint, very healthy for the body. The teeth accept it very easily, and it just puts a nice coating down, and with a lot of the cements that we’re using, the strength is very good, and again, it adheres to the teeth in sucha nice manner that it reduces the sensitivity, and yeah.
Daniel: Yeah. But I don’t think we have found much difference in the porcelain and the composites as far as sensitivity. Right. Yeah. So it’s more of a matter of the depth of preparation.
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Holistic Dental Lecture Transcribed (Part 3),
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