> ROOT CANALS POSE HEALTH THREAT
>
> AN INTERVIEW WITH
>
> GEORGE MEINIG, D.D.S.
>  
>
> HOME -
>
> Dr. Meinig brings a most curious perspective to an expose of latent
> dangers of root canal therapy - fifty years ago he was one of the
> founders of the American Association of Endodontists (root canal
> specialists)! So he's filled his share of root canals. And when he
> wasn't filling canals himself, he was teaching the technique to
> dentists across the country at weekend seminars and clinics. About
two
> years ago, having recently retired, he decided to read all 1174 pages
> of the detailed research of Dr. Weston Price, (D.D.S). Dr. Meinig was
> startled and shocked. Here was valid documentation of systemic
> illnesses resulting from latent infections lingering in filled roots.
> He has since written a book, "Root Canal Cover-Up EXPOSED - Many
> Illnesses Result", and is devoting himself to radio, TV, and personal
> appearances before groups in an attempt to blow the whistle and alert
> the public.
>
> MJ Please explain what the problem is with root canal therapy.
>
> GM First, let me note that my book is based on Dr. Weston Price's
> twenty-five years of careful, impeccable research. He led a 60-man
> team of researchers whose findings - suppressed until now rank right
> up there with the greatest medical discoveries of all time. This is
> not the usual medical story of a prolonged search for the
> difficult-to-find causative agent of some devastating disease.
Rather,
> it's the story of how a "cast of millions" (of bacteria) become
> entrenched inside the structure of teeth and end up causing the
> largest number of diseases ever traced to a single source.
>
> MJ What diseases? Can you give us some examples?
>
> GM Yes, a high percentage of chronic degenerative diseases can
> originate from root filled teeth. The most frequent were heart and
> circulatory diseases and he found 16 different causative agents for
> these. The next most common diseases were those of the joints,
> arthritis and rheumatism. In third place - but almost tied for second
> - were diseases of the brain and nervous system. After that, any
> disease you can name might (and in some cases has) come from root
> filled teeth.
>
> Let me tell you about the research itself. Dr. Price undertook his
> investigations in 1900. He continued until 1925, and published his
> work in two volumes in 1923. In 1915 the National Dental Association
> (which changed its name a few years later to The American Dental
> Association) was so impressed with his work that they appointed Dr.
> Price their first Research Director. His Advisory Board read like a
> Who's Who in medicine and dentistry for that era. They represented
the
> fields of bacteriology, pathology, rheumatology, surgery, chemistry,
> and cardiology.
>
> At one point in his writings Dr. Price made this observation: "Dr.
> Frank Billings (M.D.), probably more than any other American
> internist, is due credit for the early recognition of the importance
> of streptococcal focal infections in systemic involvements."
>
> What's really unfortunate here is that very valuable information was
> covered up and totally buried some 70 years ago by a minority group
of
> autocratic doctors who just didn't believe or couldn't grasp - the
> focal infection theory.
>
> MJ What is the "focal infection" theory?
>
> GM This states that germs from a central focal infection - such as
> teeth, teeth roots, inflamed gum tissues, or maybe tonsils -
> metastasize to hearts, eyes, lungs, kidneys, or other organs, glands
> and tissues, establishing new areas of the same infection. Hardly
> theory any more, this has been proven and demonstrated many times
> over. It's 100% accepted today. But it was revolutionary thinking
> during World War I days, and the early 1920's!
>
> Today, both patients and physicians have been "brain washed" to think
> that infections are less serious because we now have antibiotics.
> Well, yes and no. In the case of root-filled teeth, the no
> longer-living tooth lacks a blood supply to its interior. So
> circulating antibiotics don't faze the bacteria living there because
> they can't get at them.
>
> MJ You're assuming that ALL root-filled teeth harbor bacteria and/or
> other infective agents?
>
> GM Yes. No matter what material or technique is used - and this is
> just as true today - the root filling shrinks minutely, perhaps
> microscopically. Further and this is key - the bulk of solid
appearing
> teeth, called the dentin, actually consists of miles of tiny tubules.
> Microscopic organisms lurking in the maze of tubules simply migrate
> into the interior of the tooth and set up housekeeping. A filled root
> seems to be a favorite spot to start a new colony.
>
> One of the things that makes this difficult to understand is that
> large, relatively harmless bacteria common to the mouth, change and
> adapt to new conditions. They shrink in size to fit the cramped
> quarters and even learn how to exist (and thrive!) on very little
> food. Those that need oxygen mutate and become able to get along
> without it. In the process of adaptation these formerly friendly
> "normal" organisms become pathogenic (capable of producing disease)
> and more virulent (stronger) and they produce much more potent
toxins.
>
> Today's bacteriologists are confirming the discoveries of the Price
> team of bacteriologists. Both isolated in root canals the same
strains
> of streptococcus, staphylococcus and spirochetes.
>
> MJ Is everyone who has ever had a root canal filled made ill by it?
>
> GM No. We believe now that every root canal filling does leak and
> bacteria do invade the structure. But the variable factor is the
> strength of the person's immune system. Some healthy people are able
> to control the germs that escape from their teeth into other areas of
> the body. We think this happens because their immune system
> lymphocytes (white blood cells) and other disease fighters aren't
> constantly compromised by other ailments. In other words, they are
> able to prevent those new colonies from taking hold in other tissues
> throughout the body. But over time, most people with root filled
teeth
> do seem to develop some kinds of systemic symptoms they didn't have
> before.
>
> MJ It's really difficult to grasp that bacteria are imbedded deep in
> the structure of seemingly-hard, solid looking teeth.
>
> GM I know. Physicians and dentists have that same problem, too. You
> really have to visualize the tooth structure - all of those
> microscopic tubules running through the dentin. In a healthy tooth,
> those tubules transport a fluid that carries nourishment to the
> inside. For perspective, if the tubules of a front single-root tooth,
> were stretched out on the ground they'd stretch for three miles!
>
> A root filled tooth no longer has any fluid circulating through it,
> but the maze of tubules remains. The anaerobic bacteria that live
> there seem remarkably safe from antibiotics. The bacteria can migrate
> out into surrounding tissue where they can "hitch hike" to other
> locations in the body via the bloodstream. The new location can be
any
> organ or gland or tissue, and the new colony will be the next focus
of
> infection in a body plagued by recurrent or chronic infections.
>
> All of the "building up" done to try to enhance the patient's ability
> to fight infections - to strengthen their immune system - is only a
> holding action. Many patients won't be well until the source of
> infection - the root canal tooth - is removed.
>
> MJ I don't doubt what you're saying, but can you tell us more about
> how Dr. Price could be sure that arthritis or other systemic
> conditions and illnesses really originated in the teeth - or in a
> single tooth?
>
> GM Yes. Many investigations start with the researcher just being
> curious about something - and then being scientifically careful
enough
> to discover an answer, and then prove it's so, many times over. Dr.
> Price's first case is very well documented. He removed an infected
> tooth from a woman who suffered from severe arthritis. As soon as he
> finished with the patient, he implanted the tooth beneath the skin of
> a healthy rabbit. Within 48 hours the rabbit was crippled with
> arthritis!
>
> Further, once the tooth was removed the patient's arthritis improved
> dramatically. This clearly suggested that the presence of the
infected
> tooth was a causative agent for both that patient's and the rabbit's
-
> arthritis.
>
> [Editor's Note - Here's the story of that first patient from Dr.
> Meinig's book: "(Dr. Price) had a sense that, even when (root canal
> therapy) appeared successful, teeth containing root fillings remained
> infected. That thought kept prying on his mind, haunting him each
time
> a patient consulted him for relief from some severe debilitating
> disease for which the medical profession could find no answer. Then
> one day while treating a woman who had been confined to a wheelchair
> for six years from severe arthritis, he recalled how bacterial
> cultures were taken from patients who were ill and then inoculated
> into animals in an effort to reproduce the disease and test the
> effectiveness of drugs on the disease.
>
> With this thought in mind, although her (root filled) tooth looked
> fine, he advised this arthritic patient, to have it extracted. He
told
> her he was going to find out what it was about this root filled tooth
> that was responsible for her suffering. "All dentists know that
> sometimes arthritis and other illnesses clear up if bad teeth are
> extracted. However, in this case, all of her teeth appeared in
> satisfactory condition and the one containing this rootcanal filling
> showed no evidence or symptoms of infection. Besides, it looked
normal
> on x-ray pictures.
>
> "Immediately after Dr. Price extracted the tooth he dismissed the
> patient and embedded her tooth under the skin of a rabbit. In two
days
> the rabbit developed the same kind of crippling arthritis as the
> patient - and in ten days it died.
>
> "..The patient made a successful recovery after the tooth's removal!
> She could then walk without a cane and could even do fine needlework
> again. That success led Dr. Price to advise other patients, afflicted
> with a wide variety of treatment defying illnesses, to have any root
> filled teeth out."]
>
> In the years that followed, he repeated this procedure many hundreds
> of times. He later implanted only a portion of the tooth to see if
> that produced the same results. It did. He then dried the tooth,
> ground it into powder and injected a tiny bit into several rabbits.
> Same results, this time producing the same symptoms in multiple
> animals.
>
> Dr. Price eventually grew cultures of the bacteria and injected them
> into the animals. Then he went a step further. He put the solution
> containing the bacteria through a filter small enough to catch the
> bacteria. So when he injected the resulting liquid it was free of any
> infecting bacteria. Did the test animals develop the illness? Yes.
The
> only explanation was that the liquid had to contain toxins from the
> bacteria, and the toxins were also capable of causing disease.
>
> Dr. Price became curious about which was the more potent infective
> agent, the bacteria or the toxin. He repeated that last experiment,
> injecting half the animals with the toxin-containing liquid and half
> of them with the bacteria from the filter. Both groups became ill,
but
> the group injected with the toxins got sicker and died sooner than
the
> bacteria injected animals.
>
> MJ That's amazing. Did the rabbits always develop the same disease
the
> patient had?
>
> GM Mostly, yes. If the patient had heart disease the rabbit got heart
> disease. If the patient had kidney disease the rabbit got kidney
> disease, and so on. Only occasionally did a rabbit develop a
different
> disease - and then the pathology would be quite similar, in a
> different location.
>
> MJ If extraction proves necessary for anyone reading this, do you
want
> to summarize what's special about the extraction technique?
>
> GM Just pulling the tooth is not enough when removal proves
necessary.
> Dr. Price found bacteria in the tissues and bone just adjacent to the
> tooth's root. So we now recommend slow-speed drilling with a burr, to
> remove one millimeter of the entire bony socket. The purpose is to
> remove the periodontal ligament (which is always infected with toxins
> produced by streptococcus bacteria living in the dentin tubules) and
> the first millimeter of bone that lines the socket (which is usually
> infected).
>
> There's a whole protocol involved, including irrigating with sterile
> saline to assure removal of the contaminated bone chips, and treating
> the socket to stimulate and encourage infection-free healing. I
> describe the procedure in detail, step by step, in my book [pages 185
> and 186].
>
> MJ Perhaps we should back up and talk about oral health - to PREVENT
> needing an extraction. Caries or inflamed gums seem much more common
> than root canals. Do they pose any threat?
>
> GM Yes, they absolutely do. But let me point out that we can't talk
> about oral health apart from total health. The problem is that
> patients and dentists alike haven't come around to seeing that dental
> caries reflect systemic - meaning "whole body" - illness. Dentists
> have learned to restore teeth so expertly that both they and their
> patients have come to regard tooth decay as a trivial matter. It >
isn't.
>
> Small cavities too often become big cavities. Big cavities too often
> lead to further destruction and the eventual need for root canal
> treatment.
>
> MJ Then talk to us about prevention.
>
> GM The only scientific way to prevent tooth decay is through diet and
> nutrition. Dr. Ralph Steinman did some outstanding, landmark research
> at Loma Linda University. He injected a glucose solution into mice -
> into their bodies, so the glucose didn't even touch their teeth. Then
> he observed the teeth for any changes. What he found was truly
> astonishing. The glucose reversed the normal flow of fluid in the
> dentin tubules, resulting in all of the test animals developing
severe
> tooth decay! Dr. Steinman demonstrated dramatically what I said a
> minute ago: Dental caries reflect systemic illness.
>
> Let's take a closer look to see how this might happen. Once a tooth
> gets infected and the cavity gets into the nerve and blood vessels,
> bacteria find their way into those tiny tubules of the dentin. Then
no
> matter what we do by way of treatment, we're never going to
completely
> eradicate the bacteria hiding in the miles of tubules. In time the
> bacteria can migrate through lateral canals into the surrounding bony
> socket that supports the tooth. Now the host not only has a cavity in
> a tooth, plus an underlying infection of supporting tissue to deal
> with, but the bacteria also exude potent systemic toxins. These
toxins
> circulate throughout the body triggering activity by the immune
system
> - and probably causing the host to feel less well. This host response
> can vary from just dragging around and feeling less energetic, to
> overt illness - of almost any kind. Certainly, such a person will be
> more vulnerable to whatever "bugs" are going around, because his/her
> body is already under constant challenge and the immune system
> continues to be "turned on" by either the infective agent or its
> toxins - or both.
>
> MJ What a fascinating concept. Can you tell us more about the
> protective nutrition you mentioned?
>
> GM Yes. Dr. Price traveled all over the world doing his research on
> primitive peoples who still lived in their native ways. He found
> fourteen cultural pockets scattered all over the globe where the
> natives had no access to "civilization" - and ate no refined foods.
>
> Dr. Price studied their diets carefully. He found they varied
greatly,
> but the one thing they had in common was that they ate whole,
> unrefined foods. With absolutely no access to tooth brushes, floss,
> fluoridated water or tooth paste, the primitive peoples studied were
> almost 100% free of tooth decay. Further - and not unrelated - they
> were also almost 100% free of all the degenerative diseases we suffer
> - problems with the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, joints, skin
> (allergies), and the whole gamut of illnesses that plague Mankind. No
> one food proved to be magic as a preventive food. I believe we can
> thrive best by eating a wide variety of whole foods.
>
> MJ Amazing. So by "diet and nutrition" for oral (and total) health
you
> meant eating a pretty basic diet of whole foods?
>
> GM Exactly. And no sugar or white flour. These are (and always have
> been) the first culprits. Tragically, when the primitives were
> introduced to sugar and white flour their superior level of health
> deteriorated rapidly. This has been demonstrated time and again.
> During the last sixty or more years we have added in increasing
> amounts, highly refined and fabricated cereals and boxed mixes of all
> kinds, soft drinks, refined vegetable oils and a whole host of other
> foodless "foods". It is also during those same years that we as a
> nation have installed more and more root canal fillings - and
> degenerative diseases have become rampant. I believe - and Dr. Price
> certainly proved to my satisfaction - that these simultaneous factors
> are NOT coincidences.
>
> MJ I certainly understand what you are saying. But I'm still a little
> shocked to talk with a dentist who doesn't stress oral hygiene.
>
> GM Well, I'm not against oral hygiene. Of course, hygiene practices
> are preventive, and help minimize the destructive effect of our
> "civilized", refined diet. But the real issue is still diet. The
> natives Dr. Price tracked down and studied weren't free of cavities,
> inflamed gums, and degenerative diseases because they had better
tooth
> brushes!
>
> It's so easy to lose sight of the significance of what Dr. Price
> discovered. We tend to sweep it under the rug - we'd actually prefer
> to hear that if we would just brush better, longer, or more often, we
> too could be free of dental problems.
>
> Certainly, part of the purpose of my book is to stimulate dental
> research into finding a way to sterilize dentin tubules. Only then
can
> dentists really learn to save teeth for a lifetime. But the bottom
> line remains: A primitive diet of whole unrefined foods is the only
> thing that has been found to actually prevent both tooth decay and
> degenerative diseases.
>
> To order "Root Canal Cover-Up EXPOSED - Many Illnesses Result", by
Dr.
> Meinig, send your check or money order (U.S. funds) for $19.95 +
$2.00
> shipping ($2.50 to Canada, $3.00 to other countries), California
> residents add $1.45 for state sales tax. Send to Bion Publishing, 323
> E. Matilija 110-151, Ojai, CA 93023.

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