Nexus - 0221 - New Times Magazine-pages

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TOXIN-FORMING BACTERIA Howe's research addressed only the aerobic variety of bacteria. It completely missed the toxin-forming bacteria. If the body launches a big fight against the toxins, then pus forms around the tooth. Conventional wisdom says that pus is bad for the patient, an we must give antibiotics until it is gone. Price found that pus was nearly sterile, and, though socially disagree- able, its presence was a sign of successfully quarantining the tox- ins from the tooth. That was certainly a new idea, and not readily accepted as a ‘new truth’. Another upsetting situation pointed out by Price was that X-rays frequently miss abscesses that are on the front or back of a tooth. About 30% of the teeth have extra canals which may exit any- where from half-way down the tooth, to all the way down at the tip like they are supposed to. They can exit on the front, back or side of the tooth. Those ‘other’ canals that abscess are the ones that are apt to be missed on X-ray. i- investigated the methods of sterilisation of root canals (similar to today's technology) and found that teeth retained their sterility for only about two days. Most lost sterility within less than 24 hours. Why? Where were these bacteria hiding? A tooth contains enam- el, dentin, and a central pulp chamber. The central pulp chamber can be sterilised to a reasonable degree by removing its contents of nerves, arteries, and veins and flushing it with chemicals. The dentin, however, is composed of thousands of tiny dentin tubules, unreachable by this flushing procedure. Although micro- scopic in size, these tubules are quite adequate to house billions of bacteria. If one were to take a front tooth and arrange the dentin tubules end to end, they would reach for three miles. The mbules are wide enough to accommodate eight streptococci abreast. Where do these bacteria originally come from? They are Streptococcus viridans and are normal inhabitants of the mouth. When a tooth becomes decay-prone, they invade the tooth and start killing tooth tissues. When they reach the pulp chamber, they invade not only the pulp tissue but also the dentin tubules. When a dentist cleans out the pulp chamber, he removes all the bacteria in the chamber, but those bacteria that went into the mbules are still there. Then the dentist seals the tooth, and that's when a new truth begins that points out Howe's misinterpretation. In an ‘anaerobic’ condition, or one that contains no oxygen, these streptococci (specifically diplo- and short-chain strains) mutate, undergoing a slight change in body form and metabolism to adapt to this new environment. Now, instead of producing slightly offensive waste products, these transformed bacteria pro- duce a potent poison called a toxin. Our immune system does not like the toxin, but the cells of our immune system cannot get in through the tiny holes in the outside of the root to destroy the bac- teria. The toxins can seep out. Fluids containing nutrients can seep into the tooth, so the bacteria continue to thrive in confine- ment What about root-filled teeth that don't form pus or give pain? If the body's immune system is compromised, then very little action is initiated around the root-filled tooth. Certain enzymes may escape which stimulate the bone to form what is termed "condensing osteitis" around the tooth. This is heavier-than-usual bone. It may actually fuse the surrounding bone to the tooth. On X-ray films, this will appear as a white line and is considered to reflect excellent healing. This tooth gives no trouble locally as far as pain and pus are concerned, but the toxins that seep out get into the circulation and, with little immune system interference, seek a specific organ to attack. This Price called "tissue localisation”. Price had demonstrated this by transferring sections of root-filled teeth from animal to animal, generating the same disease with each transfer. NEXUS ¢31 ECO-SYSTEM WITHIN THE ROOT CANAL AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1994