One of the most common dental procedures – root canals – may not be as safe as one might think. In fact, they’ve been known to cause an assortment of debilitating diseases, many of which stem from a compromised immune system. Root canal toxins can affect whole body health through the interference of hormones and neurological activity.
They are performed in an effort to try and save a tooth that’s badly decayed or infected. In other words, root canals aim to “keep a dead tooth mechanically functioning in a live body,” explains Carol Vander Stoep, a Registered Dental Hygienist and Orofacial Myofunctional Therapist in Austin, Texas.
“It is no longer a huge secret that root canals crank out microbial metabolic toxins,” adds Stoep, who is considered the Erin Brockovich of dentistry.
A tooth is like a fountain – a complicated living structure requiring nutrition, hydration and internal cleansing
“The sophisticated multi-level attack of oral microbes, their metabolic waste products, and their interaction with dental materials can similarly give rise to an immune system crash, which can manifest in a multitude of disguises,” explains Stoep in a piece featured by Health Impact News.(1)
To make matters worse, root canals can cause even more damage when combined with mercury fillings and a struggling digestive system.
Root canal Roulette?
Root canals are complicated due to the existence of miles of microscopic tubules embedded within the pulp chamber, located at the center of the tooth between the crown and its root canals, which provide the tooth with nutrition that keeps it alive and strong.
However, these tubules can become infected with bacteria, which can eventually kill the pulp, resulting in tooth pain and death. Because of the complexity of the pulp chamber’s microscopic tubules, it’s difficult for dentists to sterilize them all. However, using ozone therapy (which many holistic dentists do), it can be done.
Dr. Griffin Cole, a holistic dentist also based in Austin, Texas, says “Ozone gas can permeate all tubules and kill off everything so that when the dentist goes to fill the canals, he is assured of a clean tooth. I also use 3D scan technology to inspect existing root canals to see if any failure is evident” – a relatively new technology, considering dentists were previously stuck using two-dimensional x-rays.
Alternatives to root canals
While more than 30,000,000 root canals are performed each year in the U.S., most of them are unnecessary, according to CureToothDecay.com. If and when you’re told you need a root canal, the best thing to do is to get a second opinion – and if you’re not experiencing pain in the tooth, then you’ve got some time to figure out your next step.(2)
Below are a few ways to heal a tooth infection naturally:
- Eliminate ALL processed sugar, especially foods containing white sugar, and greatly limit natural sugars (temporarily)
- Drink certified raw milk from pasture raised animals. (Pasteurized milk won’t provide the same benefits.)
- Eat high quality protein. In the case of tooth infections, raw or rare can be better than well-done. Examples of raw proteins are: raw fish, like sashimi (white rice is probably not good in the case of infection) or raw beef like steak tartar.
- Eat plenty of very yellow butter, preferably raw butter. Now is not the time to limit fat or worry about cholesterol, but rather it is a time to give your body what it needs.
- Strictly avoid flour products and grains temporarily. Especially avoid white bread or so-called wholewheat bread and other white flour products. White flour will cause tooth infections sometimes within a few minutes. Limit grains until your tooth infection or tooth pain clears up.
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