Dr Catherine ROSSI
Dental Surgeon
A devitalized tooth can be the gateway for bacteria to enter the body and spread toxins to organs, causing immune depletion and the risk of sepsis.
A dead tooth
A devitalized tooth is a tooth with a dead nerve. It is a common and apparently harmless act performed by dentists when the decay is too deep, has reached the nerve and causes the famous pulpitis pain. This pain, which makes you awake through the night, generally degenerates into a more or less chronic abscess, painless but then attention : Danger to your health.
Emergency dental care: too late for your nerve!
The devitalization of a tooth is a necessary surgical act when the decay is too deep and penetrates the nerve. It is the only way to stop the intolerable pain of the inflamed nerve. Sometimes dentists are forced to devitalize a tooth that does not hurt for technical reasons, in order to reconstruct a tooth damaged by decay or fracture, or to restore the integrity of a mouth. This solution is not always the best and must be truly exceptional. Unfortunately, the dentist has no other means when the need for care has been too long in coming…
Anatomy of the teeth
At the middle of the tooth are nerves and vessels. It is a sterile living structure. When the nerve is destroyed by decay or by the dentist, to stop intolerable pain, the crystalline structure of the tooth no longer has any natural defense capacity to limit or prevent bacterial development. The bacteria present in dental caries penetrate inside the dental roots canal, but also the bacteria present in the gums around the tooth, especially when there is gum disease and tartar. These bacterias will be able to penetrate inside the tooth which will no longer have any means of defense. The tooth looks a bit like a sponge because it has many small canals, branches of the main root canal, that make the center of the tooth communicate with the surrounding bone. As long as the tooth is alive, it is protected from this sponge effect. Thus a devitalized tooth is even more toxic when it is surrounded by gums with periodontal disease, because even if the interior of the roots is perfectly sterilized by the dental surgeon, it is colonized by the bacteria which come from the gums.
Devitalized teeth, sources of disease
It was Dr. Weston PRICE and Dr. MEINIG who first alerted the profession to the danger of devitalized teeth. These pioneering researchers extracted devitalized teeth from sick people, mainly people with heart disease or arthritis, and re-implanted these teeth in rabbits that a few weeks later developed heart disease and arthritis respectively.
Bacterial sponges
Analyses have shown that almost 100% of devitalized teeth still contain bacteria, and these bacteria are mainly in the accessory canals. In fact, teeth have main canals and a multitude of accessory canals, a labyrinth of tiny tubules that would measure more than 4 km. When the tooth is alive, these tubules are filled with cellular tissues because they are in fact the extension of the cells that create the tooth. When the tooth is dead, this means that these cells are dead and these small bits of cells in these canals necrotize, putrefy and become the place for the development of bacteria that come from decay or gums. Not all of these canals can be sterilely closed during a conventional root canal treatment, so they become reservoirs for toxins. Bacteria accumulate in them and send toxins that are released in the ligament around the tooth and then spread throughout the body.
Dental reflexology
These toxins can, through the bloodstream, more or less accompanied by their bacterial strains, spread throughout the body and attach themselves to the joints or the heart. But in holistic dentistry we know that each tooth is connected to an organ and a function. We have realized that each devitalized tooth can have a very precise action on an organ. For example, an infection on the upper central incisors can cause heart rhythm problems, the canines, both upper and lower, can be related to the eyes, loss of vision, glaucoma, the first molars of the upper teeth can be related to heartburn. The upper second molars may be related to dizziness and the lower first molars are related to reproductive organs, i.e. sterility, ovarian cysts or sexual disorders. In athletes, devitalized teeth have very frequently been associated with repeated tendinitis, loss of performance, or muscle sprains that do not heal.
Devitalized teeth and cancer
More recently, researchers have made the link between devitalized teeth and the development of cancer. Dr. Robert JOHNS studied 300 cases of breast cancer, among these people 93% of women with breast cancer had devitalized teeth and 7% had other oral pathology. The tumors in the majority of cases occur on the same side of the body as the devitalized tooth. Dr. JOHNS says that bacterial toxins in a tooth are able to inhibit proteins that suppress tumor development. Dr. Joseph ISSELS, who has been caring for cancer patients for 40 years, estimates that 97% of people with end-stage cancer had devitalized teeth.
Technology to the rescue of devitalized teeth
New procedures for the disinfection of dental roots exist today, among others with the laser, which allows 100% disinfection of dental canals. Treatments are done under a microscope with equipment and products that Dr. Price could not even dream of in 1930. Unfortunately this exceptional technique is only performed by certain dentists and root canal specialists called endodontists. This procedure requires a long and expensive procedure and is only really effective if the gums are healthy.
The body’s resources
On the other hand, when the teeth have been infected for a long time, the chances of success of such a treatment are diminished. The body’s repair process is also stimulated, but it is often exhausted due to chronic infections over many months. Will the body be able to block out toxins and eliminate any remaining bacteria in the bone around the tooth? Only the future and energy tests could tell!
Retain or extract devitalized teeth,
It is a choice that should not be made lightly and the answer cannot be standardized, each one of you is different and each tooth is different. If a tooth needs to be devitalized because you took too long to have a cavity treated, it is imperative that you have it treated by an endodontic specialist who has a laser to sterilize the roots canal, at the same time start taking care of your gums to make sure that no bacteria can enter through the roots to the outside, and above all, make a commitment with yourself to have regular check-ups so that you never need to have a tooth devitalized again.
Now if you have already had your teeth devitalized for a long time, know that these teeth have not been treated by a specialist who sterilizes with the laser, you are 99.99% sure that you have bacteria inside the dental roots canal. These teeth inevitably send toxins into your body but you have no pain and you are in good health because your immune system is functioning well. But over time you will reach immune exhaustion and an emotion or an accident or an infection, even a trivial one, could cause all your long established protection systems to collapse at once.
Making the right choice
Now is the time to ask yourself the right questions and take stock of your devitalized teeth. If you are in good health and you have strong gums that do not bleed, therefore no sign of periodontal disease or gingivitis, you can consider having your roots retreated by an endodontist specialist. If you have a serious disease, or you have simply decided not to keep devitalized teeth in your mouth, once the tooth or teeth have been extracted, you will have to consider replacing them, because keeping one or more missing teeth in your mouth can have consequences as serious as having devitalized teeth, among others on the postural balance of our body, i.e. back pain, neck pain, tinnitus, migraines, eye problems, in short, remember that you must always replace an absent tooth.
How to replace an absent tooth?
– A partial removable denture is the famous denture that comes off after every meal.
– A bridge will replace the missing tooth by resting on the teeth on either side of the gap. The disadvantage of this technique is that two healthy teeth have to be damaged to be able to replace a missing tooth. Even if we can make bridges on living teeth, we always traumatize a tooth by covering it with a bridge and we risk causing the death of the tooth.
– An implant, again, titanium implants, which contain nickel, aluminum and therefore are not bio-compatible, should be avoided. What’s new is zirconium implants, which now have a promising future.
Whatever solution you are considering, you should be able to discuss it with your dental surgeon and find together the best solution for you. However, if you have a cavity that needs to be treated and you have no pain at night, be sure to let your dentist know that you do not want him or her to devitalize your tooth, even if the cavity is very deep and that he or she will do everything possible to keep your tooth alive. A technique called “pulp capping” may save your tooth.
In conclusion, the best option is to never find yourself in a situation where you are forced to have a tooth devitalized. Prevention is therefore the best solution and this is why NatureBio Dental exists.