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The physicians who understand the harmful role teeth can play in their patient's lives will, I trust, keep in mind that none of this information in any way condones the wholesale condemnation of all teeth. Early in my practice I was horrified to find a number of patients whose physicians took the focal infection theory too literally and advised them to have all their teeth out, teeth that were in no way involved in their arthritic condition.
Because dentists construct dentures which look and act so much like natural teeth, people have come to believe that they are just as good as their own. While dentures are among the best of all body replacement parts, they are never good at masticating food as natural teeth in good repair. Most patients with full dentures are enthused about them and insist they can eat everything.
Then, too, bad this very revealing research of Dr. Price's not been buried, there is a good chance by now we would have solved the problems of how to sterilize bacteria trapped in dentin tubules.
It is extremely disturbing to think about all the degenerative diseases which exist and are bankrupting our people and our country. Worst of all is the fact so many people are dying of afflictions which could be alleviated.
In this chapter about degenerative diseases, I have included some of the more common ones Dr. Price presented in his two books, and pictures illustrating these conditions.
The degenerative diseases mentioned in this chapter with accompanying pictures were:
These exmaples should give you some idea of the thousands of different degenerative disease cases which were extensively studies. Because Dr. Price's investigations indicate those who have root canal fillings and/or periodontal gum disease have a higher incidence of degenerative diseases than do those free of such conditions, it behooves us to adopt sound preventive measures in our day to day lives.
In another experiment, a root filled tooth was taken from a patient suffering acute endocarditis. The tooth was crushed and the particles washed.
The settled wash liquid was then injected into a rabbit. The weight of the organisms injected was determined by counting the number present in the dilution; the actual amount the rabbit received was only a millionth part of a gram. Still, the rabbit became seriously ill with endocarditis. With such a small amount of bacteria involved, the question arose as to whether something more than the bacteria could be the causative agent.
To answer this question, the same crushing and washing of extracted root-filled teeth was undertaken, but the liquid was centrifuged, thereby removing the bacteria. Now the one cubic centimeter remaining of bacteria free water-like appearing liquid was injected into rabbits and they too developed heart lesions, even more severely than did rabbits injected with bacteria cultures alone.
In view of the fact it was believed the only injurious substance in infected teeth were bacteria, Price concluded that: "Infected teeth may contain, in additon to microorganisms, toxic substances which produce very profound effects upon experimental animals and which tend to prepare the tissues of the host, at least in some cases, for a more ready invasion by the organisms growing in that tooth." He found that by extracting infected teeth, crushing them, and then washing the powder, bacteria could still be found in the liquid. When he put the liquid in a centrifuge, the centrifugal force spun off the bacteria and sediment, leaving a clear liquid. When Dr. Price injected a small amount of this clear liquid into a rabbit, it lost 25 percent of its weight in four weeks and it died in the fifth week. Its brother rabbit, used as the control animal and not injected, continued to thrive and gain weight.