Root Cause: The Truth About Toxicity and Root Canals

Hi, everybody. I'm Dr. Sandhya Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body. As we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy, so take care of it in the most natural way. This is part two of the top three procedures that can make you toxic in a dental office. We talked last week about dental cleanings, how that can make you toxic. But today I want to talk to you about root canals. There's been so much press in the last few years, especially with Root Cause, the documentary coming out. I remember we got a lot of calls after that documentary, which was released a few years ago, with people wanting to get their root canals evaluated and potentially removed. So what exactly is a root canal? Some of you, especially that have never had to have one done. You don't even know what it is. So what it is is a procedure that is performed to save a tooth inside the mouth. So when you go to the dentist and you have a huge cavity, the tooth is infected and you're swollen, potentially, or maybe you fell down and you, for example, had trauma on your front teeth. The dentist might tell you, you know what? I think your nerve is dying. We need to perform a root canal procedure. So it's a common procedure for a cracked tooth, a deep cavity that often causes pain. Unfortunately, a few years ago, as far as 10 and 20 years ago, Root canals were done preventatively. That's correct. So if a dentist was getting too close to the nerve, they would say, you know what? This close to the nerve, you probably will have pain. Let's do a root canal and take the nerve out. And really, that's what a root canal is. Like any invasive procedure, a root canal is done with anesthesia. So a dentist will have to numb you for this. And after a nerve is removed, and this is done basically via a stainless steel file, they take a stainless steel file that's very, very skinny, and it fits inside, down the root. And the length of the root could vary from a tooth. It varies from like 8 millimeters if you have really short teeth, to maybe 25 millimeters for somebody who's taller. Typically, people tend to have just longer roots. And the tooth in inside has a little channel into which the nerves comes from the jawbone through the root of the tooth into the main part of the tooth. This nerve is removed. It is flushed out with a solution that contains chlorine. To disinfect it. But the problem is there's a lot of side channels inside a tooth that if you actually put them side by side in a healthy adult molar, it could be up to two miles long, this intricate channel pattern. So it is humanly impossible for anyone to clean up these channels to where they've removed all the bacteria. Some root canal specialists actually work through a microscope. General dentists typically don't use a microscope when they do root canals, so they don't see as well. It's like cleaning your closet with your eyes closed. If you've ever tried that, you know you're gonna miss a lot of things. The same thing is happening inside a tooth. They're gonna clean to the best of their ability to. But if some of this nerve tissue is left behind, if it's left behind, it's going to start to putrefy and this bacteria is going to gas off a lot of toxins. Some people will actually notice a smell. Like myself, for example. I remember when I was 14 years old, living in Romania, I went to the dentist and I had a huge cavity, which was actually very painful for me. Because in Romania, people go to the dentist when they have pain. That was the mentality we. Nobody really focused on prevention when I was growing up in communist Romania. And what was sad is that we also lack a lot of the modern day dental materials. Oftentimes I would go to the dentist and we didn't even have local numbing. So I went to the dentist there. He actually did exactly that. Took a stainless steel file, cleaned out the nerve. I remember the procedure being pretty painful, even though he did numb the area, because when a nerve is inflamed, it's hard to get it now due to the acidity that's created in the site. So basically, after taking out the nerve, he actually plugged it. And at the time, it was just some kind of cement. But in a typical dental office, they use something called gutta purga. Gutta perja is this material that actually comes from a tree. It resembles a cork kind of substance. And this cork substance is actually shaped into a conical, orange looking material that's a little bit spongy. And that gets placed with cement by the dentist after they clean out your nerve and it gets secured down inside this canal. On top of that, then we fill up the tooth with different materials. And of course, we always recommend the crown to make sure that the tooth doesn't crack. Why? Because the moment we perform a root canal, that tooth is dead. It has no more nerve, but it also doesn't have blood supply for it to nourish itself and to mineralize itself. Because teeth are organs and they can, like any other organ, repair themselves when need to. So, for example, what do I mean by repair itself? Obviously, if you crack your tooth and a whole piece comes off, the tooth cannot regrow that part. However, if you have a micro crack, the tooth in time can heal that micro crack. If you have a small incipient cavity, the tooth can repair that cavity if you create the right environment. However, once you get a root canal, that tooth can no longer repair itself and actually becomes more and more brittle with time. I was 14 years old when I got that root canal on my lower left molar. And slowly, with time, it started accumulating a smell. So anytime I would floss my tooth, I could get this scent that, you know, like almost like something was starting to rot in there. And I finally decided, you know, I really don't want this tooth in my mouth. It smells bad, it can't possibly be good for me. So finally, in my 30s, so really like, you know, almost 20 years later, I decided to have this tooth removed. And one interesting part that happened is that my digestion improved after that, and also the heart palpitations that I was experiencing actually went away. I remember when my digestive problem started was basically shortly after I got this root canal tooth. And we have a notion of meridians in biological dentistry and we know that every tooth is related to a certain organ. This particular molar on my lower left side, and it's considered a six year molar, was actually on the meridian of digestion. So I always had a sluggish digestion. You know, everything caused bloating. My stomach was very sensitive as a kid. I used to throw up a lot. Once I had this root canal removed and I went through a process of detoxification, my digestion improved. I was able to tolerate more and more foods. I couldn't get the bloating that I usually had. And I was no longer constipated because I had a stagnation in my process of digestion. Also, I remember that maybe five years before I had the tooth removed, once I started to get that smell, I started experiencing heart palpitations. And I went to the cardiologist and I said, your heart is fine, there's no problem. I cut out the caffeine. I'm like, well, I only drink one cup of coffee. I don't think it's the caffeine. Sure enough, after I had this tooth removed, My heart palpitations actually went away. So I highly encourage all of you, based on my own experience, and not just that, based on the research that I want to tell you about, is that essentially root canal teeth can be toxic. And it's not the actual procedure. It's the bacteria that's accumulating inside that root, or maybe bacteria that is left behind inside the root. Even, for example, if you're talking about an upper molar, upper molars are oftentimes connected with sinuses. As a periodontist, actually take out a lot of infected upper molars and a lot of infected root canal teeth, all for all intensive purposes, because a lot of them get infected. When the upper molars in contact with the sinus get infected, all the bacteria actually goes into the sinus. And I've had several patients that really didn't have pain. All they complained about, you know what? My right sinus is always runny. I don't know why, but I'm getting a bad taste in the back of my throat that my right sinus seems to be more clogged than my left. If you actually have a root canal tooth on that side, it is very likely that this root canal tooth is leaking bacteria into the sinus, causing problems. So you might say, you know what? My root canal teeth are fine. They're not causing any pain at all. It doesn't mean they're not infested with bacteria. You might have that manifestation in a different way. So you might have been alarmed and hesitant to undergo a root canal. If you've read some articles that it says that root canal can cause cancer, among other health issues. There was actually a study done of a few hundred women that had breast cancer to show that they actually had root canal teeth in the premolar areas, which is connected to the breast meridian. So definitely, we see a correlation. The root canals cause cancer. We can't really, you know, say that. But what I can tell you is if you have bacteria inside your body, it will cause chronic inflammation for sure. And chronic inflammation can lead to a whole row of other problems. In the 1920s, Winston Price actually did research to show that chronic diseases are caused by local infections. He believed that decayed or infected teeth, which underwent a root canal procedure harbored harmful toxins, and it provided a breeding ground for various health conditions. The affected tooth has bacterial overgrowth and infection, and the oral bacteria that cause these infections has been linked to several systemic health issues, such as heart attacks, diabetes, coronary artery disease, and a whole lot of other issues. A recent study at The University of Helsinki showed that patients in need of a root canal that were untreated were up to three times more likely to have acute coronary syndrome, meaning heart disease. Oh. So this bacteria that circulates inside the root canal tooth has also been found in clogged arteries. I had a patient just the other day with root canal treated teeth in her mouth who had a 99% blockage in her artery. This was her second stent and she's only in her 50s. And really I recommended to her that we eliminate all the bacteria from the mouth, including from the root canal tooth itself. You might have heard of a book called the Toxic tooth How a root canal could be making you sick. This book was actually written by a dentist, Dr. Robert Goulash, and a cardiologist. Dr. Levy and I had the pleasure to meet Dr. Levy, and he talks very passionately about how root canal teeth can affect your heart. And we have research today to show that this is the case. If you're causing discomfort because of an infected tooth, you might consider a root canal. However, I believe that all of us need to be informed what is a root canal tooth and what are the implications in receiving a root canal tooth. And I think it's everybody's choice what you want to do with your body as long as you understand the possible consequences. So current solutions and techniques that we have for root canal therapy actually fail to completely remove all irritants, dissolve all organic tissue, or remove smear layer. And all the endodontists or root canal specialists know this. Also in their journal. There was also a study published to show that root canal treated teeth have 50 times more bacteria inside of them than a healthy tooth. That's 50 times more bacteria. And unfortunately, it doesn't just stay within a tooth, it spills out in the bone. And that becomes a problem because the bone has blood vessels. That bacteria gets picked up by the blood vessels and, and transferred throughout the body. Unfortunately, as I often say, our immune system is not perfect. That's why this bacteria is not oftenly detected by our immune system. And it can lodge itself in different parts, but especially in the arterial walls. Bacteria that's trapped inside the teeth can infect any organ, any gland or tissue, and can damage the heart, kidneys, g, joints, eyes, brain, and even endanger a pregnant woman. Dr. Weston Price was not the only one that studied this, but he did a long study from the 1900s to 1925 as well as there was dental research for 75 years. And George Meinig wrote a book called the Root Canal cover up in 1994, and you might be very interested in reading this book. Current research suggests that 50% of heart attacks may be triggered by an infected mouth. And increasingly, heart surgeons order an oral examination before operating. The bacteria commonly found in oral infections are found in high concentrations of coronary artery plaque and blood clots that cause artery blockages. A study published in the Journal of American Dental association indicated that individuals or root canal treated teeth were significantly more likely to have heart disease than those with no history of root canals. Dr. Boyd Haley at the University of Kentucky studied around 5,000 root canal treated teeth and he found that a hundred percent of them were infected. Wow. So out of 5,000, which is quite a large sample, a hundred percent of them had bacteria inside. There was not one that didn't. And, and what's the problem with these infections? These infections produce oxidative stress, so this oxidative stress will be a burden on your body. We produce oxidative stress regardless, but we want to keep this one at a minimum. Anytime there's a chronic infection or chronic inflammation, the oxidative stress goes up. So now we are required to have more antioxidants in our diet in order to keep up with this oxidative stress. And I talk to a lot of health practitioners that come to see me to evaluate their mouth, and they say, you know, I don't know, I'm feeling sick. You know, I eat all organic, I eat, you know, healthy. You know, why is it still like this? How come I still have this infection? And it's nothing to do with diet. Also, diet is a very, very important part of healing, really. Having these root canal treated teeth that release bacteria in your body pretty much on a daily basis, because they are a breeding ground, can be very toxic to your health. What's interesting is like tonsillitis, right? The tonsils are basically in the back of your throat and are part of your lymphatic system. After I got my root canal when I was 14 years old, I developed chronic tonsillitis. My tonsils were chronically inflamed pretty much all the time. And I remember flaring up, so I often would have to take antibiotics for my infection. And of course, that created a whole bunch of other problems through the overuse of antibiotics. Finally, in my 20s, I decided to have my tonsils removed. And I remember I was a resident at ucla and it was one of the most painful procedures. And it was painful probably for two weeks because I have this huge holes in the back of my throat and I couldn't even eat regular food for a while. So the tonsils are basically the gatekeepers. If you have an infected root canal, it's very possible that your tonsils will actually flare up constantly. And oftentimes tonsillitis is related to infected root canals. So if you have tonsillitis on a regular basis, I highly encourage you to check for infected root canal teeth and also cavitations. What is the solution for all this? Number one, the best way to see and evaluate the health of your root canal treated teeth is via a 3D CT scan. And nowadays we have digital CT scan technology that a doctor can evaluate and look all the way around the tooth and discover whether or not there is some hollowness, some untreated canals, or even bone that has been affected due to the bacteria spilling out into the site. We can also evaluate your sinuses to make sure that a root canal tooth is not infected, infecting the sinus. Another thing you can do is look at the color of your tooth. Look in the mirror, do you see a tooth that's starting to turn dark? Or maybe you know, you have a root canal tooth in your mouth? Is it turning dark at the gum line? If your tooth is turning dark at the gum line, that means bacteria is already getting inside that tooth. Another thing you can do is discuss with your doctor alternative options to a root canal. So if you go to the dentist and they say, you know what, we need to do a root canal on this tooth, especially if you have no pain, ask them, is this really necessary? What else can we do to keep the nerve alive? Well, there's several things we can do. Let's say the cavity's close to the nerve, but not into the nerve. One of the things that we do, we actually put a calcium hydroxide lining over the area where the cavity is really close to the nerve. Also, our preference in a biological dental office is to also use ozone. Why? We use ozone because as a gas, it really penetrates inside the little tubules. It can sterilize the site, and then we can protect the pulp by putting calcium hydroxide, which allows the tooth to rebuild a layer of tooth structure over the nerve. So usually this process take takes a few months. But what is interesting is that the tooth can actually heal itself and the nerve retracts slowly from the area of insult, which is the cavity, by building up tooth structure. Homeopathics is another thing that, you know, let's say you have some sensitivity. You just had a filling done, and now your tooth is sensitive to hot or cold. So what this mean is that your nerve is reacting. Try homeopathics. There's a couple of great homeopathics that I recommend for inflammation. One of the companies called Guna, Gunaflam. You can also try some arnica as a result of trauma. This could help you. Or also hypericum. Hypericum is a great nerve homeopathic that could help calm down your nerve. Another thing that you could use if you have some nerve inflammation in your tooth before jumping to a root canal would be low level laser therapy. So low level laser therapy actually is being used in our office for anybody who has like tooth sensitivity. And basically we're running at the apical portion of the tooth for about one to two minutes. And low level laser is essentially energy because we are all energy and energetics in medicine have been significantly and extensively studies to show that it works especially for pain and inflammation. If the root structure is not there and let's say the dentist say, oh yeah, now we need to do a root canal. You have no more root left and we need to put a post on your tooth. Forget it. My recommendation is don't do this. You're going to be wasting your money because a post will essentially crack your tooth later as studies have shown and you're going to end up losing that tooth anyway. So when you get to that point, just have the tooth removed and go with a healthier and more long lasting option and in this case would be a ceramic implant. And of course you can talk to your dentist about different options, maybe a bridge which you know, has some, of course downsides and upsides versus a, an implant. If you have any questions about how root canals can make you toxic or if you enjoyed this show, make sure you tell your friends because I'll be bringing you more information and holistic dentistry and what you can do to protect your health. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you like today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram doctorsanda. This is Dr. Sandha. And remember, your mouth is, is the gateway to your health. So take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.