Meridian Tooth Chart

If you’re familiar with Chinese Medicine or acupuncture, then you’ve heard about   meridians . . . the channels through which energy flows in the body. Each organ, gland and body structure has an associated meridian . . . including the teeth. All the body structures on an individual meridian can be affected when energy flow through that meridian is altered or blocked. Energy flow can be altered in a meridian when an organ on that meridian is diseased or infected.

What does all this mean to you? Well, if you have a bad tooth, the energy flow through the meridian belonging to that tooth will be altered. This in turn can affect the health of all the other organs on that meridian.

Mercury Toxicity

Why did we put up this image of the Mad Hatter (actually Johnny Depp in Alice in Wonderland)?

For perhaps centuries, it has been known that mercury exposure can lead to neurologic problems and sometimes death. In the 18th and 19th centuries, hatters would use mercury compounds in order to manufacture felt. For many, this would result in “madness”. Today, we live in a world where mercury is abundant, especially so because it is a byproduct of coal mining when so much of it becomes airborne. Besides ocean dumping of mercury, the filtering down of airborne mercury particulates has contaminated our seas, with the largest ocean creatures often carrying the largest load simply because they have consumed so many smaller creatures that have a bit of mercury and the total becomes cumulative.

Additionally, for large parts of the twentieth century, mercury in the form of mercurochrome has been used as a disinfectant for wounds. Thimerosal, a mercury containing compound has been used as a preservative for many bulk vaccinations. As our large fish consumption increases we store more mercury from these foods. With the great advances in dental procedures, people are keeping amalgam filled teeth (which are 50% mercury) in their mouths for decades. These amalgams offgas mercury vapor and except for a small cohort of perhaps 10% of the population which excrete the mercury, and this volatile mercury is inhaled and then absorbed and stored in fatty tissues (nerves are insulated with myelin- a fatty tissue). In the first half of the twentieth century, many dentists performed prophylactic odontomies on children- a procedure like sealants-by cutting into the groves of the tooth and filling these areas with amalgam. This will start the process of mercury accumulation. Unfortunately, mercury in our lives is in many of the things we come in contact with on a daily basis. The additional burden of mercury vapor exiting the “silver fillings” in our mouths, for some people may be contributory to a host of progressively debilitating chronic diseases. Certainly pregnant mothers with amalgam fillings need to be alerted to the fact that the vapor enters the bloodstream and will be deposited in the growing fetus- perhaps setting up neurological disorders later.

It is with the awareness of the hazards of this material, that we take the utmost precautions when removing the material from our patients, it is for our mutual protection and health.

The dramatic video titled Smoking Teeth = Poison Gas has had a tremendous impact on both the public and professional audiences. The full version plays 40 minutes with interviews of experts in the fields of mercury toxicology, environmental medicine, politics and dentistry.

Fluoride

For the last sixty years, fluoride use has been touted as one of the great public health victories in the United States. Public water fluoridation is promoted throughout the country as an important measure to combat tooth decay. If you look at the map below, you will note that we in New Jersey are fortunate in that only a small portion of the public water supply is fluoridated. This is an important fact. Ninety seven percent of Western Europe has chosen fluoride free water. Fluoride is the only chemical added to water for purposes of medication- prevention of tooth decay. This same chemical is the active ingredient in many pesticides and rodenticides. Excessive exposure to fluoride may cause skeletal fluorosis- a condition easily confused with arthritis or osteoarthritis. Ingestion of fluoride may lead to osteomalacia- a condition in which the bone is not well mineralized. There are many other potentially deleterious effects associated with the ingestion of this chemical.

Therefore, we oppose the addition of fluoride to our public water supply, wherever that might be. We do not prescribe fluoride supplementation for children or adults, nor do we use fluoride treatments as part of our routine preventive care. We recommend the use of non-fluoridated toothpastes just so as not to increase the body burden by additional ingestion. Finally, we actively reject those materials which are promoted by the dental industry as being extra special because of their slow release of fluoride into the mouth. Again, why does a human need the additional ingestion of this toxin?!!

One of California's highest paid and most prolific Fluoridation advocate admits that giving an infant a formula made with fluoridated tap water will overdose the baby and cause the teeth to come in spotted and fluorotic. One can only wonder why such insanity persists in our country when it has been banned in so many other more advanced democracies.

Root Canal Treatment

In the first part of the last century, Weston A. Price wrote and lectured extensively about the dangers of root canal treatment. Without getting deeply into the argument, it was his feeling that teeth that had root canal treatment remain sources of infection and should be extracted and that root canal treatment should not be performed. Dr. Price has passed on incredibly valuable information with regard to nutrition and his case against root canal treatment is not without merit.

As biological dentists, we feel that it is possible to perform root canal treatment and to thoroughly disinfect the root canal system so that it is not a continuing source of infection. We do this by using ozone oil in the course of cleaning and shaping the canals, washing the canals with ozonated water, and finally, most importantly, by delivering a large amount of ozone gas into the canals to kill the organisms that may still be residing within the dental tissues. After this, the canals are filled with biocompatible materials.

Often, when we find root canals infected, we will retreat with ozone and eliminate the infection.

Biocompatible Materials

In the dental profession, literally thousands of materials are available to be utilized on our patients. Although all these materials are FDA approved, this in no way means that they will be compatible with the various sensitivities of each and every patient.

To the hypersensitive patient, an adverse reaction to a dental material can be toxic and result in serious health problems. For this reason we utilize the Clifford Materials Reactivity Testing for all patients we suspect may have material sensitivities.

The Clifford Test is a laboratory screening process used to help identify existing sensitivity problems to various chemical groups and families of compounds in an individual patient. After a patients test panel (blood test) has been completed, the patient’s reactivity test results with over 10,200 trade name products are compiled in a report.

Utilizing the results of the Clifford Test allows us to recommend the most biocompatible materials for our sensitive patient. Click here for more information on Clifford Tests.

Ozone for Dentistry

What are the two primary nutrients of life? The answer is oxygen and water. Using these two elements to our advantage we can affect the over-all health and well being of our patients. Ozone, basically a form of super oxygen, is capable of being a safe, non-toxic agent when combating the infective states within the oral cavity.

First discovered in 1840, ozone was utilized in 1870 for medical applications by Dr. C. Lender to purify blood in test tubes.

After more than 130 years of use oxygen/ozone therapy is currently the standard of care in over 20 countries throughout the world.

Dentistry is in a continual battle with infection, in the soft tissue and/or hard tissue. Evidence based research has shown that .25 parts of ozone to 99.75 parts of oxygen, will effectively kill bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites.

It is for this reason that our offices have fully integrated ozone therapy into almost all procedures. In gum disease (periodontal disease) ozone has proven to be highly effective at killing the bacteria that live in the gum pockets around the teeth. Our biggest problem with root canal is disinfection. However, with the use of ozonated olive oil on our instruments and injection of ozone gas into the many infected tubules of the root system we can achieve a better disinfection of the root system.

Treating cavities is another area of dentistry that can benefit from ozone therapy. By flushing with ozonated water and applying O2/O3 gas, a removal of the bacteria responsible for the decay of the tooth can be accomplished prior to repair (filling).

Functional Orthopedics/Orthodontics

In keeping with our whole-body approach to dentistry, our offices will often treat a bad bite, crowded teeth and jaw problems using functional orthodontic appliances. The advantages of treating with functional appliances are many.

Because these appliances are not reliant on having permanent teeth, correction can begin as early as 6-7 years old with a cooperative child. Thus many of the problems can be corrected before they become severe. Most of the time early intervention with functional appliances can prevent the needless removal of permanent teeth, which can lead to adult TMJ problems.

With the judicious use of functional appliances, fixed braces or invisible braces (clear correct-invisalign like) therapy can be much simpler and in some case can be eliminated entirely. (Link to clear correct)