I don't know how to avoid dentistry. I worked with thousands of dentists about 8
years or so ago. Here is a summary of what I have learned:

Teeth sometimes get an infection which is called an abscess. Prisoners and people
who are too poor to worry about such things as toothaches don't do anything about
these sometimes. Then eventually the body resorbs the abscess, essentially
breaking it down. The tooth is usually lost this way. But that is the "paleo" way,
letting nature take its course.

A root canal can remove the abscess and save the tooth. The tooth is dead, but it
can remain in the mouth and work very well for two purposes: chewing, and opposing
its opposite tooth on the opposing arch. If the tooth is gone, the tooth that
opposes it has problems, which is one reason why if teeth are lost or extracted
some replacement of some kind (removeable or permanent) should be done.

Root canals remove all the pulp (living matter including nerves and blood vessels)
as best the dentist can. Then they fill the canal in with gutta percha which I
believe is a natural substance from a certain tree sap. Sometimes the dentist puts
an antiseptic anti-bacterial substance in the canal, I don't know how healthy this
is. It is designed to help counter the potential for infection, of course, which
then negates the whole root canal effort.

But, alas, sometimes, the root canal fails. There is no way for the dentist to
know that she has gotten all the pulp out of the canal. It is hard work. If you've
had a tough one, you know that a tooth can have 4 or even more canals and that the
dentist uses physical force with little files to remove the material in each one.
Sometimes they probably miss material which can get infected. It can take 1 - 2
hours of hard work, unpleasent for all concerned.

There are probably other reasons a root canal can fail, but in any event, some do.
Then unfortunately, you've probably paid and had a crown made for that tooth and
between the crown and the root canal you might have spent $1500 or more, and all
for nothing because in the end the tooth is lost anyway. Then you need a fixed
bridge, which could cost another $1500. It's very expensive and imperfect.

That is what probably happened in your case, Debby. So the alternative is an
implant, where a titanium socket is implanted in the jaw, so that a crown can be
affixed to it, providing a great alternative to a removable denture (uggh).

Not long ago, most people who lived to their 50s or 60s would lose their teeth and
end up wearing dentures. Nobody knows why, but dental health improved by a quantum
leap and nowadays people can expect to keep most of their teeth throughout their
life.

My current dentist has been on Atkins for quite a while and noticed that he has a
lot more calculus than before. I have noticed that I still have a lot of calculus
that irritates the gums, perhaps no less than I used to have. I have been paleo
for about 3 years. So I continue going to the dentist and brushing with the
Sonicare toothbrush.

--Richard


Debby wrote:

> At 10:16 PM 10/31/2000 +0000, you wrote:
> >My observation also is that if you go in to get your mercury out, yes you
> >will get it out, but you will also end up with crowns/root canals, etc.
>
> In the early 90s I had a crown put on a failing tooth.  A few years later I
> had
> a root canal through that crown. Eventually (February, 2000, a month or so
> after I began moving into Paleo) the crown failed, couldn't be replaced
> because
> the tooth was so far gone, the canal-weakened tooth root was removed by an
> oral
> surgeon (April) who replaced it with some bone graft. Six months or so later
> (Oct 5) he put in an implant (basically a titanium-lined hole into which a
> post
> will be placed), and I expect my dentist to be working on a crown for it (put
> over the post) by the end of January 2001. What a long, strange (and nicely
> surprisingly almost painless) trip!
>
> So what I can say is that a root canal will leave you with weak roots that, if
> the crown fails, an oral surgeon is better able to remove than most dentists
> (and this will cost more). To help in placing the implant, though, my dentist
> took a full-mouth impression with some yechy-tasting gummy material that he
> told me not to worry about because it's made with some form of seaweed :) I
> also know he's very interested in health issues and is exploring taking
> herbs &
> vitamin for himself, and he drinks green tea, too :)
>
> Very recently I had a chip in a tooth. I could feel it with my tongue but not
> see it. My dentist cleaned it out, removing an old filling (old as possibly
> from the 70s), and he removed a chip that had felt to me like food caught
> under
> my gum. He repaired it all with a white material (he seems to prefer to use
> gold for uppers when it comes to crowns, but white [porcelin?] for lowers;
> possibly for cosmetic considerations). Anyhow, after repairing my slightly
> broken tooth, he said nothing at all about needing a crown--and he would have
> told me the bad news. So I'm a happy gal with some very strong feeling teeth
> now in that repaired area.
>
> Finally, I do feel that my converting to eating more paleo has actually helped
> my teeth and gums. It was much too late to prevent my eventually needing the
> implant, but I think it is helping in my rapid healing. (That and tons of
> vitamin C)
>
> Debby
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