Possible root canal needed... Advice, please!

[circular]

Found some Huggins material online. Thanks for mentioning him. I now better understand the thinking behind biological dentistry. I’m open but also think some of the claims may be a bit exaggerated. (One could walk away with the impression that dentistry is causing every major disease.) At least he’s such a story teller by nature (I don’t mean lier, just story teller) that I haven’t heard enough of the science. In one talk he used bar graphs to show that diseases have increased along with the growing use of amalgam fillings and root canals, as if the bar graphs proved a causal connection. But there have been soooo many other changes in our culture during the same time, not to mention population increases and other variables that could account for, or contribute to, increases in disease. So while I’m still learning, and think it’s likely that untreated dental infections at least promote systemic inflammation, I’d like some of his points to be explicated more scientifically than in his online material ... even though I often struggle to properly assess even peer reviewed research!

I’ll keep at this. My biological dentist recommended I read The Toxic Tooth but I haven’t yet.

[KatieS]

Cir, I feel for your dental dilemma, since I've been down that road too many times. Several friends suffered a perforation from an upper molar extraction, almost unavoidable given the proximity of the molar root to the sinus. One had plug inserted into the perforation and seem to experience more acute pain the first week, then fully resolved. The other had a perforation without the plug and developed chronic low-level discomfort for a few months until resolution. Both had post-extraction antibiotics.

I don't think you want to leave a dead tooth or chronic jaw infection, so maybe take your films to a second opinion, particularly in reference to the efficacy and risks of the ozone injections.

[circular]

Thanks Katie. (I'm still slogging through what's now a years-long sleep apnea evaluation. Supposed to get a second sleep study with the new sleep doc but it's being delayed because of some things I have to get through first. Will give you an update when there's something concrete.)

[KatieS]

Of course, I tend to see things thru this sleep apnea lens, but I am convinced that many of my dental problems resulted from sleep apnea. First, if you snore, your mouth is open, drying saliva which protects from caries. Secondly, the bruxism (grinding your teeth) occurs when your oxygen levels drop, leading to chipped or worn teeth, even jaw complaints.

[CoachDD]

Perforation was not fun. . . but it did eventually heal on its own. One of the main reasons I haven't moved ahead with the implant (aside from my concern of having a foreign object implanted based on my MTHFR status) is because they will also need to do a sinus lift - I won't bore everyone with the gory details, but that sure won't be pretty or fun either!

I'm going to check on the ozone therapy myself - I do know my biological dentist offers it, yet he didn't suggest that for me!??

[circular]

Yesterday I found this paper from last year but can't really digest it now:

Effects of Diode Laser, Gaseous Ozone, and Medical Dressings on Enterococcus faecalis Biofilms in the Root Canal Ex Vivo

Bacterial reduction was significantly affected by the irrigation protocol (p < 0.0005) and the disinfection method (p < 0.0005), and a significant interaction between both factors could be observed (p < 0.0005; ANOVA). In G3 (instrumentation using 1% NaOCl), no significant effect of disinfection methods could be demonstrated on planktonic bacteria (p = 0.062; ANOVA) and frequencies of adherent bacteria (p > 0.05; chi-square test). Instrumentation and irrigation using NaOCl combined with ozone or laser application resulted in comparable bacterial reduction on E. faecalis to the application of medical dressings.

One thing I keep wondering ... If extraction works best because you remove all the microtubules and ancillary canals etc, what is getting all the microorganisms out of the bone adjacent to the tooth? I'm guessing that gets ozoned or lasered, or maybe that's where the prolozone injections come in.

[circular]

Argh! I just talked to my biological dentist's assistant. She was so patient and very honest. She said that the reason a root canal retreat can't be expected to work as well as an extraction is that the procedure doesn't necessarily kill everything in the tooth. But, neither do the Prolozone injections, and an extraction could still leave the organisms in the bone! She explained it's like watering a garden, the water will only go so far, so even if they retreat the root canal and use ozone gas to get into the microtubules and ancillary canals, it still may not kill everything there. Likewise, the Prolozone injections may not get everything. When they use ozone, it's the 3rd oxygen molecule that's unstable and nullifies the organisms, but there are only so many of those donor oxygen molecules provided in the treatments. There may not be enough to tackle every invader. Extraction just allows them to get more out physically with the tooth and the local area will be treated. Followed by the Prolozone then you bring more ozone in. The Prolozone can also address the wisdom tooth cavitation sites. However (!), I told her I was concerned about the injections because people like me with hypermobility who do prolotherapy for ligament strengthening have mixed reviews. For some it backfires. For that reason I've always avoided prolotherapy as a solution to my joint issues. I told her I have no TMJ joint issues and I don't want them. She said some people who get Prolozone do end up with TMJ issues! So then we discussed her doing oral surgery to clean out and ozone the three wisdom teeth cavitations directly, but that would cost about $2800 each. This is all so far from being cut and dry. Meanwhile yesterday I started having a bit of pressure pain I think on the tooth with the old root canal that was just found to have an infection Oh, she also said most people don't get sinus perforations, and that if it looked on the CT scan like that might happen she would have referred me out.

[CoachDD]

Thanks for the update Circular! Good info. . . and by the way, my extraction was done by an Oral Surgeon (who is highly reputable) - not the general (biological) dentist. I had it over a holiday week and suffered miserably though!!

[circular]

Chemokine RANTES/CCL5 as an unknown link between wound healing in the jawbone and systemic disease: is prediction and tailored treatments in the horizon?

[circular]

Hyperactivated Signaling Pathways of Chemokine RANTES/CCL5 in Osteopathies of Jawbone in Breast Cancer Patients—Case Report and Research