FREE Subscription
The World’s Most Popular Natural Health Newsletter   
 
 
POSTED BY
February 05 2008
60,783 Views

BROWSE BY CATEGORY

Is Your Dentist Drilling for Dollars?

dentist, dentistry, biological dentistry, fillings, mercury, amalgam, crownsMillions of dollars worth of unnecessary dental treatments are being performed each year.

One dentist told a patient she had a fractured jaw, although it was not fractured at all. The dentist performed surgery anyway, and inserted hundreds of tiny beads instead of a bone graft. The beads became infected and required multiple surgeries for removal. The same dentists has reportedly performed unnecessary root canals and other unneeded dental work.

In addition to unnecessary procedures, there have been cases of “phantom billing” by dentists, in which dentists simply bill insurers for services they never performed.

James Quiggle, of the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, says there has been a disturbing spike in dental fraud by crooked dentists. An ABC News investigation uncovered dental fraud cases across the country, causing harm to patients and bilking insurance companies out of millions of dollars.



Dr. MercolaDr. Mercola's Comments:

This is an unfortunate occurrence indeed, not only because it’s costing you lots of money, but also because your dental health is such an important part of your overall health.

Unnecessary drilling and filling your teeth with toxic materials can have far-reaching, long-term health ramifications.

The brilliant, but largely ignored work of Dr. Westin Price DDS -- published in 1923 after 25 years of research -- shows undisputable links between root canals and chronic degenerative diseases, such as:

  • Heart and circulatory disease
  • Cancer
  • Arthritis and rheumatism
  • Diseases of your brain and nervous system

The Medical Impact of Conventional Dentistry

There are many ways your health can be negatively impacted through conventional dentistry. For example:

Fluoride Can Actually CAUSE Cavities -- Studies have shown that consuming too much fluoride might actually cause tooth decay, rather than prevent it. 

One such study, published in the September 2001 issue of International Journal of Pediatric Dentistry, found that South African children who drank water containing high levels of natural fluoride, had more tooth decay than children in other parts of South Africa who drank much lower concentrations. 

By comparison, fluoride-saturated American teenagers had twice the rate of cavities as the South African children drinking low levels of natural fluoride! 

According to the dental textbook, Dentistry, Dental Practice and the Community, by Brian Burt, DBS and Steven Eklund, DDS, fluoride concentrations form a J-shaped curve, where cavities are reduced up to a point, and then begins to rise again as you’re exposed to higher and higher levels of fluoride.

Mercury Toxicity From Amalgam Fillings -- Commonly known as silver fillings or just amalgam fillings, these fillings should really be called mercury fillings, since mercury has been and remains a full 50 percent of the content of these fillings.

Conventional dentistry long asserted that the amalgamation process rendered the mercury non-toxic by the chemical reaction that was supposed to be taking place. However, as you can see for yourself in this shocking video, that is simply not the case.

A single dental amalgam filling releases as much as 15 micrograms of mercury per day. The average individual has eight amalgam fillings and could absorb up to 120 micrograms of mercury per day. In contrast, eating mercury-tainted seafood will expose you to about 2.3 micrograms per day -- and that is enough for scientists to call for a world-wide warning.

Mercury vapor from your amalgams passes readily through cell membranes, across your blood brain barrier, and into your central nervous system, where it causes psychological, neurological, and immunological problems. Mercury can persist in your body for years unless it is actively removed.

Root Canals are the Root of Many Evils -- Root canal-treated teeth are almost always infected – even when not presenting visible clues -- and the toxins isolated from them are often incredibly potent. Some researchers claim there is a strong relation between the presence of root canals and the development of cancer and heart disease. It appears that the longer root canal-treated teeth stay in your body, the more your immune system becomes compromised.

Cavitations are Hidden Sources of Infections -- Pockets of gangrene in the jawbone are often found at the sites of previous extractions by conventional dentists. These toxins are essentially the same as those found in root canals, being the product of aerobic mouth bacteria being forced to live in an anaerobic environment.

Implants can Exacerbate Autoimmune Diseases -- Currently, implants continue to be done without biocompatibility testing, and they are often started at extraction sites where cavitations are already developing. Autoimmune diseases seem to be often aggravated or even initiated by implants.

Periodontal Disease can Lead to Heart Disease -- Not enough emphasis is put on how severely your gum infection will impact your long-term health if you have periodontal disease. Heart- and lung disease is clearly the result of such disease in many.

What My Own Dental Struggles Have Taught Me

If you eat properly and maintain optimal health, cavities should simply not happen. They only occur when you're eating the wrong foods, and growing up, I clearly did not eat the right foods. As a result, I had a mouth full of metal fillings.

Eventually, I had all the metal fillings removed, replacing them with gold fillings. Unfortunately, gold fillings and crowns cause problems too, I found out. So after I’d already made an investment of several thousand dollars, I later decided to replace them all again. This time with non-metal crowns, for the most part.

My own struggles with my teeth led me to learn about and embrace biological dentistry.

Biological dentistry, also known as holistic or environmental dentistry, views your mouth as an integrated part of your entire body, and that the medical treatments performed on your mouth and teeth can have a huge impact on your health. The primary aim of this type of holistic dentistry is to resolve your dental problems while impacting the rest of your body as little as possible.

How to PREVENT Cavities and Other Dental Problems

The only scientific way to prevent tooth decay is through diet and nutrition.

In one landmark study, Dr. Ralph Steinman at Loma Linda University injected a glucose solution into the bodies of mice, so the glucose didn't even touch their teeth.

What happened?

The glucose reversed the normal flow of fluid in the dentin, resulting in all of the test animals developing severe tooth decay!

So yes, dental cavities reflect systemic illness, and its cure is in your diet.

Dr. Price studied the diets of natives and its impact on their teeth very carefully. He found that what they ate varied greatly from region to region, but the one thing they had in common was that they ate whole, unrefined foods, and NO sugar or white flour.

Remarkably, with absolutely no access to tooth brushes, floss, fluoridated water or tooth paste, the primitive people he studied were almost 100 percent free of tooth decay. Further - and not unrelated - they were also almost 100 percent free of all the degenerative diseases we suffer from, such as problems with the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, joints and skin (allergies).

No one food proved to be magic as a preventive food. However, you can thrive best and maintain optimal health by eating a wide variety of whole foods, customized for your nutritional type.

Additionally, if you still have mercury in your teeth, I highly recommend reviewing my Mercury Detoxification Protocol, which details the things you can do, right now, to help detoxify your body to improve your health.


Related Articles:

Did you find this article interesting?  Interesting Not Useful
Community Comments ( 81 )
Comment on this Article
  
  
proatc
[ Joined on 12/06 ] [ Posted on January 23, 2008 ]
20 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
It is an easy sell for Dentists.  You think the majority of people have no clue about their general health, they know far less about their teeth and Denistry.  Scare tatics like insurance salesmen.  "You don't want cavities, or your tooth pulled, or have dentures now do you?"

A dentist wanted to give me fluoride treatments and also a sealer because I have natural deep pits in my molars, "you might get cavities."  Then he comes back and says my insurance won't cover the sealer so he wanted to put preventative fillings in my teeth! I stated to him that he just wanted to make extra money off my insurance for the fluoride treatment and especially the sealer (that is usually marketed towards kids) and now the fillings???  How could I have survived over 35 years without a single cavity with deep pits???  Never went back to him and sent the office a Weston Price Book for Christmas!
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
PepperR23
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on January 24, 2008]
7 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
When I first started visiting my dentist some years ago, I was found to have no cavities.  My dentist informed me that I had deep grooves in my teeth that he felt he had better fill as a preventive measure.  Two years later I had a mouth full of fillings, even though a cavity was never discovered.  Looking back on the incident I realize I was completely sheep-like in my obediance to my dentists advice.  I am so different now.  I only wish I had access to Dr. Mercola's website back then!
Mercola
  
Mike
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on January 25, 2008]
10 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola
Weston A. Price, we all need to read his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Mercola
  
AZhiker
[ Joined on 01/07 ]  [ Posted on February 7, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

PepperR23 - You are not the only one. I had four fillings when I was a kid because I had deep pits in my molars. I've never had a cavity, but one of the metal filings came out when I was pregnant with my second son. I am so sad for the mercury he probably was dosed with. It really hurt so I went to the dentist to get a new filling. The treatment I received at the dentist was horrible when I refused x-rays, fluoride treatment and painkiller because I was pregnant. The hygenists were making fun of me and snickering right behind my chair and one of them came in to say it was rediculous to be worried since she herself had several fillings while pregnant and her kids are fine. I never went back and I am a bit annoyed that my husband still goes to someone that would be so careless with his child and mean to his wife. I personally don't go to the dentist and I don't take the kids anymore since they started trying to push plastic sealers for 3 year olds!!!

We use Tooth Soap, no glycerin. You can find them on You Tube.

  
  
Jeanne_Locante
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on February 7, 2008 ]
14 Points        
   
 
Novice User

My husband is a dentist and I work in the office.  He has read Dr. Price's book and we are avid Mercola fans.  Unfortunately, most people think "a dentist is a dentist" and nothing is further from the truth.  Just like everything else we do, we should do a little research and make sure the dentist we choose is reputable and agrees with our own philosophy for health.  The other side of the story is that MOST patients do not want to change their diet one bit.  They want to continue drinking gallons of soda, eating sugar and other processed foods and are surprised when they have dental problems.  My husband tries to educate and get people to change their diets, but most are not interested.  In addition, patients today are so "insurance oriented" that they let their insurance companies dictate their treatment.  Believe me--your insurance company does NOT have your best interest in mind.  They simply want to pay the least amount possible.  Many will still only pay for amalgam (mercury) fillings.  When we refuse to do that, some patients get upset and "only want what my insurance will pay for."  So, while I agree that there are some dentists who are not providing good care, there are patients who don't care about their own health enough to change their diet.  In addition, we have the established ADA and dental school still preaching the safety of Amalgam fillings and fluoride to dentists.  If you are a dentist that disagrees, you will find yourself being "investigated" and criticized to shut you up.  

 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
mama bear
[ Joined on 06/06 ]  [ Posted on February 7, 2008]
1 Points        
   
Apprentice User
  Mercola

Jeanne

I agree.  If we were even close to your state, I would love to become a patient at your practice.  I am dealing now with an orthodontist that wanted to use a flouride application for my daughter's braces.  He doesn't understand why I don't want it used.  How can I be sure that I am not getting the flouride stuff?

Mercola
  
AmyAkira
[ Joined on 02/08 ]  [ Posted on February 7, 2008]
3 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola

I had the non-metal filling in one tooth years ago.  I started having a different kind of problem, that turned out to be minor.  I went to a low-income clinic and I specifically stated that I didn't want them to use amalgam if they were working on this tooth and supposedly correcting a bite problem.  I was so mad when I looked inside of my mouth after the procedure was finished that I refuse to go back to that clinic ever again.  Low-income or not, my rights in this case were violated as if I wasn't a person with a sensible mind of my own.  I have since then had the work done to remove this amalgam from a dental school student who did an excellent job who did this painstaking effort to not even end up removing more natural tooth.  He replaced it once again with the non-metal filling.  I could have been spared so much exposure to this mercury if I had been respected as a real person and not just someone who makes it possible for the low-income clinic's dentist to get a higher paycheck.  I had amalgam fillings in my baby teeth, too.  As an adult, low-income or not, I have the intelligence and desire and made the necessary changes you were talking about.  I am still really mad at that unethical dentist, who went ahead and did what she wanted to do to my body after I specifically told her I did not want her to use the amalgam.  The critics who are still promoting amalgam should get their own teeth filled with amalgam against their will and see how many health problems they end up getting.  It seems like drastic things like this are the only things that some people will learn to recognize well enough to actually listen when someone says something that is "different" from their mainstream point of view.  I will never set foot in that dental clinic ever again!

  
  
pnorris
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on January 24, 2008 ]
9 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User
Boy, this article really infuriates me.....back in the early sixties there was a dental fad (scam) called 'prophylactic fillings' where the dentist drilled out the crowns of perfectly good teeth and filled them as a "preventative" measure against cavities......this was done to me as a child and my parents paid.....what a joke!......seems that along with the fluoride scam that dentists are promoting, they are still scamming with unnecessary procedures.....I guess that's how they take off and play golf all the time....
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
Phantom O' Banjo
[ Joined on 09/06 ]  [ Posted on January 24, 2008]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
You got that right!
Mercola
  
EQ
[ Joined on 03/07 ]  [ Posted on January 24, 2008]
2 Points        
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
This kind of thing happened with orthodontics as well.  I discovered a few years ago that I had teeth unnecessarily removed because of a theory that created more space in the jaw.  They no longer do this in situations like mine.  Bummer.

I just have to take really good care of the teeth I have left.  Luckily I have good enamel and no cavities.  I will do all I know to keep it that way.
Mercola
  
ebatycki
[ Joined on 12/06 ]  [ Posted on January 27, 2008]
       
   
Savvy User
  Mercola
*GASP* I had this done 10 years ago! I thought that was a really stupid idea.
  
  
Phantom O' Banjo
[ Joined on 09/06 ] [ Posted on January 23, 2008 ]
8 Points        
   
 
Savvy User
I hate dentist!
 [ Reply ]
Mercola
  
feel_good_today
[ Joined on 01/08 ]  [ Posted on January 27, 2008]
5 Points        
   
Novice User
  Mercola
I would rather go into labor & deliver than to go to a dentist

I had a tooth break off (yr+ ago)-went to dentist-he rebuilt the tooth, made it to wide which in turn pushed my front tooth crooked-which made the next one to that crooked.  Now he thinks it would be wise to put in a partial-acting like he had nothing to do with this mess in the first place

OMG you jerk!!! my teeth were fine before this-now its a disaster and I dont want dentures

I wondered what route would have been taken if we didnt have dental insurance??
  
  
Dekalb
[ Joined on 06/06 ] [ Posted on February 7, 2008 ]
7 Points        
   
 
Savvy User

The "root" of this problem is Insurance companies. They have destroyed the health care system. Politicians all get applause when they say "Health insurance for everyone". What we need is No Insurance, and fair pricing by the practitioners. -no offense intended, Dr. Mercola

 [ Reply ]
  
  
Duparc
[ Joined on 05/07 ] [ Posted on February 7, 2008 ]
6 Points        
   
 
Apprentice User

Okay, I am digressing a little from the banditry of denistry. My concern about Weston Price's information might seem to be a moot point but it is worthy of keeping in mind. In his famous book he made reference to the Hebrides Islands as being geographically located off the coast of Ireland while, they are, in fact, Scottish islands situated off the west coast of Scotland; anyone who has visited those islands, as he purports to have done, would not have made this mistake. If he makes such a major error one wonders how more careless he has been with his observations and recorded notes. Having pointed out this faux pas one, of course, does not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

 [ Reply ]
  
  
LHen
[ Joined on 01/08 ] [ Posted on February 7, 2008 ]
5 Points        
   
 
Novice User

Hi,

For good dental and mouth health:

1) consider oil pulling -- swishing 1 T of sunflower or sesame oil in your mouth for 15-20 mins./day on an empty stomach. This gets teeth clean and white (especially if you use e.v. coconut oil) and contributes to overall mouth health by cleaning the gums and teeth. My teeth became noticably firmer in their sockets, I have no more bleeding while brushing/flossing, etc. (Follow with a warm salt-water rinse -- do NOT use H202 -- peroxide -- if you have amalgam fillings as it will leach more mercur