Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: STORY OF ORAL INFECTIONS & BODY CONNECTIONS (Abridged)
by Dr. Oksana Sawiak, DDS

Staying healthy is a full time job! Regaining health is a gargantuan one – sometimes too daunting for people to undertake so they choose the “quick fix” symptom-relief path that conventional medicine offers. So starts the downward spiral of drug side effects, management of chronic illness and general decline of quality of life until we end up in the nursing home, unable to enjoy the full life we were meant to have until at least the age of 100.

Dr. Weston Price was a prominent dentist and founder of the Research Institute of the National Dental Association. His research proved that infections from teeth and gums cause a myriad of illnesses. So many illnesses, from arthritis to heart disease, from miscarriages to brain abscesses, can be linked to poor dental hygiene. Dr. Price showed with his study of primitive societies that robust dental and physical health goes hand in hand with nutrition and life choices. The most harmful factor he found was refined food in the form of white sugar and white flour. Many researchers, including Dr. Rosenow (the Mayo Clinic on 11,000 animal models) and, more recently by Dr. Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky, validated his results.

During my own 42 years of dentistry, I strove to make a difference in the health of the person behind the teeth. Much of the time, I had to convince my patients that not only were their teeth important to their general well-being, but also if their teeth got sick, the entire body got sick. After retiring from active dentistry, I still continue to teach the safest way to health through Wellness Consulting. Though many dentists still believe that they can do ANYTHING to the patient’s tooth – like root canals, toxic crowns and fillings, and implants with impunity- more and more are embracing the truth that teeth are indeed a part of the body – and a very important one at that.

Holistic Dentistry is a term used for dentists who undertake a more natural form of dentistry – dentistry that recognizes that dental procedures do affect the entire body. But if you really think about it, every dentist is holistic since they do affect the entire body with the materials they use and the procedures they employ whether they realize it or not; whether they admit it or not. The Standard Dentist just does not realize the extent of that effect because his/her beliefs are based on what was taught in Dental School and what is still continued to be taught under the concept of Standards of Care. I prefer the term Biologic Dentist for the professional that bases his/her procedures on science and on the Hippocratic Oath – “At least do no harm”.

The reason Biologic Dentistry is not the Standard of Care is that Dental Schools do not stress the health aspect of the profession. They tend to follow the fragmented allopathic medical model that each part of the body functions separately as if in a vacuum and treatment is all about relieving the symptoms. Therefore, the stress is on root canals for painful teeth, fillings for cavities, crowns for broken teeth, and cutting away gums that are sick rather than curing the infection. Healing, supporting and preventing are biologic concepts. Getting “the carpentry on the tooth” exact – right down to one tenth of a millimetre – is the standard allopathic approach.

Do not blame your dentist for following the Standard, Allopathic, Accepted model, for he/she is merely trying to keep their dental license, keep peace with the profession and feed his/her family.

The way that the Standards in Dentistry will be changed in the future is by the demands which the general population makes of dentists, insurance companies and of the regulatory bodies. Already we are seeing a huge reduction in the placement of mercury amalgam fillings because most people demand “white” fillings rather than “silver” ones. Many people are surprised when they find out that mercury amalgams are still in use at all. Because some European countries have banned them, North Americans think Canada and the US have banned them as well. Not only has this not happened, but also, since 1996, Health Canada’s Position Statement on Dental Amalgam, which advises dentists to avoid placing amalgams in children and women of childbearing age, has not being honoured by most dental offices. Most dental personnel will not know what the position of Health Canada is on dental amalgams.

Unfortunately, the poor and disabled who have to rely on Public Health Services do not get a choice. They get mercury amalgams placed in their teeth when fillings are required.

If we do not believe that the mouth is part of the body, we take a simplistic engineering approach to restorative materials – using amalgam (which is 50% mercury) for fillings, using metals such as Palladium (neurologically toxic) in crowns and putting depression and allergy causing nickel crowns and braces into children and teens during their most vulnerable growing years.

If we do not believe that a tooth is a living organ, we embalm it with a root canal procedure and ignore the potential toxins that are released by that dead tooth over time.

If we do not believe that hidden bone infections (called cavitations) can be caused by incomplete extractions, we tell people that the pain in their jaw must be Psychological or Neurological. We say that the breast cancer, chronic fatigue or other condition they are suffering from has no connection to that infection deep in the jaw.

If we do not believe that gum disease is an infection that can be transmitted from person to person like a cold, then we can only treat the consequences of the infection.

Cavities and gum disease are caused by pathogens (bacteria, fungus and parasites), which are all around us. If we kiss a person who has the cold virus, and our immune system is not strong at the time, we will catch that cold. It is no different with the bacteria causing cavities or gum disease. We can catch them from another person via the use of their phone, or by being in the path of their cough, or by using a coffee cup that has not gone through a high heat dishwashing cycle after use. Even if we fly in an airplane which re-circulates the air and allows that person’s germs to be dispelled throughout the airplane, we are exposed. Many of my flight attendant patients came down with frequent gum infections; very likely because of the exposure to germs concentrated in the re-circulated air in planes.

Implants are now the most popular way of replacing lost teeth. My concern with implants is that not only are they metal (which causes metal toxicity as discussed above) but also that there is no impervious seal between the bacteria, viruses and parasites that land in the mouth and the bone that the implant is screwed into. In my experience, most implants become infected with a low grade, silent infection which then becomes a source of illness for many patients. In addition, neither they, nor their physician, or dentist knows the cause of many conditions they develop, such as the Trigeminal neuralgia or Burning tongue or Ringing in the Ear.

Acupuncture meridians pass through an organ, a muscle and a tooth. If a tooth has an infection, a toxic filling or crown, or has an infection left behind in the bone after an extraction, the energy of the acupuncture meridian passing through that area can be blocked. This can cause the organ or the muscle on that acupuncture meridian to develop problems. For instance, an implant on the breast meridian can cause a blockage because of the metal “screw” used in the procedure and infection can develop. Could it be a factor in that woman’s breast cancer on that side of the body?

If we maintain a healthy life-style by practicing whole-body hygiene such as parasite elimination, total body cleanses, skin brushing and saunas, good nutrition in the form of organic, raw, enzyme-rich foods, and avoidance of sugar, empty carbohydrates, dead packaged foods and toxic GMO products, we will be much more resistant to the germs around us. The soil and conditions for germs will be infertile and unwelcoming. There will be no deep, dark putrefying areas to land and grow in.

Candida is a very common factor in what Dr. Graem Munro-Hall calls MAD – Modern Chronic Disease. Candida is a fungus that is opportunistic, meaning it flourishes when conditions are right for it to grow and prosper. It grows where the normal flora (good bacteria) has been disturbed, for instance by antibiotics or toxins (e.g. mercury) or high sugar diets. Candida causes gum recession and rapid decay at the gum line if not eliminated or controlled.

When we accept a prescription from a physician for an antibiotic to deal with a non-life-threatening condition like a cold, and we do not restore the balance of our gut flora with probiotics, we set ourselves up for many other uninvited complications. Many cancer patients do not die from the cancer itself; it is the Candida infection that kills them.

So what can we do to help ourselves? This book is a good base starting point.

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