I speak from experience with real dentists and real dental problems. There are several levels of diagnosis which any health practitioner may be ineffective in, ignorant of, in denial of, or clearly incompetent. Recent does not mean that a dentist is necessarily better trained nor wiser than dentists have been at earlier times or at different points in their practices. These were discoveries which were hard won and sometimes as a risk to survival when health was already highly compromised. If you must learn these discoveries from your own experience, you are foolish.

What is relevant for you is what you can expect to encounter NOW and that includes personal experiences of myself and others whom I know well over the period from the late 1990's to the present. The dentists being reported on here were neither low cost practices nor young and inexperienced. They typically were highly respected in their profession and by those who went to them and held a very positive, and often progressive, social image. They were usually highly skilled and proficient, technically.

Challenges:

Mercury amalgam poisoning:
No dentist in North America or Europe can be oblivious to the tremendous, and consistent amount of scientific research which highlights the dangers of using silver-mercury dental amalgams, particularly since 1992. IF your dentist has not cautioned you against the use of these and offered you alternative solutions, they are not only in denial, but are willing to compromise your health and lifestyle for their pride, laziness, lack of professional courage, and, incompetence. Why would you willingly go to such a technician?

Mercury amalgam sources:
A dentist who is unaware of the possibility of mercury dental amalgam beneath old gold crowns and within composite crowns, is unable to integrate the history of their industry or to allow for the laziness and idiosyncrasies of their fellow dentists. I had to persevere through 4 years of recurrent severe health difficulties stemming from chronic mercury poisoning because I believed a number of highly experienced dentists who told me I had no dental amalgam in my mouth.

I had to challenge one of them with a possibility that I considered by innovative thinking, not by dental industry training or awareness. This is like a farmer being able to think more accurately about how an aircraft engine works than the mechanic who services such engines all the time!

Complete denial is even worse than ignorance for it assumes that a possibility cannot happen and so rules out obvious options in the face of considerable evidence to the contrary. A dentist of high integrity told me in 1999, matter of fact, that mercury amalgams under a crown or encapsulated in a composite filling, could not leak.

At the same time, he was passionate about replacement of silver-mercury dental amalgams with alternatives, and traveled worldwide, regularly, to inform other dentists of the options and dangers and to instruct them in how to safely make the changes for their clients. He had worked on my teeth and never mentioned that I might have dental amalgams in such locations. In fact, he told me I had none left.

Small pieces of old mercury amalgam were found in 2004, both within composite fillings which I had as well as in those of a client of mine. In some cases, removal of this DID result in immediately improved health. In another case, a dentist confidently asserted that the tooth of one of my client's had a large internal cavity and advised that a root canal and crown be carried out, at great expense.

Another dentist, affirmed that the discoloration of the tooth was an obvious case that a mercury amalgam had been placed within the body of the tooth in the past and covered with composite. There was now an increasingly likelihood of mercury amalgam degradation vapors escaping from the thinning covering, or, being absorbed through the inner part of the tooth into the jaw and gum by way of the root. Was the prospect of money making the earlier diagnosis?

Infected teeth which have no cavity, yet are severely degrading, one would expect could be easily detected. I had been going to a dentist for a year and he and his staff had completed a root canal and a number of crowns plus two extractions. In the end, I had to demand that he remove a rear molar, the back of which I could not see. The tooth proved to be so infected that he referred to it, afterwards, as being as toxic as cancerous! It had either highly contributed to the copious nightly lung and sinus mucous that I had been experiencing for the previous 5 months, or, they had contributed to it?

Why was it necessary for someone untrained in dentistry and without any dental diagnostic tools to find and reveal what several doctors, several medical specialists, a number of alternative health practitioners, and, a dentist with the exposure of four or more extensive workings in my mouth --- could not see, consider, or look for? Is this the best of diagnostic skills that the North American dental and medical professions can offer. No wonder so many people die AFTER seeing such people. Fortunately, I had Spiritual Guidance and eventually cleared my brain fog enough to ask the unthinkable.

Sometimes, technology is just not adequate to reveal diagnostic possibilities. What can make that reality a disaster is when the professional relies totally on the technology and refuses to listen and acknowledge the patient. Sometimes, the patient who is living with their health problem 24-7 may be more knowledgeable than the expert who is exposed to it for only a few minutes.

A client of mine who was receiving high accuracy of Spiritual Guidance had been having chronic health problems including recurrent swollen neck glands. Her Guidance indicated that she should have two adjacent molars removed. She REALLY wanted to keep all her teeth, so the news was a difficult blow and not easily accepted. She went to her dentist and asked him to extract them. He was VERY reticent and essentially concluded that all that MIGHT be necessary was for one of the teeth to receive a root canal and a crown. Many hundreds of dollars later and and 6 weeks, and she returned.

With no health improvement and the Spiritual Guidance remaining the same, she now insisted that the dentist remove the crown that had been placed on the adjacent tooth to the one he had recently worked on. It had looked fine in an x-ray. On removal of the crown, the evidence was startling of the problem. The molar had split lengthwise after the last set of 4 root canals, which was not the first set. Considerable infection was now evident under the tooth, and, was detectable in the x-rays taken earlier. Only a lateral break would have been visible in x-rays. The removal of the old crown was necessary in order to see the REAL problem. There was only ONE solution: extraction!

Several weeks later, the earlier indicated necessity was again demanded: removal of the adjacent molar which the present dentist had insisted on doing a root canal and crown on. Yes, under the tooth there was infection! The massive infection under the adjacent broken tooth had migrated over to this root and effectively destroyed it.

Had the earlier infection been stopped earlier, this tooth COULD have been saved. Now, the patient was having to pay this ??? dentist for a root canal, a porcelain crown, and 2 surgical extractions. IF the dentist had followed her initial requests, she would have saved almost $800, several long-distance trips, and been healthier 8 weeks earlier. The dentist involved assumed no responsibility for the inefficiencies of and errors in his diagnoses or his lack of acknowledgement of the clearly greater awareness of his patients, in this cases.

KaVo DIAGNOdent®: Laser Cavity Detection (http://www.kavousa.com/) is a form of dental diagnostic tool which has become available since 2000. The facility for the dentist to improve their diagnostic accuracy from an average of 65% to 85%, or better, has resulted in its becoming rapidly implemented into many North American dental practices by 2005.

A number of advantages benefit both the patient and the dentist. It permits the use of minimally invasive treatments without unnecessary preparation. It is less destructive by its avoiding "exploratory" excavation of suspect teeth. Early detection of pathological changes that are undiagnosed by conventional examination methods (e.g. initial lesions, demineralization and changes in the enamel, fissure caries).

To get consistent readings, it is essential to have a clean tooth. This is especially important when monitoring values at future examinations. The teeth may be cleaned thoroughly using any acceptable means.

It is also simpler to carry out, safer, and often faster to complete by its neither requiring a scratching probe nor x-rays.

Dental diagnostic tests

Oral health care and prevention of oral disease are essential to health and well-being.

Orion Diagnostica’s, (http://www.oriondiagnostica.fi/) dental diagnostic tests comprise a series of chair-side tests for evaluation of a patient’s oral health. All tests are performed on stimulated saliva. With the help of the test results, dental professionals can counsel the patient on oral hygiene and undertake early professional intervention and prevention of oral diseases.

With Dentocult® SM Strip mutans,
July, 2005, Can$ 80.73 for 10 tests.
http://www.alleight.com/Products/Orion/Dentocult/Dentocult_SM.htm
mutans streptococci are selectively enriched on two kinds of plastic strips that have been treated to simulate the tooth surface. Dentocult® SM Screening Strips are useful in identifying patients with mutans streptococci. The test kit's Site Strips provide more detailed information on the caries activity in progress in the patient's mouth or on a particular tooth surface. This knowledge helps the dentist design treatment strategies and individual preventive care for patients of all ages and in all situations.

Mutans streptococci are today considered the primary bacterial cause of caries. Their presence or, even more so, their absence is a strong indicator of, respectively, high or low susceptibility to caries.

Now it is also standard knowledge that these bacteria are transmissible. As their existence in the mouth requires the presence of teeth, mutans streptococci are often transferred by mothers to their 1 to 3 year-old children.

Once the teeth are colonized with mutans streptococci, there is always a risk of intraoral reinfection, even after successful antimicrobial treatment.

Diagnostics of dental plaque and specific surfaces can be carried out in a general dental office only with the Dentocult® SM Site Strips. This makes the Dentocult® SM Strip method unique.

Incubation (48 hours), before interpretation of test, is required.

Dentocult® LB
July, 2005, Can$ 48.84 for 10 tests.
http://www.alleight.com/Products/Orion/Dentocult/Dentocult_LB.htm
can be used to monitor Lactobacilli and provide information on circumstances presenting the risk of caries formation. Dentocult® LB also provides information on the patient's dietary habits, the number of Lactobacilli reflect food intake frequency.

Lactobacilli thrive in acidic conditions.
They are often detected in the oral cavity after mutans streptococcal infection, once bacterial metabolites have formed cavities on the tooth surface, as a result of frequent carbohydrate intake. An ecological niche for the prevalence of Lactobacilli has been created.

Incubation (4 days), before interpretation of test, is required.

The Dentocult® CA test
July, 2005, Can$ 48.84 for 10 tests.
http://www.alleight.com/Products/Orion/Dentocult/Dentocult_CA.htm
indicates excessive presence of Candida albicans as brown colonies.

In stable health conditions, Candida albicans will colonise the oral cavity in small amounts.

If the immune system is suppressed or undeveloped, Candida albicans may multiply and cause lesions in the soft tissue. The presence of Candida thus reflects the general host immune response. Patients with partial or full dentures with denture stomatitis often suffer from Candida albicans infection, indicating suppression of the local immune system.

The presence of dental silver-mercury amalgams in the mouth, which are releasing mercury gas, either from aging over 7 years, or from mechanical injury or poor installation, will degrade the immune system in a multiple of ways. With the gas breathed into the lungs and sinuses, and seeping directly into oral tissues, those cells and tissues will become physically depressed by the depressive influence of the mercury poison.

Mercury gas will also bind to the oxygen being carried through the bloodstream to the cells of the rest of the body and be deposited in the tissues of organs. Everywhere, the presence of mercury will starve healthful forms of bacteria and fungi of the oxygen they require and provide an enhanced environment for destructive anerobic forms of bacteria and fungi. With healthful forms dying off and destructive forms multiplying, one's immune system will soon become overtaxed, fatigued, and unable to provide the normal healthful levels of protection from parasite presence which leads to disease.

Unchecked, through ignorance, denial or lack of health involvement, this trend will develop into either or both of severe acute and/or chronic illness patterns. A systemic infection can become a slow growth to death. What may first arise as periodontal disease or gingivitis, may spread to present as heart disease, lymph congestion, endocrine gland weakening, parasitic infestations, organ failures, digestive problems, cancers, and, emotional instability --- all from a beginning in the mouth!

Incubation (48 hours), before interpretation of test, is required.

In Canada and the USA:
Med-Ox Diagnostics, http://www.medox.net/
1-57 Iber Road, Ottawa, Ontario K2S1E7
1-800-818-8335