Getting to the Root of Dental Health

By James Templeton

When I turned to natural methods to heal my cancer 30 years ago, I researched everything that could be wearing my immune system down. I wanted to get to the root causes of how I got cancer in the first place. It didn’t take long to find the connection between dental amalgams, root canals and the health of the immune system. Read about the connection between cancer and dental health.

Mercury Toxicity and Dental Amalgams

Dental amalgams are 50% mercury, which is a neurotoxic heavy metal. Mercury vapors are released every time you drink hot liquids, bite down, chew or even brush your teeth, and you breathe these vapors in. People with amalgam fillings excrete 10 times more mercury in their waste than people who don’t have them. When I learned this, I went to my dentist and asked to have my mercury fillings removed. It was done just like any other dental procedure. I really didn’t notice any changes in how I felt afterward.

Better Health Through the Huggins Protocol

I started having a lot of sore throats and frequent colds. My white blood cell count was low every time I had a blood test. I heard about Dr. Hal Huggins, probably the most controversial dentist at the time. He was outspoken about his belief that dental amalgams and root canals lead to cancer and autoimmune diseases like MS. He had an entire program of removal and treatment that would last 2-3 weeks and included treatments like IV Vitamin C, sauna, massage and diet. I personally saw people who came into that program in a wheelchair leave a couple weeks later walking with a cane. The results were miraculous to me.

He tested my mouth with his Amalgameter and found I still had mercury tattoos on my teeth and tested high for mercury vapors. This explained why I wasn’t a lot better after the first removal. He said my blood chemistry testing would normalize after the removals were done, and he was right. Not only did my white blood cell count normalize, I also felt better.

I noticed a lot of differences between the amalgam removal done by the first dentist and the one done by Dr. Huggins. With Dr. Huggins it was treated like a biohazard and removed with a dental dam, oxygen to avoiding breathing mercury vapors, and my body was completely covered. The dental staff was wearing protective gear, too. Dr. Huggins also made sure the materials he used to replace the amalgams were biocompatible, and not something my body would react to. The first dentist treated it like any other dental procedure and didn’t use those precautions, and I wasn’t given a choice of materials for the replacement fillings.

Toxic Root Canals

Two years later, I cracked a couple of fillings and the dentist I saw decided I needed crowns. Those teeth hurt for an entire year after those crowns were placed. It turns out the dentist drilled my teeth too deep, and it wasn’t long before two of them started dying. It’s not a good idea to leave dead tissue in the body, including dead teeth; it’s a breeding ground for infection.

Root canals in these dead teeth are bad for the body; they trap infections at the jawline and drive them deeper, causing cavitations, cysts and infection in the jawbone. And even though I knew all this, I had one tooth pulled and went ahead and got one root canal done because I didn’t want to lose too many teeth. And 6 months later when an adjacent tooth died I had another root canal done, this time by a specialist.

I started not feeling well. I was having unexplained twitches and tremors, frequent sore throats and low white blood cell counts. I contacted Dr. Huggins again. He explained even though there were no issues with the root canals showing up on testing, he usually found issues during surgery and it was important to have them removed. I saw him in Montreal and had the root canals removed. During the surgery, he found a quarter inch cyst.

Each tooth in the mouth lines up with one of the body’s meridians (energy highways) and the cyst was right on my heart meridian. He said a cyst like that rupturing could cause a heart attack. We know now there’s a connection between heart disease and bacteria in the mouth, but back then it sounded revolutionary to me and I was grateful I had the surgery done, even though it looked like I didn’t need it beforehand. I felt much better afterward and my white blood cell count went back to normal.

True Tooth Health

If you have any type of cancer, autoimmune disease, diabetes, seizures, or birth defects, an evaluation by a biologic dentist may be warranted. The International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (IAOMT) is a great resource. Dr. Huggins has passed on, and they have revised and updated his protocols and techniques and have a registry of dentists who use them. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. After seeing 4 different dentists, including a specialist, I can tell you with confidence a biologic dentist is the way to go.

A Hair and Tissue Mineral Analysis Test Kit (HTMA) will detect any mercury in your body for a 3-month period and is helpful to monitor your detox progress. Supplements I’ve found helpful after removal of amalgams and root canals include IV Vitamin C, S-Acetyl Glutathione, sweating through exercise or FIR sauna, and our Daily Greens Formula with chlorella.

References
Björkman L, Sandborgh-Englund G, Ekstrand J. Mercury in saliva and feces after removal of amalgam fillings. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology. 1997; 144(1):156-62.
IAOMT.org