I’ve written and taught about a variety of natural health topics since 1988. In 1997, largely as a consequence of my own
health problems, my attention turned to jawbone cavitations, a prevalent, but under-diagnosed condition involving the erosion of the jawbone (osteonecrosis). Holes or eroded areas in the jawbone (hidden underneath soft tissue) often form as the result of trauma to the bone, frequently inflicted in the course of routine dental treatment.
The standard tooth extraction is the trauma most commonly associated with jawbone cavitations; frequently in the course of routine extraction, the periodontal ligament that attaches bone to tooth is not thoroughly removed. Any portion of it that remains may form a barrier to complete healing, an impediment to blood flow and new bone growth. The old extraction site invariably heals over—but only superficially. A hidden cavern or “cavity” often lurks below the surface of the gum line. Over time, this bone cavity (cavitation) may become an incubating chamber for microbes, whose toxins cause further damage to the jawbone and associated structures. Amazingly, the owner of the jaw may be totally asymptomatic as all this damage occurs. As long as the overall vitality level is high enough, the body will be able to confine the problem to the mouth. Unfortunately, if local discomfort does develop, and dental intervention occurs, the trauma from it (in the form of filling, crown, bridge, root canal, etc.) may cause a spreading of the cavitation. What happens then is that more bone dies, even bone beneath apparently vital teeth. This bone death is basically gangrene. Cavitations are a gangrene of the jawbone. They are an ischemic condition, meaning that the blood flow to the affected area is extremely restricted. Restricted blood flow means oxygen and nutrients can’t get in, and toxins can’t get out.
The toxins produced by microbes that may be found in cavitation sites spread as cavitations spread. Eventually, as the body ages and experiences more generalized stress and trauma, local defenses break down, and microbial toxins find their way to remote areas of the body, traveling through the blood, lymph and neural pathways. They will settle in weakened areas of the body. Treating those areas locally will not solve the problem, whose “focus” remains in the jawbone. A focus is a walled-off area of concentrated toxins and necrotic (dead) and /or infected tissue. While a focus may occur anywhere in the body, it is most commonly found in the oral cavity.
It is no mystery as to why the oral cavity so frequently harbors foci. Necrotic and/or infected tissue found at cavitation sites make for a highly toxic environment. The toxicity of a cavitation site (or of a root canal site, at which cavitations are often found) can be measured indirectly by observing the degree of destruction of key enzymes. Affinity Labeling Technologies (ALT) is one laboratory that is experienced in analyzing tissue samples taken from these sites, rating the degree of destruction of five enzymes that are crucial to energy production in the body. On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the most toxic), it is not uncommon to find “5s” at cavitation sites, regardless of whether or not the person is experiencing pain or discomfort in that area.
How does an area of the jawbone that has been traumatized by tooth extraction, root canal treatment or even just the vibration of high speed drilling to fill caries become so highly toxic? What accounts for all that enzyme destruction? Certainly the toxic load in the oral environment is intensified by the use of heavy metals, plastics and other high-stress dental materials used in restoration of teeth.
While mercury (which comprises over half of the material used in dental “amalgam”) may be one of the most insidious of the dental toxins used in dentistry, it is by far not the only one. A great deal of damage is done by nickel, which is both the most allergenic and most carcinogenic metal to which we’re exposed.1 Nickel, a metal found in stainless steel, is widely used in dentistry—in crowns (even “all porcelain” ones), as components of orthodontic braces and root-canal posts and in removable partial dentures.
Even gold, the most “noble” of metals, is not necessarily safe. Although gold itself is relatively biocompatible for most people, the type used in dentistry is an alloy, mixed usually with palladium, copper or cobalt. The actual percentage of gold can vary from 2% to 92%. Palladium, though long considered safe for use in dentistry, has a serious downside. It is a strong allergen. The different palladium alloys (over 100) have caused serious adverse side effects, including tooth death, electro-sensitivity, cardiac arrhythmia and facial paralysis.2 It is more difficult to rid the body of palladium than to get rid of amalgam, for it cannot be chelated out of the body.
Unbelievably, today’s composite materials (tooth-colored ‘bonded resin ceramics’) may actually contain heavy metal fillers, even radioactive materials, added to achieve x-ray opacity.3 And then there are the undeclared components of dental materials: manufacturers of these are not required by law to disclose the presence of any components in them that are considered “proprietary” or are considered safe by the government. This allows for the possible contamination of otherwise biologically compatible dental materials with an unnamed pollutant, while the manufacturers’ “trade secrets” are protected, as is the pollutant itself. A notable “protected pollutant” is fluoride, which, unbeknownst to you or your dentist, may be part of your new tooth-colored filling material. This toxin, masquerading as a cavity fighter, has long enjoyed endorsement by government (and mainstream dentistry), despite its many well-documented adverse health effects. After 60+ years of water fluoridation that now extends to over 60% of the nation, it has permeated our environment, finding its way into our food, water, dental products, drugs and countless other products.
For the better part of the last year, I have been involved with an uphill fight against water fluoridation in my home community. The more I’ve researched the topic, the more I’ve come to believe that fluoride not only fails to prevent tooth decay, as claimed, but is a major factor in development of major dental disease. Once again, my focus is on jawbone cavitations. There are certain facts about fluoride that were instrumental in my suspicions that it may play a major role in the formation and spreading of these jawbone lesions. Chief among these are:
1. Fluoride is the most bone-seeking element that exists.
2. Fluoride destroys or adversely affects a number of enzymes.
3. Fluoride interferes with collagen-forming mechanisms.
Fluoride is cumulative in the body. About 50% of what we take in will be stored in our bones and teeth. Over time, it can accumulate to toxic levels. For children during tooth-forming years, this buildup of fluoride in the teeth can result in a permanent enamel defect known as dental fluorosis, characterized by a discoloration of the tooth surface. Dental fluorosis, considered by dental authorities to be a “cosmetic effect,” is in fact an early overt sign of systemic toxicity. This element of toxicity is inherent in the very definition of dental fluorosis: “Dental fluorosis is a condition resulting from chronic fluoride intoxication or a pathological effect” (Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary). In its most severe stages, dental fluorosis can affect the dentin layer of the tooth, cause pitting, structural weakening and premature tooth loss.
Fluoride exposure after teeth have been developed will not cause dental fluorosis, but it can still have an adverse effect on teeth. I remember sitting in the dental chair for my obligatory biannual checkup when I was about 28 years of age. My dentist’s comments stunned and puzzled me, “You have the teeth of an old Indian woman. The chewing surfaces have been worn down as if you’ve been grinding on hard corn kernels for years.” The fact that I’d grown up in a fluoridated city didn’t seem—at the time—to have any bearing on the issue, but I drew a connection when I read what fluoride does to collagen.
Collagen is the body’s major structural protein. Fluoride interferes with collagen-forming mechanisms, actually causing an overproduction of collagen. But it is a defective collagen that is formed, so that while more bone is laid down, it is defective bone—brittle bone. Ditto with teeth. It’s defective enamel that’s formed: teeth become brittle, subject to erosion.
I never developed dental fluorosis as a child, but could the net result of the constant exposure to fluoride in my formative years have been a buildup of the element in my teeth that made them subject to erosion as I aged? Could that early exposure have played a part in the massive cavitation problem that overcame me in my fourth decade of life? In theory, yes. Many years ago I learned—from the work of the late Dr. John Yiamouyiannis—that fluoride inhibits more than 100 enzymes. The results of ALT toxicology reports from my initial cavitation surgery in 1997 showed a significant amount of enzyme destruction, which in turn reflected a high degree of oral toxicity.
Fluoride, I’ve also learned, forms strong bonds with almost all other elements, and potentiates other toxins—i.e., increases their toxicity. And, unlike most other substances, fluoride has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume that when we brush our amalgam-filled or nickel-crowned teeth with fluoridated toothpaste or rinse with fluoridated mouthwash, the interaction of the metals with the fluoride could both increase their toxicity and help them to cross the blood brain barrier. In point of fact, the doorway to the brain is left wide open at maxillary third molar sites, where a cavitation can potentially open up into a sinus cavity, through which the brain can be accessed by metals, microbes or toxins. The icing on the cake to my musings about fluoride and oral disease came a few months ago when I stumbled upon a very interesting article at http://64.177.90.157/pfpc/html/newsletter_9.html. This great website, put together by Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children, presents in-depth research information on fluoride and its effects. One particular section of the site contains a newsletter entitled, “Fluoride, Gingivitis and Oral Cancer.” It tells of a patent that was applied for in 1996 by three biochemists at a pharmaceutical company called Sepracor. In the words of those researchers:
We found that fluoride, in the concentration range in which it is used for the prevention of dental caries, stimulates production of prostaglandins and thereby exacerbates the inflammatory response in gingivitis and periodontitis … Thus, the inclusion of fluoride in toothpastes and mouthwashes for the purpose of inhibiting the development of caries may, at the same time, accelerate the process of chronic, destructive periodontitis.
An association between fluoride and gingivitis/periodontitis had been made as far back as 1936 by the “father of fluoridation” himself, Dr. H. Trendley Dean, and observed many times in subsequent years by other researchers. But it was the biochemists at Sepracor who provided the biochemical explanation for those earlier reports. Amazingly, their patent application was for a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent that would counteract the effects of the inflammation caused by the fluoride!
The connection between oral cancer and fluoride has been demonstrated on more than one occasion since 1981 both in epidemiological studies comparing fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities and in animal studies.
While I’m not aware of anything ever having been written on the association between fluoride and jawbone cavitations, it seems like a no-brainer to me. Bone destruction is a result of advanced periodontal disease. Another way of saying this is that periodontal disease is one of the traumas that can result in the formation of jawbone cavitations. It may be that dental trauma by itself is insufficient to cause cavitations, but paired with the bone-damaging effects of fluoride, these lesions will readily form—and perhaps fail to heal as long as significant fluoride exposure continues. This may explain, at least in part, why cavitations so often return following surgery: the patient continues to use his or her fluoridated toothpaste, to drink fluoridated water and perhaps to take fluoride-based drugs (like Cipro, Paxil and Celebrex). Worse yet, chances are good that surgery was performed in a fluoridated city, meaning that the oral cavity would have been irrigated with fluoridated water.
The implications of these possibilities are staggering. Thus far they represent just the speculations of a professional dental patient (me). But it is earnestly hoped that those knowledgeable about fluoride will look more deeply into cavitation pathology, and those involved in cavitation research and treatment will educate themselves about the hazards posed by fluoride because, I think: “Houston, we may have a problem!”
1 Drs. William R. Kellas and Andrea Sharon Dworkin, Surviving the Toxic Crisis, Professional Preference, 1996, p. 213.
2 “Slow Recovery from Palladium Exposure,” Heavy Metal Bulletin, Vol. 5, Issue 1-2, March 1999, p. 32.
3 “Is There a Renewed Trend Toward Radioactive Compounds in Dental Materials?,” Heavy Metal Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 4, 1999-1, 2000, pg. 15.
Information on this site is for educational purposes only and is not to be construed as medical advice. If you have a medical or dental condition, please consult an appropriate health care provider.