I have a close friend who has recently had a bridge come loose after only one year since the bridge was made. The bridge was preceded, for my friend, by a failed root canal. This was preceded by an abscessed tooth, a very painful tooth; she not only had that tooth root canalled, she also had the tooth on the opposite side treated with a root canal. [Why, you will find out later, did this tooth die in the first place?] This dental treatment was preceded by removal of two bicuspids (teeth between the eye tooth and the molars. This was all done, with the idea of improving her smile and improving her chewing function. This means (Orthodontically) they moved these teeth to improve her ability to chew and smile, but the end result which is fairly common, is the early loss of the vitality and blood supply to four different teeth. She is also facing the complete loss of all four of these teeth. Her future options can no longer include a bridge, but a partial denture or an implant are the only options. She is heading down the road from which most of our parents had to choose. She may end up with dentures and a high number of very costly dental procedures done prior to the dentures. Her insurance probably won't be helpful!

Why, we ask, would anyone follow these pathways when dentistry is such a high paying profession, with highly trained people dividing up the various dental specialties? The answer is dentistry has been slow to teach the very big picture of why teeth die in the first place. The dental schools are full of teachers and faculty that learn early on to not question the system. They are actually rewarded for parroting back the information exactly as it is taught (A's). They are successful teachers in a large institution because they are not questioning what dentistry has done for (sometimes over150) years. New technology, like most of our medical technology, is developed around a new drug or a new surgical technique. The graduate practicing dentist must learn new ideas from other practicing dentists. They are most often trained in two- or three-day seminars, over the weekend, in a hotel setting. The company developing a new filling material trains them how to use his product with slides and videos, and includes little hands on practical education. There is little chance that the big picture can come from any series of weekend seminars. They do not have time to explain even the details they do understand carefully to a patient.

The big picture is easier to see than you might believe. The body works like a large integrated functional unit because it has always been that way from early birth. The birth process is often our first major life insult. A high number of births are far from normal due to the resultant trauma on a delicate structural framework. Most children show little signs of birth trauma six months after birth, and we have assumed the trauma to be fully gone. The average child born in America has better than a seventy percent chance of having significant birth trauma that will be with them for the rest of their life.

How can this birth trauma affect our bite? The head and pelvis are the most affected, and well they should be, as they are the largest parts coming through the birth canal. First, most birth canals are not round and symmetrical, they are warped from the mother's own birth process. [The large numbers of interracial marriages in America will magnify this, but the process is worldwide also.] The pointed head, or other head and full-body asymmetry, will result in symptoms by at least age thirty to thirty-five for most. We have always believed these were natural aging problems, but these are subtle asymmetries that are caused by the birth process. The mandible (lower jaw) is most affected, but the maxilla (upper jaw) is affected, also either being too narrow or too short. We see crowded teeth in the early teens and never seem to understand this is from birth trauma that never disappeared. The next most obvious symptom are the aches and pains that we develop from "overuse". When we run too much or play tennis too long, these are everyday symptoms that sell billions in pain medications. They are also caused during this critical and short birthing process.

Crowding teeth, then are the first sign of birth trauma. The mechanical nature of Orthodontics does not address the full body problem, only the "smile and ability to chew". We are usually left with locked-in and aggravated problems that include "clicking jaw", TMJ, hearing problems, headaches, and many other neck and back symptoms that other health practitioners (chiropractors, massage therapists, etc.) can not fully address. (The full picture of "structural medicine" will be addressed under another section of this website.) How does this continued micro trauma result in dead teeth? The teeth normally have one to four tiny pathways into the root tips that carry the blood supply, nerve supply, and lymph or toxic drainage away from the vital living tooth. This blood, nerve and lymph drainage (bnl) is the normal housekeeping of a vital tooth. When micro trauma is continual and repetitive for many years, the pulp chamber with the bnl is gradually strengthened and filled in as if it were a reverse cave.

The reverse of digging a cave is filling in a cavity, which becomes so tiny the tooth can not tolerate the continued trauma. That is because the continued trauma causes an increased blood supply, swelling, and pain. This we all have felt mostly when biting on a very hard object for a brief second. The swelling and increased blood supply will attempt to swell the inside of the root canals, which are made of the body's hardest substance. (This is why teeth and fillings are used in forensic and anthropologic studies.) The pressure then prevents the continued bnl tissues from their housekeeping role, causing gradual necrosis, and usually a subsequent infection. The dentist, in his honorable endeavor to try to help save the tooth, begins a root canal by removing the necrotic bnl tissues. In our current technology we still cannot restore housekeeping, and therefore we are leaving behind "a house with bacteria, molds, rodents, and transients of the microscopic version!" The tooth must be extracted sooner or later, and a bridge built to replace it. The trauma continues, however, and the bridge may become loose on one end, but we do not usually feel it immediately. The subtle movement of chewing pumps food and bacteria up under the loose end of the fixed bridge. The food and bacteria are able to attack the softer dentine of the tooth. This part of the tooth decays more rapidly than the enamel outer surface of the tooth. We then go from one failed root canal to two or three potential failures; well on our way toward the partials and dentures we wish to avoid

There is no question dentistry is expensive. Insurance, in trying to help, does not see the larger picture. They therefore will not usually pay for dentistry to be redone. The pain and stress of losing our teeth is not even going to be paid for by the insurance company. My friend the poor patient, has the stress of life, the pain, the costs not borne by her insurance, and she begins to distrust her dentist. If she only knew the poor dentist was only parroting back exactly what he was taught and was deemed to be an excellent dentist. These denistist will still have angry patients and they do not understand why. I am hopeful that my friend's journey will help others avoid this futile pathway. Our website is merely trying to help others find those few dedicated dentists who will understand.