Wisdom teeth, also called the Third Molars, are the furthest back teeth, erupt between the ages of about 16 and 25 years old and are the last teeth to come in. In a large percentage of the population, these third molars either come in improperly or get ‘stuck’ behind other teeth, leading to infections and other dental problems.

According to most dental sources, these ‘impacted’ wisdom teeth are considered ‘Normal’ due to the human evolution towards a smaller jaw. In the research of isolated cultures by a curious dentist, however, his findings prove that impacted wisdom teeth are a problem caused by nutrition and NOT evolution.

In the mid 1930′s, an adventurous dentist set out to study some of the most isolated cultures on earth. His travels sent him from beautiful Swiss mountain villages, to vast African plains, to the tundra of northern Canada. In each village, Dr. Weston Price took measurements and pictures of the faces and teeth of people who still ate exclusively as their ancestors had for generations. Most had never, or almost never, eaten processed foods such as sugar or white flour. Shockingly he found that, in every case, people who had never eaten processed foods had healthy and functional third molars!

In order to make sure that this was not due to genetics, Dr. Price also did studies of the people from these villages who had migrated to the nearby cities and had begun eating processed foods. He consistently found that cultures in which there were no processed foods, the adults all had healthy, erupted and functional third molars; those who DID eat processed food had impacted wisdom teeth in the same percentage as the other city dwellers.

The explanation that the cause of impacted wisdom teeth is due to the evolution of the human jaw over many generations is refuted by Dr. Price’s findings. This change occurred in only one single generation- and only upon the introduction of processed foods! In order to further solidify this theory, he visited the Tongan Islands which had the perfect conditions to allow for studying this phenomenon. Before World War I, the island was almost completely isolated with virtually no processed foods. After the war, however, the island was consistently visited by westerners who traded, among other products, sugar and white flour in exchange for the valuable dried coconut called ‘Copra’. However, the traders- along with their processed foods- disappeared when the market for copra dried up.

Interestingly, the elders of the island, who had no access to processed foods until adulthood, had upright functional wisdom teeth. The next generation, who had eaten processed foods as children, had high rates of third molar impaction, but the young adults who were born after the traders and their processed foods had left had functional erupted wisdom teeth- even when their parents didn’t. Along with pictures and measurements of jawbone and facial width, Dr. Price’s theory was confirmed; the eating of processed foods, not evolution, causes incomplete development of the jaw leading to impacted third molars.

Unfortunately this ‘politically incorrect’ theory that poor nutrition is responsible for the modern problem of impacted wisdom teeth is vehemently denied by the dental industry. No matter what evidence, when an entire specialty of dentistry is devoted to making money by removing ‘evolutionarily unnecessary’ teeth and when entire swaths of the economy are dependent upon nutritionally bereft foods, teaching that impacted wisdom teeth are not a necessary part of the human condition is simply not a popular stance.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

In western countries, cavities are an almost universal human condition. With almost 98% of people with at least one cavity, the person without them is a cause for comment. But the condition of dental caries is NOT a normal condition and is entirely preventable; not with good oral hygiene, as we have been taught, but with good nutrition. While good Oral Health and Hygiene is certainly a PART of preventing cavities, and is vital for social reasons, brushing and flossing pales in importance to good nutrition in the fight against dental caries.

In the 1930′s, a dentist by the name of Weston A. Price traveled around the world observing the oral condition and dental health of those people who had been untouched by processed foods. What he found should have made waves in the medical and dental communities then and now. But most of Dr. Price’s detailed studies, described in painstaking detail in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, have been largely ignored except by a few vocal minorities such as those who run Weston A Price Foundation . Yet the conclusion that he drew from his many observations with people of different races that ate different foods in different climates on different continents were remarkably similar. People who ate no processed foods had virtually zero cavities.

Dr. Price does have his critics, and there are those that claim that cavities come strictly from exposure to cavity causing bacteria and that these people who had minimal contact with modern people simply did not have exposure to the bacteria that cause cavities; therefore they were unable to contract them. While this is an interesting theory, if it were true then cavity rates should have increased to the same rate as the outlying areas once the bacteria was introduced- but this is not the case at all.

One island community was a particularly interesting case that disproves this theory. The incidence of cavities, as shown in the elders of the island, was essentially zero before traders came to buy the dried coconut product called copra. Along with the traders came white sugar and white flour in trade; as well an increase in cavities among the young that reached the equivalent incidence of modern day. But some years later, the demand for copra disappeared and traders no longer came to the remote island, removing the ability for the islanders to have sugar and flour. Along with the traders and their processed food went cavities as well. The next generation on the island, who often had parents and siblings with cavities, again returned to a natural cavity-free state, despite the fact that toothbrushes and the concept of oral hygiene was virtually unknown.

More evidence that cavities are due more to exposure to processed foods than oral hygiene can be seen from animals. Whether wild animals or pets, animals have no oral hygiene practices- ‘dog breath’ didn’t get its name because your pet keeps his teeth and gums sparkly clean. But pets eat almost no processed foods and have virtually no cavities. With the amount of pets in the US exceeding the number of children, if cavities were prevalent in pets, then pet dentistry would have become a common profession rivaling that of dentistry for children. Yet a quick look at any phone book in any major city will show that there are far more pet spas and pet hotels than pet dentists. While many pet owners do get their companions’ teeth cleaned regularly, few pet owners agonize over whether Spot should get an amalgam or a ceramic filling.

If oral hygiene were the answer to eradicating cavities, the enormous increase in sales of toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss over the past 70 years, should have paralleled a concurrent decrease in cavities. Yet by any statistics, almost 99% of the population of industrialized societies have cavities with 4 to 5 cavities per person not an uncommon figure. But if anything, the incidence of cavities has INCREASED right along with the increase in sales of dental hygiene products. A correlation that Colgate is not likely to splash in their next full page ad. So, while the answer to fewer cavities doesn’t lie in stopping oral hygiene, it does lie in eliminating processed foods, especially in the young who have growing teeth and jaws and who will be responsible for the nutritional status of the as yet unborn generation to come.

Oral Health Resources

Can Cavities and Periodontal Disease be Reversed? One dentist says that they can. Take a look at Money by the Mouthful to learn how Dr. Nara does it.
Fresh Mouth- The Healthy mouthwash with Coenzyme Q10 and Colloidal Silver.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

Question:

I have a strong suspicion I have a gluten intolerance or Celiac Disease.
I haven’t yet been tested, but have felt much better on gluten free diet until recently.
But then I had a root canal about a month and a half ago and it went well.
I had another several weeks ago which also went well until my tooth broke
before the permanent filling could be put in. Within a few days I began getting
my old symptoms back. I tried to figure out what I was eating that was causing it,
but it was getting more severe. After a few weeks, I went to get the tooth
fixed at which time the root canal filling was removed and a filling was put in place.
I almost immediately started to feel better, but symptoms are gradually returning again.
Is it possible the root canal filling that was used has gluten in it, and the one that
remains is now leaking into my system?
I tried to find any info, but have had no success.
What do you think?

Thanks in Advance:
Laurel in Pennsylvania

ANSWER:
Hi Laurel,

While I think that it is likely that you are gluten sensitive because you felt better on a gluten free diet, I DON’T think that it’s very likely that you’re filling has gluten in it and that that is what is making you feel bad. What I think is happening is one of two things, or a combination of both.

The first possibility is that the material from your fillings, which INVARIABLY contain either Mercury or Bisphenol A or a whole host of other chemical possibilities are leaking into your bloodstream from your mouth making you feel ill.

The second possibility – and more likely in my opinion- is that a bacterial infection in your tooth roots is leaking pretty much directly into your bloodstream and making you feel ill. I base this theory on the fact that you:

a) Felt terrible when your tooth broke. When your tooth broke, it likely released all sorts of bacteria into your bloodstream.

b) You felt better when it first got fixed because your dentist likely cleaned out the root of a lot of infection- and you might have even taken some antibiotics to clean up some of the infection.

c) You began to feel worse a couple of weeks after your root canal was fixed again.

If you think about this, you “needed” a root canal because you had an INFECTION in your tooth root, right? Well, the ONLY way that you can get rid of an infection completely is to sterilize an area, right? Well, there is virtually no possible way to sterilize the root of a tooth. It is living soft, delicate tissue. The dentist will CLEAN that area and use disinfectant, but that is a far cry from sterilization. So, when he cleaned out the root and then placed a filling on top of that, he essentially placed a cap on top of an infected hole.

Root canals are almost ALWAYS infected and will nearly always be dripping bacteria into your bloodstream forever. If the dentist did not clean the area extremely well, then the infection will grow and drip right into your bloodstream which is right at the base of your tooth. Your dentist likely won’t agree with this and will tell you that you couldn’t possibly get sick from the bacteria at your root base. But be sure to ask your dentist if he completely sterilized the root of your tooth.

Your dentist will tell you that it is impossible to sterilize the root of your tooth. So, there you have the answer. If the root can’t be sterilized, then what is to stop bacteria from reproducing. And there is a good blood supply to the root of every tooth, so where is the infection supposed to go if it can’t come out the cavity? It will go into your jawbone or your bloodstream.

And if you have a constant stream of bacteria into your bloodstream, could you feel sick? Of course you could. Laurel, you may want to look up “Biologic Dentists” or “Biologic Dentistry” in your area and find a good biologic dentist that might be able to help you with this situation.

In the meantime, it sounds as though you are having some MAJOR issues with your teeth if you have needed 2 root canals in a short period of time. That is NOT normal! And if you do have gluten sensitivity, it’s likely that you have not been absorbing nutrients well for the past few YEARS and are likely deficient in many different nutrients- many of which are responsible for building teeth and keeping your immune system strong.

So, I urge you to learn what the dental industry doesn’t want you to know:

That you CAN rebuild your teeth
AND
That there are better ways to deal with issues that need a root canal

Money by the Mouthful is the end result of Dr. Robert O. Nara, DDS’s passion to teach people that they DON’T have to suffer with dental problems and that there are alternatives to dental procedures that your dentist is just NOT going to tell you about! If you are having dental problems, you really need to download this Ebook today!

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com