Dentist's motive for profit is frequently placed before the needs of the patient.

I was recently a featured speaker on Sean Croxton’s Real Food Summit  in which I did a 45-minute presentation on how to cure and prevent tooth decay naturally using diet

While my presentation was popular and well received by regular folks like you and I, I was contacted by two dentists who were “shocked” and disparaged by what I said about the field of dentistry. But what was shocking to me is that nothing I said was made up or even exaggerated. It was based on scientific evidence as well as anonymous disclosures to me by some of the country’s most respected dentists.

The One Thing that Shocks Dentists

What I shared in my presentation was about how the theory of tooth decay is scientifically inaccurate, and how it is allowed to remain that way because it supports the business of dentistry. The business of dentistry is a $100,000,000,000 (100 billion dollar) per year business just in the United States. There are many dentists, organizations, insurance companies, and laboratories making vast sums of money in the field. So if evidence or a theory existed that did not promote this field, maybe people within the field would have a hard time recognizing that theory because it creates an inconvenient contradiction between the dentists’ need for profit from procedures like fillings, crowns and root canals, and the reality that tooth decay is primarily a preventable disease caused by a nutritional deficiency.

A few notes before I continue. I am writing this about the dental field not because I want to destroy it, but because I want it to be better. In order to make the dental field better, we need to look at the difficult truths about what is being said. Dentists and dental students should be having lively discussions about this topic, and not simply being drones in a system that is in many ways harmful. I imagine a day when you go into the dental office and you feel honored by your dentist, and a day when preventative treatment is practiced and not just preached. I imagine a day when drilling and filling is a last resort, only done with materials that are safe and non-toxic. I am not against dentists making money and I am not against people seeing dentists. In fact seeing a dentist could become a much more enjoyable event. When dentists who truly respect their patients put the patients’ needs above their own, the patients hopefully benefit from dental visits. What I am against is dentists making money at the expense of another’s health through hiding or looking past informing patients honestly about what really causes and prevents cavities. And it isn’t tooth brushing that prevent cavities.

That tooth decay is caused by nutrient deficiencies and not bacteria has been proven in both animal and laboratory experiments published in books and dental journal. This information creates an inner disparity between the treatments performed, and the science and reasoning behind performing the treatments. In simple terms, there is a compelling reason for the industry of dentistry to be blind to something that would require changing how they do business, because they make so much money. Imagine a contrary scenario where dentists are paid to prevent cavities, rather than to treat cavities. If the dentists motive for profit was in prevention, then they would share with you the lasting information on preventing cavities with nutrition.

Let me give you a concrete example of the money machine. A 1993 study published in the International Dental Journal found that,

"Traditional restorative dental treatment has many shortcomings and has not been shown to be an effective method for managing caries. In spite of this, many dentists continue to be powered by an aggressive restorative approach which may result in unnecessary treatment and which must now be seen as inappropriate." (Ref. Over)

This is why maverick dentists blew the whistle on the field of dentistry. In 1969 a dentist who was later identified as Marvin Schissel published a book anonymously entitled “Dentistry and its Victims.” By the title, you can guess the book's contents. A short summary of the text is that it is a detailed explanation of how and why (because of money) dentists over-treat patients. Dentist Robert Nara published “Money by the Mouthful” in 1979 in order to explain how inexpensive preventative measures could replace costly and expensive procedures. Not even a part of the discussion of overtreatment and overcharging is the health and safety discussion of toxic mercury fillings and composites. Composite fillings are usually made with plastic that many people are allergic to which also contains hazardous hormone-disrupting materials like BPA.

The modern field of dentistry today is based on civil war era thinking. And that isn’t necessarily bad. The idea is that if your tooth is in pain, it needs a surgical intervention to stop the pain, such as a filling to protect the damaged tooth structure. During the civil war when the modern era of dentistry was beginning, dental fillings were large and the treated teeth needed treatments. There wasn’t such a thing, as far as I know as preventative dentistry, or dental treatments on tiny cavities that did not hurt. The people who went to see a dentist were in pain, and wanted help.

Today, a common experience is for patients to find themselves going to the dentist for a checkup and then learning the bad news, that they have new cavities. Even though the tooth doesn’t hurt and the visible cavity may be small, or even invisible to the naked eye, the dentist typically insists that the patient submit to a drilling and filling (with the inevitable billing) dental procedure.

Your dentist, and the field of dentistry, must explain the reasoning for you to submit to procedures that you have a sense that you may not need. As represented by the American Dental Association the reason your cavities must be drilled is that cavities are caused by micro-organisms which eat sugars and produce acid. Here is what they say:

“When you eat or drink foods containing sugars, the bacteria in plaque produce acids that attack tooth enamel. The stickiness of the plaque keeps these acids in contact with your teeth and over time the enamel can break down. This is when cavities can form.” (Ref. ADA)

This single phrase is the single most destructive thing to your mouth and your teeth, because it presents false information as to the true cause of tooth decay. And this wrong way of thinking poisons the minds of dentists and patients alike, who cannot stop repeating the mantra, “tooth decay is caused by bacteria.” Yet this mantra is not the teaching of the famous and often cited dentist and physician who invented the concept that tooth decay is related to bacteria. This famous dentist, W.D. Miller wrote in 1890 in his book “The Microorganisms of the Human Mouth,” how bacteria are related to, but not necessarily the cause of, tooth decay. He said, for example, that,

“These experiments show, among other things to what extent the resistance which the tooth opposes to the destroying factors depends upon the structure; further, it furnishes an answer to the question why all teeth under the same conditions do not become decayed in the same degree. A tooth of sound structure, protected by sound enamel, will resist the action of an acid for many years, whereas a soft, imperfectly developed tooth under the same conditions would show decay in the course of a few weeks.”

What is missing from theADA’s bacteria theory of cavities is that strong teeth resist acid and bacteria. And when you, the consumer, understands that a strong tooth resists acid indefinitely, then the next logical question is, what makes a tooth strong?

To further the point that W.D. Miller did not pinpoint the specific cause of cavities, dentist Charles Bodecker wrote a commentary about the work of W.D. Miller in the famous Lancet medical journal in 1905 stating that Dr. Miller did not find the cause of cavities, and that, “the actual cause of caries was still unknown, and is to the present day unknown.” (Ref. M)

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Dentist Weston Price who was chief researcher of the ADA when it was called the National Dental Association obliterated the idea that cavities are caused by bacteria by documenting, with over 18,000 photographs and thousands of food samples, that tooth decay is a disease of civilization primarily caused by the absence of fat-soluble vitamins A, D and activator X. (Activator X is now recognized to include hormones and quinones such as vitamins K-2, E and Co-enzyme Q10). Activator X is found in grassfed butter and fat-soluble vitamins A and D are found in fermented cod liver oil.

In the pursuit of a business model, dentistry has gone too far and lost its roots: to help people get out of pain and to prevent future cavities from happening. Drilling doesn’t stop cavities; it masks and hides the process of physical decay and degeneration. And when I suggest that dentists should do more to educate and inform patients that fillings on average last 5 to 12 years, and that tooth decay can be prevented by adding fat-soluble vitamins, some dentists are shocked. Because the way of dental treatments that they hold on to so dearly is not centered around truth and love, but rather too often is based on greed and profit.

Want to know more about healing cavities naturally? For a detailed explanation of how to remineralize cavities and repair teeth naturally with good food, then you will need to buy my book. I do make a small profit off of each book sold. But there is a difference between what I am offering, and what conventional dentistry offers. I want you to be healthy and my motive of writing the book is first to be of service to humanity and their teeth, and second to make a modest profit. I wrote this article so that you and your friends can know that you too can Cure Tooth Decay.

References:

Ref. M - "Concerning the Etiology (Cause) of Dental Caries." , Bodecker. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2012. < http://www.curetoothdecay.com/Tooth_Decay/lancet-dental-caries-miller-etiology.htm >.

Ref. ADA - "Decay." - A-Z Topics. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2012. < http://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/az-topics/d/decay.aspx >.

Ref. Over - "Formats." Overtreatment with Restorative Dentistry: When to Intervene? N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2012. < http://ukpmc.ac.uk/abstract/MED/8478124/reload=0;jsessionid=P1Hc2rTjhGBHVXRlvmmt.6 >.

Health food blogger and independent health researcher Matt Stone seeks to turn our diet thinking 180 degrees around with his e-book Diet Recovery at http://www.180degreehealth.com

Matt gives tips and pointers for deciding what to eat based on the idea that if you eat less, your metabolism will slow down.

In this e-book, the emphasis is on quitting our restrictive dieting and rehabilitating our body from all the past effects of dieting. Basically he wants us to improve the relationship between our body and food.

How does slow metabolism affect our body? According to Matt, it has a negative impact on our body. It results in low sex hormone production, a reduction in the ability to build muscle tissue and to perform athletically, and muscle tissue can actually be lost. It also contributes to obesity by increasing the appetite and storing food that we eat in fat cells. Real health problems and an overall lack of vitality are due to a slow metabolism. Hence the concept that depriving our body of nourishment is a form of biological stress which can cause you to be unhealthy.

How Can You Ruin Your Body?

"If anyone wants to worsen their body composition, all it takes is a low-protein, low-calorie vegan diet and lots of endurance exercise punctuated by long sedentary breaks and junk food binges."

Matt believes that dieting does you more harm than good because of its focus on restriction can create a negative feedback loop. Conversely Matt recommends trying to overeat to create a positive feedback look. He writes that modest overeating can create "a simple positive feedback system, in which the more you eat, the higher your insulin goes. The higher your insulin goes, the more insulin resistant you become. The more insulin resistant you become the hungrier you get and the more efficiently you store body fat. That‘s the theory. When overfeeding; however, whether it‘s with lots of carbs, lots of fat, or a mixture of the two – it doesn‘t work this way at all. In fact, it is unmistakably a negative feedback system, in which the more you eat above your appetite, and the more sedentary you are to minimize the amount of calories you burn, the more the body fights back against this surplus by:

Eating more can thus cause a positive reaction.

Matt recommends more “healthy” carbohydrates, fats and proteins in your diet. His book busts the myths that suggest that all carbs and fats are bad for your body.

The necessity of carbs, fats and proteins can be assessed by what Matt states: “You can start simply by realizing that your body needs protein, fat and carbohydrates every single second of every single day from the time you are born until you die. Supply them from nutritious sources with religious fervor.”

He slams the food industry for its continued propaganda against the most important saturated fats and for replacing them with polyunsaturated oils like soybean and safflower. He suggests one should remove all liquid oils from the kitchen. In his words, “Eliminating those (polyunsaturated fats) from your diet and getting most of your fats from fish, red meat, coconut, and dairy products (cheese, yoghurt, ice cream, sour cream – butter is a little too concentrated for many people) while also eating lots of high-resistant starchy foods is a great antidote that may not magically solve everything, but should certainly help you make progress and protect your metabolism from experiencing too much age degradation.”

Matt denounces dieting in the strongest terms in his e-book. He believes that dieting is the mother of all evils and narrates his own experience of restrictive diets which resulted in him losing fat and muscle and then re-gaining the fat. According to him, you end up eating the food you are not supposed to eat which ultimately leads to serious health issues.

To get dieting and its effects out of your system, Matt suggests to just let it go and EAT MORE AND TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT. Do not feel guilty of eating. Just enjoy what you are eating. Matt advises you to eat all those things that you have secretly craved.

Matt has given a lifestyle plan/protocol in his e-book Diet Recovery which he calls “Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding (RRARF)”.

Before starting he advises you to assess for yourself whether you really need this program. The basic idea of RRARF is to just eat and relax yourself. This plan is for 30 days in which one is supposed to eat as much as one can or a little more.

Matt has given a diet plan called High Everything Diet (HED) which is comprised of at least 99% wholesome, unrefined unadulterated foods and contains plenty of fat, a lot of carbohydrates, a lot of calories, and sufficient protein. He has also mentioned the sources of these nutrients.

The e-book Diet Recovery is a complete guide to a healthy lifestyle. Remember to eat more and as Matt sums up beautifully towards the end of his book: “The perfect diet is the one that fits your life!"

The Green Bone on the Skull which the teeth are attached to is the Maxilla.

Conventional orthodontics is a racket where faces get ruined as the orthodontist puts patients down a one-size-fits-all profiteering assembly line. I know about this first hand as I was a victim of bad, unnecessary and unhelpful orthodontics. The braces and headgear did not work for me even though my parents shelled out thousands of dollars to fix my crooked teeth and overbite. What was supposed to have been fixed with the orthodontic treatment I received when I was eight to ten years old actually got worse with age. I did not realize that I had had back orthodontics until I was 30 years old and my teeth stopped touching correctly.

Rather than having my molars contacting when I slept, I had to "hang" my jaw open because it would not find a comfortable resting spot. This article is going to tell you why conventional orthodontics is a disaster, and how you can avoid making mistakes with your children that will waste your money, and potentially ruin the facial growth and long term health of your child.

In order to understand the problems with orthodontia, we need to look at how the body functions. The maxilla, the upper pallet of your child grows significantly forward during the ages of eight to twelve. After that, the growth slows down or stops completely. I don't know if this information is in current text books. Conventional orthodontists are not educated about the facial or cranial structures like a chiropractor or an osteopath would be. My craniopath (chiropractor) who studies the cranial dental condition told me about the importance of the maxilla growth. Take a look at this picture so you can see how large and important the maxilla bone is.

I made a strong statement that orthodontics is a disaster that frequently takes money at the expense of people's teeth. Here are my lower teeth at age 31.

Braces Often Do Not Work

These are my lower teeth 20 years after braces. Notice how crooked they are.

I wish I had some of the dental models that were taken when I was eight years old. But it appears that my overbite got worse from the time I had braces. This makes sense considering that braces and headgear fight the normal growth directions of the growing child.

Braces and Head Gear Did Not Improve my Overbite

My overbite was made worse or not corrected by braces and headgear.

The top image is a side impression of my teeth taken at 31 before I began a program of facial orthopedics. That is a program to correct the damage done by braces and headgear along with bringing my bite to a more anatomically correct position without surgery of any sort. For comparison, below is a side view of a hunter-gatherer skull. Notice that the hunter-gatherer skull has no overbite. What the red arrows point to is a common problem faced by both adults and children. It is described as an overbite. This is where the body's natural and relaxed position is to have the molars touching. But unfortunately, the front teeth also hit against each other due to improper bone growth and development. The body then hinges the jaw backwards to accommodate the imbalance, and the result is an overbite.

Side View of How Conventional Orthodontics Did Not Work

How Braces Can Ruin Faces

With my careful study of the work of Dr. Weston Price, and because I have spent quite a bit of time researching tooth decay, I have come to see how damaged many people's facial structures have become not just because of our western diet, but because of the insult to the body that we call conventional orthodontics. Conventional orthodontics frequently ruins faces in subtle ways that most people do not notice. And the reason braces can ruin faces has to do with how our bodies grow. In the image below of the infant skull, the red arrows show the growth direction of the child. Notice how big an infant's cranial bones are compared to their jaw bones (maxilla and mandible). In order to accommodate the birth process, nature has made infants' jaw bones tiny. Meanwhile major cranial bones at the top of the head are much better developed. What this means is that as our children grow, the largest growth in their head will be in the lower portion of the face as the arrows indicate. For comparison I have shown an adult skull just below the infant skull.

The Arrows Show the Growth Direction of Our Faces

The infant skull above shows how the maxilla (upper palate) and mandible (jaw) grow down and forward. (ref. 1)

If you want your child to be beautiful and proportionate, then it is important to support the forward growth of the maxilla and mandible. Yet conventional orthodontics uses braces and headgear, and mistakenly stops or hinders this forward motion. Braces can lock up the maxilla by tightening and contracting it while it is growing. Whereas the normal growth pattern for humans is for the maxilla to expand in multiple directions. Braces usually cause the maxilla growth to be disturbed and restricted. The most severe problems in facial development are caused by headgear and braces used during the time of maxilla growth from eight to twelve years old. The younger the patient, the worse the outcome because the bones are less developed. These pictures of me illustrate the unfortunate problem.

Below: Me at Age Eight before Braces and Head Gear

Below: Me Age 11 or 12, This is after Braces and Head Gear

Notice the difference in the before and after braces pictures?

The braces and headgear had inhibited the growth of my maxilla. This locked my jaw back; as some functional orthopedic dentists understand, the jaw (mandible) follows the growth of the maxilla.

How Braces Fight Against Normal Growth Patterns

A Yuendumu growth study conducted in central Australia catalogued the facial and dental growth patterns of semi-modernized aborigines over the course of twenty years. This careful documentation can be used as a refernce point of how children's faces are supposed to grow and develop. The pictures below reflect the documented growth.

Below: The Normal Growth Vectors of a Growing Child's Upper Palate (Maxilla) at Age 6

Below: Average Growth Changes from Ages 7 to 16

The Yuendumu study shows that the average Aboriginal upper palate (maxilla) growth is 6.2 millimeters (1/4 inch) forward in 9 years from the ages of 7 to 16.

The top two images are depictions of how our child's palate is supposed to grow. The middle picture is shown for comparison, the maxilla (upper palate) of a 7 year old, as compared to a maxilla of a 16 year old. As you can tell, and as common sense dictates, our children's mouths are supposed to get bigger as they get older.

How Braces Can Thwart Growth Patterns

The child shown here does not need braces. The green arrows show some of the growth dimensions, while the red arrows show what the braces will do.

The picture above is quite interesting. The child shown does not need braces because she has space between her teeth. The red arrows show how the braces work by squeezing teeth together. Braces also typically make teeth fit by fanning them outward. The green arrows show of how this child's maxilla will be growing. Her growth pattern is to get wider and wider. Also the maxilla wants to move forward and out in the direction towards us. Meanwhile the locking of the braces will likely inhibit the forward and out growth pattern. So braces usually function contrary to how the body is designed to grow. When you inhibit the growth of the maxilla, the growth of the jaw will also eventually be inhibited as well, since they work in relationship to each other. But the picture below shows a common use of braces to pull teeth together. In this picture, the child has space between their teeth for their wisdom teeth, and because the normal growth pattern of a child is to have their mouth get bigger. If this child's teeth were left alone, when the wisdom teeth came in, her teeth would probably fit together nicely without any gaps. Instead, the braces depicted here are fighting against the normal growth direction of this child's body. This will disturb the growth of this child's lower half of their face, and could even influence the function of their pituitary gland.

Braces Can Affect Growth Patterns

My father is quite tall. As an adult I am 5 foot 11 inches. My two younger brothers are both significantly taller than me. Usually in families I think the first child tends to be the biggest in adulthood. My middle brother did not have braces, and my youngest brother did have braces but when he was much older. Note that my youngest brother now has back problems at 25 and TMJ issues as well and I think that braces were a significant component to him developing this problem. The tallest person in my second grade class is now well over 6 feet tall. In second grade I was the second tallest person in my class. So why did I grow less? My theory is based on the work of Dr. Price who cited connections between growth patterns in the face and the pituitary gland. The width and growth of the maxilla might affect the function of the pituitary gland because the maxilla affects the cranial bones that hold the pituitary gland.

Extractions, Another Issue Related to Conventional Orthodontics

The other issue where facial appearance gets thwarted by conventional orthodontics is bicuspid tooth extractions. Luckily, bicuspid teeth are not extracted too often these days, but it still happens. Few teens are spared wisdom tooth extraction surgery. Wisdom teeth are crucial for the vitality of the individual, and of course they make you smarter. Why? Because every time you close your mouth or clench your teeth, your cranial bones are reset. The more molars you have the better your cranial bones can reset. An interesting side note is that one reason why people clench or grind their teeth is because they are subconsciously trying to reset their cranial bones because their body senses that something is out of balance. So the body keeps grinding or clenching in an effort to get the cranial bones back into alignment.

The more chewing surfaces you have, the easier digestion will be for you. And according to ancient Ayurvedic texts, one of the most important causes of disease is poorly digested food. Perhaps many people get unhealthy or succumb to physical degeneration because they are missing the wisdom teeth they need to properly chew their food.

These Twins used to be Identical before Bicuspid Tooth Extractions

Rather than me telling you how conventional orthodontics ruin faces, I will allow this 60-minute video segment to explain. After the videos, I will explain what you can do next to save your child from assembly line orthodontics.

The Must-See Orthodontic Video - Braces & Extractions Can Ruin Faces

Must-See Orthodontic Video Part 2

Must-See Orthodontic Video Part 3

Save Your Child from Conventional Orthodontics

When fluoride was added to the water, the dental industry thought it was going to shrink significantly because fluoride was supposed to prevent cavities. Rumor has it that in order to enlarge the dental industry, modern orthodontics was created. And unfortunately it was created with quite a bit of ignorance using a cookie cutter model. Even though braces and headgear significantly alter and affect the head, orthodontists are not taught to listen to and understand the body like a chiropractor or cranial osteopath might. They see only a mechanical model that sees the facial bones as rigid and not moving. So a conventional orthodontist thinks that teeth are static in the jaw bone, and that you cannot do much to change or expand your palate. I realize I am speaking in generalities, but their focus on is straight teeth and nothing but straight teeth. I have demonstrated from this post and video that the exclusive focus on straight teeth can be highly detrimental. Just as you have learned to never extract bicuspids from the video, what was not discussed was how most of the time wisdom teeth extraction is not needed either. To go beyond painful orthodontics using braces or extractions, the jaw can be expanded with wire appliances.

Advice on choosing the best orthodontic treatment

The most common mistake educated parents make is to overly focus on the technique or appliance to fix the child's teeth. Rather, focus on the practitioner. Improving your child's facial growth pattern is an art form. Conventional orthodontists are not trained in the art of dental facial orthopedics (how the head and jaw grow and need to function). They are trained in the one-size-fits-all cookie cutter model. As shown in my case and in the video the assembly line orthodontic model can lead to poor patient outcomes and bad advice. While some tools are better than others for correcting imbalanced bite patterns or crowded teeth, the most important choice you can make is to choose a good "mouth mechanic" for the job.

Tips on Finding a Good Functional Orthodontist or Orthopedic Orthodontist

I suggest you look at before and after pictures and ask yourself some of these questions:

• Do the children look more attractive or less in the after pictures?
• If you look behind the smile, do they look healthy and happy?
• Or do they look like mutts?

The second thing you need to find good orthodontic treatment is the correct theory. It is more complicated than just expanding the jaw. The dentist should know that the palate needs to be expanded to correct crowded teeth and the treatment paradigm should usually involve expanding the maxilla.

The Problem with Regular Braces - Regular braces do not address the problem of tooth crowding. Tooth crowding is caused by a narrow jaw, not by crooked teeth. To fix crowding, the maxilla, and likely the mandible need to be expanded. I have seen orthodontists who use expansion appliances with braces. Some of these practitioners have good patient outcomes. The problem with braces is that they are not an intelligent tool for expanding the palate. And if you are a parent and have never had braces, you have no idea how uncomfortable they are. Conversely, when a palate expander is used braces may not be needed at all or are simply used for a shorter period of time to correct minor problems. Braces are good for rotating teeth that are facing the wrong way, and they could be good for very slightly crooked teeth. Use of regular braces should always or almost always be accompanied with a palate expansion appliance. Please do not underestimate the head forces and effects that braces can place on your child's skull.

Braces with advanced bracket systems - The dentist in the video uses the Damon method of braces. This is a far more intelligent design for braces. The reason is that the brackets allow the teeth to move a little bit. And the wire design can allow for some expansion. I am not saying I am recommending their use, all I am saying is that they seem to be smarter than regular braces. Using braces with advanced bracketing will be far more helpful to the body than standard braces. And the same rule applies, these braces should usually be accompanied with some type of appliance to expand the palate.

More Sophisticated Bite Adjustment or Braces Alternatives with Functional Appliances

Bioblock - In the video you saw Dentist John Mew. He created a more sophisticated bite appliance that supports the jaw to move forward. One downside to this treatment is that the appliance is quite bulky.

Crozat - The crozat is a sophisticated wire appliance. Practitioners who are trained in its use are listed at the American Academy of Gnathologic Orthopedics website. What is great about the appliance is how much you can move teeth and correct the bite based on its rigid wire structure. This is commonly used more for permanent teeth than baby teeth. The downside is that practitioners who use this appliance may fail to address the height of the bite. The other downside is that the rigid wires might cause the treatment to be more physically stressful. However, take that feedback lightly because having a removable wire appliance like crozat is infinitely less harsh than fixed braces.

Advanced Lightwire Functional (ALF) - This appliance is an improvement on the crozat. It uses thinner wires and is more supportive of the movement of the cranial bones than the crozat. The trade off for the comfort is that the ALF can do fewer things than the crozat because of the lower level of appliance rigidity. The ALF appliance in general is a perfect fit for children. It is amazing how much a little bit of force can expand the palate and straighten teeth. The downside is that there are not many well-trained practitioners. And the vertical dimensions or height of the bite is often overlooked.

Twin Block - is an appliance that focuses on improving the vertical height of the bite. In the case of an overbite this allows the jaw to naturally swing forward. There are some interesting case studies here and here so you can see what it can do. You'll see in the case study the practitioner uses braces along with an expander. I am writing about this appliance because I was wearing one for a while, along with modified versions of plastic blocks. Some practitioners are strangely opposed to this appliance. The concept is fascinating as you can use plastic blocks to grow teeth in a unique way to correct an overbite. The Bioblock also helps grow the teeth in, with a different method. The twin block can be used with an ALF or Crozat.

Comparing ALF, Crozat and Bioblock

To begin with, any one of these three treatment models should get your child into a much more aligned, functional and aesthetically pleasing bite. But few methods are a perfect fit for each case and all require compromises. Only the ALF and crozat can be used for adults. The Bioblock addresses the vertical height of the bite but it has more bulk and works by moving the top teeth out and forward. The crozat and ALF can have modifications using plastic bite blocks that can help increase the child's vertical bite height but there are not too many practitioners who do that. To be clear, vertical bite height refers to how much taller the molars need to become to allow the jaw to swing forward and close naturally without creating an overbite or underbite.

It is important to understand as a parent that there is no perfect practitioner or perfect system for improving your child's bite. The last four choices for orthodontic treatments listed are far more sophisticated and in harmony with the body's growth pattern than using braces. There are other types of appliances that go by strange names including Schwarz, Twin Bionators, Sagittal, and Frankel. The point is that the search for a practitioner should be the priority, while it is good to keep the appliance names in mind. More important is the skill of the practitioner in using the appliance. That is why I am not suggesting people completely avoid braces because if the practitioner is excellent, and if braces are done with an appliance that expands the bite, the treatment might come out quite nicely, such as with the twin block examples. It may not be the most sophisticated or least harmful way of producing the desired outcome, but at least it will move your child's body more to where he or she needs to be to have a healthy bite.

Ideally any type of orthodontic treatment would be supported by some type of cranial treatment. Typically there are cranial focused osteopaths and some chiropractors who work well with children and who can support the normal growth and development of the body. Some people swear by myofunctional therapy which is a system of mouth exercise that can help with bite problems or imbalances.

Conventional orthodontics is a broken system and usually damages faces because it thwarts children's natural growth patterns. I believe that many people who have had conventional orthodontics are more likely to develop TMJ, sleep apnea and other health problems. This happens because the orthodontist only understood the idea of making teeth straight. And this isn't necessarily his fault. It is from the blindness of the industry and the dental schools who train dentists in the wrong way. It is time to stop the madness of assembly line orthodontics and unnecessary tooth extractions. It is time for the industry to evolve and adopt and innovate on dental methods that support the natural growth of the body.

The situation becomes especially disheartening when these pediatric dental visits result in fillings, root canals, extractions, or crowns. This view of dental health unfairly shunts the underprivileged and disenfranchised masses that constitute our beloved world. Are their children therefore destined to a life of rampant tooth decay? Not in the slightest! Let us examine why. Some of the points we will discuss are preventative dental visits and procedures, tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste, and sugary drinks that cause tooth decay due to their local presence in the mouth.

It is mentioned many times in this article, with misguided self-righteousness:

“Everything we treat is preventable…. Prevention is the biggest thing.”

Verily this signifies one thing to the holistic practitioner and quite another beast to the conventional medical doctor or dentist. Here what is alluded to is frequent dental visits at an age of tenderness when life should not be so violated. A child, in his formative years, requires only a good nourishing diet and compassionate educated parents to grow and thrive into a healthy adult. Medical personnel are noticeably left out of this equation. To treat a child for innocuous tooth decay with invasive procedures is to invite complications into a simple life. In his enlightening book Cure Tooth Decay: Naturally with Good Food, Rami Nagel has this to say on the subject:

“After [childhood] dental surgery with general anesthesia 23% of all children require further extractions and restorations, 52% have a relapse within 4-6 months, and 57% have new cavities within 6-24 months. The statistics show us that surgery under general anesthesia is largely ineffective in curing tooth decay. This is because it does not address the real cause, the nutrient imbalance in the child’s diet.”

The definition of prevention, in mainstream medical communities, has come to mean the use of one invasive procedure in lieu of another. This is medicine gone awry and decadent.

Another method of averting tooth decay purported by dentists is frequent tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste, sometimes up to 4 times per day! Ok now the first thing I will mention is the highly toxic nature of fluoride. This is not some frivolous claim made by an eccentric hippie writer but established fact! In Down With Basics, it is stated:

“Did you know that most popular toothpastes contain enough fluoride to kill a small child within 2-4 hours? In addition to being one of the main ingredients in toothpaste as well as rat and cockroach poisons, sodium fluoride is also a key component in anesthetic, hypnotic, and psychiatric drugs and Sarin nerve gas! A 1990 study stated that fluoride has been shown to not reduce cavities and scientists are now linking fluoride to dental deformity, arthritis, allergic reactions and about 10, 000 unnecessary deaths each year from cancer.”

Regarding frequent tooth brushing, I would posit it is more a reflection of the need for superficially pleasing teeth as seen on film and TV than its true effect on dental health. The innate health of the body is not a reflection of how much we scrub, wash, or bathe. Rather superior nutrition, adequate water intake, and sufficient sleep are some of the things that will result in enduring health and resistance to disease. One can regard teeth in much the same way. A tooth that has a firm foundation and is made strong through diet will have the ability to withstand incredible hardships and abuse. Rami Nagel has this to say on the subject:

“Dentist Ralph Steinman discovered that our teeth’s ability to remineralize is based upon the regulating action of the largest salivary glands, the parotid glands. The parotid glands regulate the activity of nutrient-rich dentinal fluid. When the tooth fluid flow is reversed due to a signal from the parotid glands (as a result of poor diet or otherwise), food debris, saliva, and other matter are pulled into the tooth through dentinal tubules. When this happens over time, the pulp becomes inflamed and tooth decay spreads to the enamel.”

The error in regarding sugary drinks as a cause for tooth decay lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of the true cause of tooth degeneration. Teeth deteriorate due to an internal lack of nutrition. High blood sugar levels, often due to faulty diet, signal the body to extract phosphorus and calcium from the bones and teeth in order to achieve homeostasis once again. Over time this weakens the teeth until they begin to deteriorate and crumble of their own accord. This has little if anything to do with the presence of sweet drinks or food present in the mouth. Therefore conventional dental theory is partially correct in that sugary condiments result in cavities but not through the method that is universally accepted. I elaborate on this point in my recent article entitled Magical Toothpaste Too Good To Be True:

“If we were somehow able to dispose and rid ourselves of all ‘harmful’ bacteria, viruses, and fungi, our bodies would collapse into an amorphous state of chaos. The extent to which the symbiotic relationships exist to provide us with the breath of life is unfathomable and not to be tampered with, as anybody who has endured prolonged use of antibiotics can attest to.”

An amusing anecdote provided by Rami Nagel clearly illustrates the power of raw dairy consumption along with the futility of tooth brushing:

“I say that cleaning teeth has nothing to do with whether they decay or not. To cite an instance, some years ago a patient came into my office from 20 miles west. The old fellow had never used a toothbrush in his life. He had the dirtiest mouth I had ever seen. His teeth were thickly covered with tartar, scales, and caked food particles. Mr. G.P. was not in trouble when he came to see me. His wife persuaded him that he ought to have his teeth cleaned whether they needed it or not. When I cleared that lifetime accumulation of foreign matter off his teeth – a full day’s work – to my astonishment, I had uncovered as fine a set of teeth as I had run across in my 50 years of practice. He ate a lot of vegetables and raw fruit when he could get it. G. P. was also a heavy milk drinker. He told me he was particularly fond of buttermilk and clabber.”

Children must be given their due respect. Just because they are small and many times cannot speak for themselves doesn’t give parents or dentists the right to subject them to the horrors of root canals, fillings, or general anesthesia. To act in error out of ignorance regarding one’s own health is bad enough, to do so regarding one’s children is truly reprehensible and shameful! Parents carry with them the additional responsibility of caring for another life. This is not to be taken lightly.

“…lab tests suggest the [seaweed] microbe’s enzyme cuts through plaque stripping it of bacteria that cause tooth decay.”

I would be inclined to agree with the author if the only aspect lacking in public dental hygiene is insufficient brushing of the teeth. Thanks to the book Cure Tooth Decay: Remineralize Cavities we now know this is not the case.  Some reasons for this inconsistency include a misunderstanding of the bacteria tooth decay theory and although this seaweed enzyme may have been shown to remove some undesirable bacteria this does not constitute the cessation of tooth decay.

In his eye-opening book Cure Tooth Decay: Remineralize Cavities, Ramiel Nagel has this to say about the current accepted tooth decay theory:

“Bacteria exist everywhere and are nearly impossible to get rid of completely. More than 400 different bacteria are now associated with dental disease, and many more have yet to be discovered. Since bacteria are a part of life, with some good ones and some bad ones and trillions of them everywhere, dentistry’s approach to eliminate bacteria seems hopeless.”

The current modern dental view to tooth decay has many striking similarities to the current modern allopathic view to infectious diseases. Both believe that the world is filled with evil pathogenic bacteria, viruses and fungi waiting to invade the body system of multi-celled organisms such as ourselves composed of purity and goodness. This is otherwise known as the germ theory first proposed by Louis Pasteur in the nineteenthcentury. The reality is all living beings are composed of micro-organisms that co-exist in diverse symbiotic relationships within the body, the state of which determines health or disease. According to the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide:

“An estimated 100 trillion microorganisms representing more than 500 different species inhabit every normal, healthy bowel. These microorganisms (or microflora) generally don’t make us sick; most are helpful. Gut-dwelling bacteria keep pathogens (harmful bacteria) in check, aid digestion and nutrient absorption, and contribute to immune function.”

If we were somehow able to dispose and rid ourselves of all "harmful" bacteria, viruses and fungi, our bodies would collapse into an amorphous state of chaos. The extent to which the symbiotic relationships exist to provide us with the breath of life is unfathomable and not to be tampered with, as anybody who has endured prolonged use of antibiotics can attest to. The evolutionary complexity that has succeeded in giving rise to humanity is not something that a little seaweed toothpaste and extra brushing must attempt to circumvent. Regarding tooth brushing Ramiel Nagel has this to add:

“If dental drilling, root canals, tooth pulling, mass water fluoridation, tooth brushing, and toothpastes were the proper treatment for cavities, then would we not see this increase in cavities over time? Are we to assume that over 90% of the population is not following the prescribed protocol? Rather there is something fundamentally wrong with this “modern” war on bacteria approach to preventing and treating tooth decay.”

I am not belittling the innate value of seaweed. Quite to the contrary I implore all readers to include it in their diet for its manifold health benefits. Tidal Greens has this to say regarding the benefits of sea vegetable consumption:

“Scientists have recently concluded that sea vegetables offer perhaps the broadest range of minerals of any food found on earth. Western cultures are only recently beginning to discover the nutritional value of sea vegetables, which have remained the foundation of the Japanese diet for centuries. In fact, sea vegetables contain virtually all the nutrients in the ocean and the very same minerals found in human blood.”

I am simply finding tremendous fault with a scientist's desire to isolate and extract a single enzyme out of its environment of natural buffers and synergistic chemical interactions in order to exploit its function. These buffers and chemicals are requisite in order to mollify any harmful effects such an enzyme might induce once isolated. The implications of such a risky action are incomprehensible. They can be compared, in no small measure, to the mass production of Western medications through a similar process regarding herbs. It is well known to which path this has led; innumerable side effects such as injured stomach and gastrointestinal linings, toxic livers, strained kidneys, and even death. According to Health Freedom Resources this notion is further explained:

“Standardized herbal extracts isolate certain chemicals in plants, leaving out the other beneficial properties…. The result is more of the targeted chemical component, but without the synergistic and complementary factors which have not been tested, studied, and isolated, making them ‘phytopharmaceutical’ drugs…. If you isolate a specific chemical that is safe in its natural form, it can have a dangerous effect when not balanced by other chemicals in the plant.”

One final point that must be mentioned is that of corporate involvement in health. If they succeed in extracting and synthetically mass producing this seaweed enzyme, what are the implications this has on the public view of health? Tooth health is not simply a matter of what ingredients are in the toothpaste. Rather one must be incessantly vigilant in supplying one’s body with superior nutrition in order to have superior teeth. In Cure Tooth Decay, Ramiel Nagel quotes Harvard professor Earnest Hooten:

“It is store food that has given us store teeth.”

Similar to the inevitability of breathing, one cannot elude the basic biological necessities required for tooth and bodily health. Although science and technology has advanced in leaps and strides, that which is sorely lacking is humility at the majesty of life.

So what does Ramiel Nagel recommend for tooth brushing? He recommends any or all of the following natural brushing solutions: water, sea salt, baking soda, and herbal tooth powder.

Industrial Smokestacks

After so many decades of being taught that fluoride is unquestionably a great substance that the human body needs to fight tooth decay, is this even true? While some evidence suggests that applying fluoride directly to the tooth surface can result in some short-term reduction in the rate of decay, no conclusive evidence shows drinking fluoridated water will do the same. And fluoride causes fluorosis - a mottled appearance of the teeth.

Despite its rampant use in Western society, few people know exactly what it is or where it originated.

But as the debate over fluoridated tap water revs up across the globe, the harsh light of closer inspection is revealing the startling truth about fluoride.

So what is fluoride?

If you conduct an Internet search on fluoride you will find an overwhelming number of sites that say fluoride is a naturally occurring substance found in the ground, air and water. And this is true. But like many natural substances, fluoride can be deadly in a high dose. And adverse effects on bone, kidney and renal health have been found repeatedly at moderate exposure levels.

What not one of the pro-fluoride sites will tell you is that the “fluoride” added to our community drinking water - fluorosilicic acid - is actually an industrial waste product.

In the 1940s the United States found itself in short supply of the fluospar - the common source of the fluoride - it needed to make atomic bombs. The feds also needed to raid Florida’s phosphate reserves to obtain uranium, producing additional large quantities of fluoride waste.

It just so happened that environmental regulations meant to protect crops and livestock from fluoride exposure were forcing fertilizer makers in the phosphate-rich (and ironically named) state of Florida to filter the fluoride out. The resulting fluorosilicic acid (fluorosilicates) removed from the smokestacks provided an inexpensive source of fluoride for the national government.

But with so much produced, what to do with all the filtered toxic waste became the problem.

Coincidence or not, the solution came at almost the exact same time when researchers discovered that the mottled brown staining of teeth in certain regions of the nation was caused by natural fluoride in the local water supplies. The staining became known as fluorosis.

H.V. Churchill, the head chemist for the Aluminum Company of America took the testing further. He wanted to know the levels of fluoride that would cause the mottling versus leave the dental enamel intact. What he inadvertently discovered was that the mottled teeth appeared to be more resistant to tooth decay.

Toxic waste problem solved.

Today more than 70 percent of Americans drink fluoridated water as huge quantities of fluorosilicates are shipped all over the country to be added to the water supplies of our cities and counties.

For more on who is standing against the practice of fluoridating tap water and why, read Fluoride Myth-Busting Part 3.

References:

1. Connett, Paul, PhD; Beck, James, PhD, MD; Micklem, H. Spedding, DPhil (2010). The Case Against Fluoride; How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.

2. "Naturally Occurring Fluoride." EFII. Web. 16 Apr. 2012.

There is much confusion surrounding our love affair with all things sweet. One question many ask is whether sugarless or sugar-free foods and beverages are always safe for your teeth.

The answer is no, but it's not a simple no.

First off, "sugarless" sometimes only means that no sugar was ADDED during the processing of the food. That does not mean they are truly sugar-free.  For one thing, they may contain other sweeteners, which include honey, molasses, evaporated cane sugar, fructose, barley malt or rice syrup. According to experts at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine all these other sweeteners have the same number of calories per serving as white sugar.

For people who have active decay, Cure Tooth Decay author Ramiel Nagel recommends eliminating sugar from the diet entirely. But even for those who are not battling cavities he says we must drastically reduce our sugar intake - and the sugars we do consume should be the limited, natural ones he lists.

For those who are still eating heavily processed foods despite all the health warnings, how do you tell how much sugar is in your foods? By reading the labels.

Food derived sugars have many different names, but they all end in the letters "ose."  So if a label has an ingredient ends in "ose," the product contains sugar. Another way to tell is by checking the required FDA label for for carbohydrate content. This lists the amount of sugar in total grams.

But what about sugar alcohols?

These are listed on the label as xylitol, erythritol, isomalt, sorbitol, lactilol or mannitol. They are regularly used to sweeten "sugar-free" cookies, cakes, candy, and chewing gum. It's important to note that the term 'sugar alcohol' refers to their chemical make-up, but that they do not contain any alcohol.

Although they vary in intensity, overall, sugar alcohols are not as sweet as sucrose and they have less calories. They taste a lot like sucrose and are often used to counteract the unpleasant aftertaste of high-intensity artificial sweeteners like saccharine and aspartame. Another interesting feature of sugar alcohols is a reported "cooling sensation" from mints and chewing gum. This is caused by the dissolving of the sugar alcohols, which essentially absorbs heat in the process.

Our bodies are not able to completely absorb sugar alcohols into the blood stream from the small intestine, so there is a smaller change in blood glucose than with sucrose (table sugar).  The claim of less blood sugar swings makes sugar alcohols so popular with dieters and diabetics alike. But because they can't be digested properly, they sometimes lead to gas, bloating and diarrhea. In fact, some people can get these symptoms after eating just a single serving of food containing sugar alcohols.

As for tooth decay, conventional dentistry says that sugar alcohols do not promote it and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agrees. In fact, you will see claims -  sanctioned by the FDA - that one sugar alcohol in particular, xylitol, PROTECTS teeth from cavities. Even though this is odd that on one hand, dentists say sugar causes tooth decay, but then on the other hand they claim that sugar alcohols can protect against tooth decay.

Studies on whether this is true have mixed results. The premise upon which the dentistry community makes this claim is two-fold.

According to conventional wisdom, the bacteria in your mouth combines with sugars to produce acid and it is this acid that damages teeth, causing cavities. Studies show that for some reason the bacteria in our mouths can't break down xylitol, so no acid is produced. They also say that xylitol's sweetness encourages saliva, which in turn washes out the mouth and "helps prevent cavities." But saying that xylitol prevents cavities because it is proven to kill bacteria, is different than showing studies that link consumption or use of xylitol to less cavities.

The premise is the same one that claims that brushing away the bacteria and acids will prevent tooth decay.

But as Nagel explains, cavities are a caused by unhealthy blood chemistry and can and must be prevented and even cured by eating a diet that includes the right mixture of animal fats and proteins and minimal, all-natural sugars at most. Read Cure Tooth Decay to learn more about this groundbreaking diet.

References:

"What Does 'Sugarless' Really Mean?" What Does 'Sugarless' Really Mean? Web. 07 May 2012. <http://www.simplestepsdental.com/SS/ihtSSPrint/r.==/st.32218/t.32498/pr.3/c.350076.html&gt;.

"Inspections, Compliance, Enforcement, and Criminal Investigations." Nutrition Labeling Summary Sheets. Web. 07 May 2012. <http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/Inspections/InspectionGuides/ucm114703.htm&gt;.