The Root Cause
Root Canals and Dental Health Can Cause and contribute to Mental and Physiological Chronic Health Problems.
9 months ago I didn’t know what a cavitation was. Turns out, this little hole in my jaw was harboring a chronic infection, consistently inflaming the nerves coming down from my brain into my vital organs.
9 Months ago I met someone who changed my life, really. She launched my health into an upward spiral. A woman I was introduced to from some friends started telling me about her recent root canal removal (of one of her front teeth) and how it changed her whole existence. She had had some accident that then lead to a fractured root, and subsequent root-canal. It wasn’t causing her direct pain, but something in her said it needed to come out… She said the mood-change was dramatic with the tooth out. Anxiety decreased, other vital signs improved.
She then told me about the movie ‘Root Cause,’ a documentary chronicling the hard science associated with root-canals and chronic illnesses such as Fibromyalgia, Cancer, headaches, foggy brain, anxiety and depression.
I’m a UC Berkeley-trained Biological Scientist. I know good science when I see it. Fact-based, Controlled Studies, Meta-Analyses of peer-reviewed papers. This documentary showed these studies and the correlation of Root-Canals to serious problems in the body. It also explored what we call ‘alternative’ medicine.
The movie got flamed all over the internet. And… this movie helped me get my health and life back.
Let me back up…
8 Years ago I was a ‘Super Athlete.’
I loved to work-out 3+ hours per day. I ran stairs, biked over 100 miles per week, Swam an hour in the morning 5-days a week, lifted weights, trained in martial arts, and competed in triathlons. I was making over $500K/year, closer to $600K w bonuses, in a fun and challenging roll at a Tech Startup.
Then things changed… fast. I was doing pull-ups on a business trip to Japan. Neck pinched, and then strangely, my right hand started going numb. My first experience with this, and so I figured… I’ll get thru it, a little pinch. I’m a competitor, never let pain stop me before.
Then, I didn’t sleep for 7 days.. had mania, and was working around the clock.
6 Months Before this event, I had my first root-canal. 3 months after the root canal I had pneumonia 3x in the summer. Root Canals are a common and routine procedure in our Western Medicine System. I figured, well, I have no control over my genetic makeup. I brush my teeth, and do all the right things…. Fortunately there is a standard procedure to treat a rotten tooth.
3 courses of heavy antibiotics later, massive digestive issues that became chronic, 3x pneumonia (in the summer again). Back pain that started radiating all over my body and then caused more insomnia, and more numbness in my arm. All of this happened in about 6 months time.
Oh, I also went from weighing 220 LB of lean athletic muscle down to 180 lbs of skinny me. I lost 40 lb of muscle in a very short period of time.
I never thought it could be because of a root canal. Why would I?
And into the Western Medicine System I went….. MRI’s, Back Specialists, Neurologists, Acupuncturists, X-Rays, Chiropractors, Massage, Energy work, all of it… I tried everything. Even things I ‘didn’t believe in’ just to see if they’d work.
Some of them helped.
Almost any technique that helped, I learned how to do myself. I researched the science of why… of how, and the method’s history. Fortunately, I declined 2 back surgeons who were ready to cut me open and repair some ‘compressed discs’ by putting metal in there. That seemed like the wrong thing to do, intuitively.
Even though I was miserable, I figured I’d take more conservative approaches. It’s not in my nature to do things hastily.
I stopped work. My hand was so swollen I hired an assistant to type for me. Then I finally gave up and decided to ‘rest.’
For me, resting meant not pursuing my goals. This is like death for a goal-driver.
I was getting married and also bought a house at this time. My motto has always been ‘Just keep charging on. Do the most impactful things first, and get em done regardless of the pain.’
From where I look back now. Getting married, moving my community, buying a house…. these are major changes in anyone’s life. Relocating my community, and establishing a new identity as a married couple. These changes impact people’s lives. And they impacted mine.
Now, life is not a single-variable cause. There are many variables to health, to thriving in the world. And, after having my root canal removed, and feeling the physiological changes… I’m sure the Root Canal was my primary ’root’ cause.
At this stage in the story, I had made plenty of money to live on for many years (A big blessing) and I was financially prudent, a good saver. My marriage failed and off I went on my ‘Hero’s journey,’ or what I now call my ‘Health Education.’
First learning in my Health Curriculum was to increase my sleep from 2 hours per night of messy painful sleep. Any incremental increase. Even 3 hours would be better than the misery of 2. So I applied my scientific, UC Berkeley Educated mind to tracking and evaluating sleep. What makes sleep better?
I tracked all my activities 24 hours/day and entered them in a database, a sleep tracker app. The app tracked my sleep patterns by using sound and movement to determine sleep states. It was pretty accurate.
I then exported the data to excel and ran a statistical analysis of over 25 activities across 3 months of sleep data.
The two single biggest positive sleep impacts:
1. Socializing late into the evening with friends.
2. Swimming in cold ice ocean water. Ideally with friends.
So, off I went to find more socialization and more cold water movement.
I started volunteering in the garden at the Esalen.org institute. Socializing and taking dips in the cold Big Sur Rivers helped. The socializing was incredibly helpful for me. It helped put my body in a restful state.
Having community of people we trust is a necessity for a human to be healthy. And, as a volunteer I had the benefit of feeling like I was doing something of benefit to others. Not to mention the fresh air, and moving around (moving the body is very healing). Socializing with trusted community puts our nervous system into a ‘rest’ state… and this enables us to relax more.
So, socializing close to bed-time and learning healing arts that were working for me. Massage, Craniosacral techniques, and Chi-Gong/Tai Chi all became part of my Health Education Curriculum.
These healing arts are things I used to think were ‘lavish luxuries’. Now, I know these are daily practices that keep us healthy, connected and in a state of productive pleasure.
This Health Education trial by fire took me all over the globe for 7 years, looking, seeking, trying. Still, I was in chronic pain, digestive issues, chronically tired, miserable most of the time, putting on a happy face, spending my savings, and seeking out activities that brought me relief.
Oh, in case you’re wondering.. yes, I did all the dietary things you can imagine, every diet. I eventually landed on a ‘low to no’ sugar diet with veggies plus some protein every other day or so. I limited carbs and grains.
I’m still incredibly impressed with how resilient my body is. It’s so amazing it can take such abuse of a chronic infection, mental fog, even western pharmaceuticals and keep on living. So amazing.
February, 2020 I finally decided to get my infected root canal removed. It was a big decision. I was already immune compromised, so worried about having a surgery. I had at this point spent well over $400K of my own cash get to the bottom of my illness. Spending another $2K and facing the socially abrasive idea of not having all my teeth wasn’t going stop me from getting to the bottom of my chronic pain and insomnia.
Root Cause Movie was the straw that broke the proverbial Camel’s back. They had some good scientists, and even though the movie got flamed online, it resonated with me. I had been meditating for over 7 years at that point, for hours every day. The meditation techniques were ‘body-based awareness’ ones. I knew most of my body and where it was painful or worse, sensation free… numb. One of the areas was my root canal section.
So, I went into the dentist scared. I came out a new person… relieved. It was instant relief. As soon as the Dr numbed the area, my whole body started relaxing. Then, of course, surgery commenced and I was uncomfortable, but relieved. After that, my whole body started ‘unwinding’ all of the pinches and pains started to reverse themselves, not always comfortably. However, a miracle occurred. Gradually, my sleep started getting better. With sleep came more healing. My digestion improved… And, I enrolled in Chinese Medicine School to learn more about how herbs, needles and hands-on healing worked. I was still in a world of pain. 7 years of Chronic pain and infection doesn’t just completely reverse overnight. For me School was hard. But, I got the basics, and from there I started applying the theory to the rest of my body. The most elemental/foundational saying in Chinese Medicine is:
‘Where there is blockage, there is pain. Where there is blockage, there is ill health.’
This actually means that there will be ill health in the whole person if any part of the human body is ‘stuck’ with a foreign object, an infection, or some tension that is ‘isolated’ by the body. The body will naturally heal when we remove the infection or object and allow the person to unwind their traumatic memories. The body will flush out any remnants with time and movement. We accelerate the flushing of the blockage with things like acupuncture, massage, meditation, herbal formulas and especially re-orienting the person to focus on things other than their painful experiences. We orient them towards what they want to do, be and have in life.
Post Root-Canal I spent 4 months taking large quantities of Chinese Herbs and receiving acupuncture every other day. Typically a person needs to take large doses of herbs over time for them to work well. The Herbs bypass our normal ‘Ego Master’ mind and directly tell the body to contract certain muscles and relax other muscles. When we contract muscles of say, our pelvic floor, it generates pressure upward and increases the circulation of our blood and fluids. This can force an infection or blockage out of its ‘stuck’ position, and allow it to circulate in our bodies. If our bodies are working normally, then the liver, kidneys, intestines and lymphatic systems will work to break down the toxins and eliminate them thru sweat, pee, and poop.
Over time, these herbs along with specific movement, breathing patterns and mind-shifting began to bring my body into a better physical posture, and health began to return.
The herbs started forcing out the infection. Yet… there was one more. Like a ‘bonus’ thing to work on. I still had a ‘cavitation’ in my jaw. This was a hole remaining from an old wisdom tooth removal. What?! Another problem to address? Yeah, it was.
I researched all the nerves that penetrate the jaw, and what functions they have from a physiological perspective what muscles and organs they regulate, and, what areas they correspond to from an Eastern Medicine point of view.
The mouth and face primarily correlate with the Stomach, Intestines, Liver and Gall-Bladder, + Urinary Bladder.
Nature is clever and efficient. The mouth is the front end of our food processing line. Our smell, eyes, and mouth have direct feedback to our digestive and detoxification systems.
Signals can’t be passed around and the digestive and regulatory systems will start to act strangely ff these nerves that govern this communication are not functioning properly.
Infection anywhere creates inflammation (often undetectable by the eye). This infection may coat the nerve fibers, and often also pinch them off. So one will get both corrosion on ‘the wires’ of our nerves and also kinks or blockages in them.
My research informed me that the Jaw Bone was one of the hardest/Densest bones in the body. This also means it doesn’t get as much blood circulation in it as other parts of the body.
A hole in the middle of my jaw-bone with hard bone grown over it is going to be hard to get fresh blood into. Fresh blood is what will flush out and clean any infection.
The procedure to allow blood in there and clean it up? ‘Cavitation Removal’. I decided to have a specialist open up the hole, clean it out manually with a pick and squirt ozone water in there. Then they put my own blood plasma back in the hole to accelerate the healing process and bone regeneration.
AND, OH MY GOD. Only two days out of surgery for the cavitation cleaning, and my whole body started healing up. The color of my eyes even changed, the brightness of them, my gut began to work better, I’m became less sore, and had more energy, instantly.
I got a big level up with the root canal being removed. AND, now, an even bigger boost with the Cavitation cleaned out. It’s still early days, but now with this major block opened up, my body can heal itself faster and all the systems will come back online in magical Biological humanimal ways.
It has now been about 6 months since the root canal removal surgery, and two since the cavitation fixing. Things are DRAMATICALLY better. Almost 8 years of chronic illness reversing in 6 months is truly A MIRACLE. I’m so grateful. I worked very consistently the past 6 months with meditation, movement, and doing the other things that were working like herbs, and a form of Accupuncture called NAET. I also ‘Decided’ to not be sick anymore. Just made a firm decision that I was going to focus on being of service to others and really become a ‘Pro’ at my chosen profession.
These things all add up to health. AND, without the infections removed, I don’t know if I ever would have recovered. I doubt it. Certainly not at the speed of recovery that I’ve witnessed in my own life.
Thank you to all those who speak their truth, especially when it runs counter-culture, and has fact-based experiential science to back it up.
If you’re going to get this evaluation done, here are some Pro Tips:
1. Do your homework. Start with the Movie ‘Root Cause’
2. Question your dentist’s education, and social belief system. Why do they think leaving a dead bone that is black, pussy and covered up with a plastic cap stuck in your jaw (a root canal) is good for your health?
3. If you have a root canal, it’s infected. Most dentists will say it’s normal and healthy. All root canals are infected. Now, if you don’t have any health issues, great, the low level infection won’t bother you consciously (though it’s certainly affecting your overall health, and may cause more damage later if another pathogen attacks your system). If you have any chronic pain or chronic health anything, have that thing removed. Or, even if you just want a better life, have it removed and fill the space with PRF (your own blood spun down in a centrifuge and plasma put back in your jaw).
4. If you’ve had your wisdom teeth removed, there is a chance you have a cavitation. If you have a cavitation (Visible on the Cone Beam Scan), have it cleaned out and filled with PRF (Plasma Rich Fibrin).
5. Get a Cone Beam Scan, and have it read by a radiologist who knows about these infections and believes in the science. (This may be harder to find, but you can check The International Academy of Biological Dentists https://iabdm.org/ for a list of qualified like-minded dentists).
6. Evaluate your implant or replacement options after the surgery. You’ll need to go 8-12 months anyhow for the jaw bone to fill back in with your PRF and make new bone.
7. Choose a dentist you trust to do the surgery. I went with a Biological dentist for the root canal removal, and he did a great job. Used only hand tools, local anesthetic, ozone water and PRF to fill it back up. For the cavitation I chose to use a Periodontist, someone who specializes in dental surgery. While he wasn’t a believer like I am about the impact cavitation can have on a person’s life.. he was a competent surgeon, and used ozone, a low-speed drill to access the site, and PRF to fill it back up.
8. Post surgery. Here’s what to expect. You will have ‘ALOT’ of energy released right away., This is our body’s natural adrenaline response to having our bones broken. It’s meant for survival. However, that only lasts for about 5-6 hours. Then the anesthetic wears off. And, the swelling begins. If you’re like me, pain-killers keep me from feeling my body, so I don’t take them, However, ice works great, so start using ice and don’t talk… like seriously, don’t talk to anyone for 2 days. The stitches can come out, and the site can get re-infected. The jaw will swell more… don’t talk. Only eat liquids, like broth. No chewing.. and no straws. Suction can suck out the PRF. Keep it in there. Get some Clean salt (can get some salt used for netti pots) and mix it with warm water. Rinse often and rinse gently. Have clean cotton gauss on-hand. Put some ‘myrrh’ essential oil on it and place it over the surgery site for 2 days. Its antibiotic and also helps your body build flesh and bone. Get acupuncture, massage, cranioscral etc. And especially move your body to increase blood-flow, walks are ideal to start, then try to build up to breaking a sweat at least once a day for 30-40 minutes. Ice the jaw area after movement. Do all the things that give you rest and relaxation. Talk to a great Chinese Herbalist who specializes in herbs, not just needles, to get you the right herbal formulas. (contact me and I an make some recommendations)
9. Hire a Coach to help you re-orient your mindset towards the things you love to do. This will out-compete all the mental loops you’ve created during your previous health education journey. Basically, it’s a good idea, and I’d say even a ‘requirement’, to get help in body-work and mental re-framing to heal your stuck trauma and memories of pain. It’s helpful to get someone else’s guidance and support when we’re trying to make big changes in our lives.
10. Do your own research. Talk to more people about their experiences. The internet is going to present many differing opinions. This article is fairly balanced. https://myholisticdentist.com/2018/01/17/what-causes-root-canal-infections-and-failure/ and the movie Root Cause was very compelling.
Here’s to your health!
