By: Susan and Will Revak

With this article we intend to lay a foundation of the science and research that we have found on the subject of root canal therapy in the hope that having access to this research you will be more equipped to make a more informed decision if you are ever faced with the situation of having to consider having a root canal.

We hope this information also assists you along your path to greater oral health and whole being wellness if you already have a root canal as we discuss some of the options you have before you.

We prefer to keep the focus of our work toward bringing you empowering solutions to create positive change in your oral health, so the subject of root canals is tough for us as it’s definitely a consideration of the lesser of two evils…

This is the first of a series of articles on subjects that you, our readers, have asked us to research and share our perspective with you.  You’ll find links at the bottom of this article to the others in the series.

We feel compelled to start this article with a strong reminder that stress undermines our ability to have optimal health.  Stress literally runs down our immune response.  So, if you have a root canal, please read this article lightly.

On one hand, we feel the need to share with you what the research suggests.  However, please be gentle on yourself and keep your stress levels down.  As we are all about bringing positive solutions to light for you, the last thing we want to do is have our work contribute to more stress in your life!

Root canals are one of those subjects that seemingly naturally attract so much attention and create so much controversy.  We hope to present the information we have found here on both sides of the issue.  That said, we want to disclose up front that we are biased toward the ‘anti-root canal’ camp.  However, as you will see, this is not a black and white issue.  Also, this is going to be a long article so take your time wading through it.

Let’s start by getting a cast of characters from history involved in the discussion.

Weston A. Price… Who else?

No discussion about root canals would be complete without looking at the research Weston A. Price conducted over 35 years in his exhaustive research.  Dr. Price experimented on over 60,000 rabbits by embedding tips of teeth extracted from humans under the belly skin of the rabbit.  He did this to test time and time again how the bacteria from teeth impact the health of the whole body.

In one experiment, in particular, Dr. Price took a tooth from a person who recently died from a heart attack and embedded the tip of that tooth root under the skin of a rabbit.

Within two weeks, that rabbit died of a heart attack.  Dr. Price then removed the tip from the now dead rabbit and embedded it under the skin of a second rabbit.  The second rabbit died of a heart attack within two weeks.  Dr. Price continued this procedure using the same tooth root with 100 rabbits.  All 100 rabbits died of a heart attack within two weeks.

Dr. Price found that the only way to stop this progression of the root canal tooth from passing on the disease was to boil the tooth in water for 30 minutes.

How is this possible?

Fact:  Teeth are living tissue.  And when teeth are alive, they have a flow of fluid through them.

The fact that we need to come to firm grips with here is that although they seem solid, teeth are actually extremely porous.  They are filled with tiny tubes, called tubules.  These tubules are tiny yet wide enough to house 5 bacteria standing side by side.  Think bacterial super highway.  It is suggested that the average front tooth has approximately 3 miles of tubules through it (if stacked end to end).