Homeopathic Dentistry

There are still, after overwhelming scientific evidence, many dentists that don’t see anything wrong, using amalgam to fill cavities. Amalgam is still the most commonly used material to fill a cavity after the clean out. It is a mixture of mainly the metals mercury, zinc, tin, silver and copper containing 50% mercury and only 20 to 35% silver. We know that gold and silver are inert materials that would not harm the body, and we might be fooled by the appearance of an amalgam filling – it sure looks like silver so it must be OK – but the high concentration of mercury makes it unsuited for implantation into our bodies.

I remember, many years ago, a friend bringing a vial containing mercury to school. Even as school kids we knew that this was dangerous stuff. At that time thermometers still contained real mercury and we had learned to be very careful if one of those broke. We were fascinated by that little sample of liquid metal in its securely sealed container our buddy had brought, and certainly the weight of it was real interesting. Nobody in his right mind would have gotten the idea though, to put this stuff into his mouth.

By today’s standard the situation in school, those many years ago, was very dangerous, but we just did not know better. Today we do and we would treat such a vial of pure mercury with much more caution than we did as school kids.

With amalgam, 50% of which is this liquid metal, we have to do the same learning. There might have been a time when we were not so knowledgeable about the dangers of amalgam and actually used it in our mouth. But now that we know what damage it can do we should avoid it like the black plague. Especially as we now have materials available that are much better suited for the repair of cavities.

Even historically the opinion about the use of amalgam was not undivided. For example, in 1843, the American Society of Dental Surgeons declared the use of dental amalgam a malpractice and forced its members to abstain from using amalgams.

The following video shows some more recent information about this material that many of us still carry in our bodies…

You probably do not remember when you grew your very first tooth, but if you are a parent you certainly remember the first tooth of your child. This tooth, and for that matter, the whole baby, developed from a single cell, a stem cell.

We are so used to and are not that much in awe, that we, after the first baby teeth fall out, grow another set of teeth. Usually we just accept as a fact that that is the last set of teeth we ever grow. One characteristic of a good scientist is, that he tries to overcome accepted knowledge, and the fact that we grow two set of teeth and no more, is certainly a challenge for a good scientist.

That is particularly challenging as there are observable facts that bodies are able to repair pretty severe damages. Bones grow together, cuts heal and the lizard can even grow back a whole tail.

As the blue-print for the whole body is contained in every single cell of the body, why stop at two sets of teeth?

Great progress has been made in answering this questions and now researchers were successful in using stem cells to grow a replacement tooth for an adult mouse, the first time scientists have developed a fully functioning three-dimensional organ replacement, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers at the Tokyo University of Science created a set of cells that had the genetic instructions to build a tooth re-activated, and then implanted them into the mouse’s empty tooth socket. The tooth grew out of the socket and through the gums, as a natural tooth would. After eleven weeks the engineered tooth had matured. It had a similar shape, hardness and response to pain or stress as a natural tooth, and worked equally well for chewing. The researchers suggested that using similar techniques in humans could restore function to patients with organ failure.

Takashi Tsuji, PhD. Tokyo University of Science A ‘tooth germ’ implanted in a mouse’s jaw grew into a fully functioning tooth with the properties of a natural one.

In ancient times, as well as in some modern-day primitive tribes, tooth mutilations have carried ritualistic or cosmetic importance. One of the most notable examples is the famous Mayan skulls which still carry teeth inlayed with precious stones.  These inlays were made of a variety of minerals of beautiful colors, including jadeite, iron pyrites, hematite, turquoise, quartz, serpentine and cinnabar.

The known history of dental implants begins more than 1300 years ago with this ancient Mayans artifact.

A 1930s archaeological dig led by Dr. Wilson Popenoe in Honduras turned up the ancient dental inlays. Similar discoveries were made when excavating ancient Egyptian artifacts. It was decades after these archaeological discoveries before the modern world caught up with the Mayans’ dental technology.

It was only in 1907 that a new and accurate method of casting gold inlays was announced by Dr. William H. Taggart. This technique was called the disappearing wax technique. He patented this technique but lost his patents when it was discovered that Dr. Philbrook of Denison, Iowa had written an article concerning gold inlay castings 25 years earlier. A copy of this article was found in the dental library of the University of Iowa.

• According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, approximately 34,000 people will be affected by oral cancer in the United States this year and roughly 8,000 will die. This translates to one death every hour of every day.

• A 2007 study conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and published by the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) nowadays is strongly associated with oral cancer among people even without traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol abuse.

Any dental office with attention to the holistic nature of dental treatment will  now offer an important adjunctive screening test, the Vizilite, to catch oral cancer as early as possible.

An annual ViziLite Plus exam, after a conventional visual examination, represents an integral part of comprehensive oral-cancer screenings. The screenings help dentists detect oral cancer in its early stages, as well as precancerous tissue. Detection promotes early intervention and prolongs life expectancy.

In the past, oral cancer predominately struck men, adults over 40, African Americans, smokers and heavy alcohol drinkers. The new cancer-screening procedure “ViziLite® Plus with TBlue630″ is simple, quick,  non-invasive, pain-free and effective. We found that ‘Humana Dental’ will cover the screening once a year beginning April 1, 2008, and we are sure that other insurance companies will or may have already started to follow.

The white shell of enamel covering our teeth is the hardest substance in our body.

Enamel has growth rings just like trees. The growth pattern may be interrupted at any phase during the embryonic phase of tooth formation, such as an intense episode of malnutrition, emotional stress or disease, giving rise to changes in these growth rings.

Sometimes these can be so pronounced that we see them as ring-like defects around baby or adult teeth, depending on when the growth retardation occurred in early life. These defects are sometimes called “enamel hypoplasia”, and are more prone to decay.

Depending upon which teeth they are found on and which part of the tooth they are located on, we can extrapolate to the time period, within a few months, in which that interruption happened in pre-partum or post-partum life.