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Bad Dentistry - Dentist Did Not Inform Patient of Alternatives

What follows below is a real case study submitted by a reader of this website. It describes how their health was harmed by bad dentistry.

Hi Ramie, thanks for the work you are doing.

I am a 46 year old woman, I have had a number of sad experiences with the dentist, and thus have avoided them for the past 23 years, with the exception of going for a check-up and cleaning 7 years ago.

As a child I ate unlike my parents had eaten; mine was the first generation in our region to have access to junk food. My parents grew up in rural Newfoundland. I think Dr. Weston Price may have written about Nfld, as it was a place that had not changed much in hundreds of years, and had a traditional diet up til the 1960s, at least in the rural areas, which were unreached by roads until then. My parents reached adulthood and had never had a cavity, but if you had a toothache for any reason then the tooth was pulled. They were eating white bread by then too, so things were starting to go downhill. Otherwise they had lots of fish, cod liver oil (my grandmother used to drink it in a cup sometimes) and root vegetables.

As I mentioned, my diet contained much more sugar foods, jams, biscuits, candy, although we still ate lots of fish, vegetables, and cod liver oil. I started getting cavities when I was around eight. Also, I had dental surgery at that time, because the dentist recommended an adult tooth be pulled (one premolar) to make room as my mouth was crowded with teeth. They also took out two wisdom teeth that were still in the gum. I remember when my mother told me I had to go in and have it done I pleaded with them, saying "there must be another way!" When they said no, that was the only thing there was to do, I laid down on the floor, crying. I knew in my heart there had to be other ways to deal with these things. But no one in the area even had braces then, teeth were just taken for granted, and old people would have dentures and that was it.

When I was 12 there were more cavities to be filled as well. The dentist also said my gums were red, I needed to brush them. He neglected to tell me how, or what kind of brush to use. I was used a brush with non-polished tips. So I sawed away at the gums for two weeks til the next appointment, despite the bleeding and severe pain it caused. I thought I was doing the right thing. At my appointment the damage was done. He took one look and said "What kind of brush are you using!?" I had performed a kind of surgery, I literally sawed the gums away from the teeth. He gave me a soft brush and showed me how to do it right, which he should have done in the first place. My gums have never recovered, and though they are healthy and pink now, they are quite recessed everywhere, thanks to that *#@*#.

I have a total of 12 cavities. Some are in my front teeth, which were filled with composite. They stain and it's ugly. I do my best with what I have, and I keep a hope that there still may be healing possible even for the filled teeth. And here is why I say that.

When I was 16 I read in a book by a minister that cavities come from eating sugar, not from lack of toothpaste and brushing etc. It struck me as true. I didn't want any more cavities. I gave up sugar from then on. My family also had been making changes, eating whole grains etc. I boycotted anything with sugar, and that encouraged my mother to make things without adding any as well. I started reading all about natural foods, cooking, growing organic foods, raw milk, etc.

When I was 17 I went to university in California. There I drank raw milk from Altadena Dairies, as that was what they were serving in the cafeteria. I also continued with cod liver oil, no sugar, and whole foods in general.

The good news is that since since the age of 16 I have not had one new cavity. All the dental work I've had since then has been to replace aging fillings. Only one has been replaced, so that means most of them are over 30 years old, some as old as 38 years old.

Spontaneous Healing of Hole in Tooth

When I was in my 30s, I was eating something crunchy one day and I bit into something else, a piece of filling had chipped off. It was from the back side of one of my front teeth, which had had a filling in the middle part that covered up to perhaps 20% of the back of the tooth. The filling chipped on the edge, leaving a round little hole at that place, I looked at it with two mirrors, and it was big enough to feel with my tongue. I would say it was about 2mm in diameter, a bit less than 1/8 inch. I felt depressed about it, but went about my business, and just ignored it. About six months after that I was brusing my teeth and I realized the whole was not there... I went and got my hand mirror and looked with a light in the bathroom mirror... the hole had filled in on its own! I could see a kind of line where it had filled and met the rest of the tooth. In fact, that filling has gradually worn away or chipped away to where it is covering only about 5% of the back of the tooth (instead of 20%). Where the filling is gone, healthy tooth material has filled in. I am feeling it with my tongue right now, and I just went in and had a look in the mirror to estimate the amount of filling composite left there (it's easy to see because it's discolored compared to the tooth enamel). Also, this area has enamelled over. It is hard and indistinguishable from the rest of the tooth that is whole.

So it does give me hope. There was no decay active there, just as there is none active in my mouth, and has not been for all those years. The doomed "soft" teeth I had changed when I changed my dietary habits all those years ago. But now I am left dealing with the damage of the past, and what to do about it.

I have not been going to get old fillings replaced, because I don't want to lose more tooth body as they drill or refill or cap them or whatever. I want the fillings gone and tooth to grow back in the holes.

It seems to me that one reason this drilled hole filled in was that it was small enough and kind of enclosed... But if one small area can fill in, why not a larger area, one bit at a time? Has anyone experimented with this? I wish I could find a dentist open to working with this somehow!

Also, I started asking people I knew if they had ever had a cavity heal. Several of them told me they did. So I know this kind of healing is possible.

Now, I wasn't doing everything on your protocol. However, I was doing some of it, like NO junk, no sugar. I soaked all grains at the time for a few hours and rinsed them before cooking in fresh water, or I ate sourdough breads which were fermented. I was eating very little dairy or animal products except butter and sour cream. I was eating seaweed, lots of vegetables, and I have taken cod liver oil since I was born, with short periods in between where I kind of forgot about it and then got back on it.

I am willing to make more changes now if it means more dental healing is possible. I would like to make contact with others who believe healing even of dentist-damaged teeth is possible. I have been thinking about this for a long time. And now my old fillings have about had it (30+ years is a long time!). I am looking for more solutions as to how to work with healing and bringing about more tooth material.

One more experience. A few years ago part of a large molar filling chipped off. It was sensitive, but I just left it, didn't chew on it, and did my thing. It recovered and must have laid down more material over it, as it desensitized. Then another big piece of it came out this past year. It was very sensitive and I think for a while there my root was inflamed. I used oil of oregano, and stopped eating organic chocolate and some other treats I'd fallen into having. It recovered, and now the tooth seems to have laid down more material over itself again. I can see how rushing to the dentist would have caused a root canal, because refilling it then would have put too much pressure on the nerve. Now it feels normal, and I keep an eye on it with the dental mirror, and am getting back to eating 100% healthy again. My concern is if all my big molar fillings fall out at once I don't know how I'll navigate. But I'm taking it one day at a time.

One other thing I read about and have used is a horsetail tea preparation that has been used by some practitioners to regenerate tooth and gum in people with problems. I can send you the recipe if you like, or post it or something? It is high in silica, which is what the teeth will use to repair the crystalline structure.

There is something else I have been doing that might have helped as well. I use Ecodent toothpowder, which is supposed to naturally harden the enamel. They used to have SLS in it but now do not, so I would recommend it as a help.

I hope some others can take hope from my experiences, and that more information might be forthcoming on healing experiences, and possiblities to heal the damage done. Like I said when I was eight, "there must be another way!" I still believe that.

Sincerest best wishes,

Carmel Smith

Ramiel Nagel's (author of Cure Tooth Decay) comments:

When dentists are not aware of the power of a good diet, they drill, and drill and drill. Likewise when patients are not aware of the power of a good diet, the dentist is compelled to drill a big hole because the patient will continue to eat poorly. This note shows the power of a good diet.

Why Bad Dentistry?

I decided to create an area on my website to focus on bad dentistry. Many people have kept quiet about the mistreatment of their teeth by dentists. I do not encourage people to avoid dentists, but in order to get people to go to the dentist, the dentist must provide excellent care. Unfortunately most do not. This list can help you find a good dentist.

Modern dentistry, in general, damages our teeth. It drills away too much healthy tooth structure. It places toxic materials in our mouths, and recommends treatments that don't last over the long term. Moving beyond bad dentistry means using the book, Cure Tooth Decay, to help you remineralize your cavities naturally.

You can submit a story about how dentistry has negatively harmed your life by sending an e-mail to: testimonial@curetoothdecay.com
Make sure to include the name you want posted on your testimonial, a little bit about yourself, and how you were harmed by bad dentistry. You do not need to remain silent about the harm done to your mouth. Because I do not want to be in the middle of any type of dispute I will not post the name of the bad dentist.

Other people have learned the secrets to stopping cavities with the published book Cure Tooth Decay