Book Review: Beyond Amalgam
The Hidden Health Hazard Posed by Jawbone Cavitations by Suzin Stockton, Power of One Publishing 2003
This book is written by a natural health writer and researcher whose own general and dental health has been severely affected by the topic of this book: Jaw cavitations.
In fact, so severe were her problems that after several corrective surgeries she ended up having all but her six lower front teeth removed in order to remedy the problem.
This book is a cri de coeur that the subject be recognised and addressed and that other sufferers may come to identify the causative role of jaw cavitations in their own health problems.
It was the following short paragraph in Dr Hulda Clark's 1993 book, The Cure For All Cancers that first introduced the author to the topic.
"A properly cleaned socket which is left after an extraction will heal and fill with bone. Dentists routinely do NOT clean the socket of tissue remnants or infected bone. A dry socket (really an infected socket) is a common result. These sockets never fully heal. Thirty years after an extraction, a cavitation will still be there. It is a form of osteomyelitis, when means bone infection."
Dr Hulda Clark, The Cure for all Cancers
At the time she was unknowingly suffering from the systemic effects of advanced necrotic jaw cavitations and it took her some years to identify the problem and then find a dentist who was able to effectively treat the issue. She initially had 11 cavitations treated and she supplies her surgical photographs both in the book and on her website (see below).
In the preface she states that many of the current problems with correctly diagnosing the underlying cause of a variety of conditions lie with the artificial division of the body into body parts and specialities. And in particular the division of responsibility and concern between the care of the mouth and teeth delegated to dentists and that of the rest of the body which is the province of doctors.
This means that doctors don't ask about, or understand, dental and oral health issues and that, other than to rule out specific health problems that impact dental treatment; dentists don't really concern themselves with the general health of their patients either.
This means that important causative links are being overlooked daily by dentists and doctors all over the globe and that much preventable suffering ensues as a consequence.
What is a cavitation?
Ms Stockton describes the periodontal ligament as a hammock in which the tooth is suspended and that, if left after extraction, will cause problems sooner or later. She compares it to the afterbirth that follows the delivery of a baby explaining that if the afterbirth is left in, the death of the mother will be the most likely outcome.
The remaining periodontal ligament creates a barrier to the formation of new blood vessels and bone, so that incomplete bone healing occurs. However, the gum will heal over the top of the socket and a thin surface layer of bone may form under which the bony cavity remains. These cavitations usually remain undetected, are not usually apparent on x-ray and may not give any overt local signs of being an issue.
Bacteria and toxins become trapped in the periodontal ligament and the bacteria present mutate into anaerobic forms causing decomposition and tissue necrosis which can spread internally within the bone. While infection may be present the problem essentially involves restricted blood flow to the area so that the required nutrients and oxygen cannot be delivered and toxins removed effectively from the extraction site.
This is known as ischaemia and bone death due to poor blood supply (known as osteonecrosis) was differentiated from an infection of the bone (known as osteomyelitis) a century ago. In this way cavitations can become a focal point of low grade infection that can affect the entire body.
Biopsies of cavitations have revealed the presence of as many as 30 species of bacteria and also lymphocytes which have mutated and become abnormal (multinucleated monocytes). Although the bacterial flora detected is a potent mix, the problems cavitations pose seem largely to be due to the toxins produced.
Some of these chemicals are extremely toxic and some are even deadly poisons. Dr Boyd Haley of the University of Kentucky classified toxins and bacteria from cavitations as being "Some of the most toxic substances known to man" and Dr Thomas Levy MD states that they can be 1,000 times more toxic than botulism in their effect on enzyme systems.
It is possible that the widespread use of antibiotics may not kill infectious bacteria, but merely terminate the immune response, forcing the body to accept them. This may produce "a conditional surrender rather than a victory" and encourage bacteria to mutate into more potent forms creating the problems posed by cavitations.
Cavitations can grow to become quite large and Dr Thomas Levy MD describes a kind of intraosseous gangrene which can grow through the blood vessels, tunnel around adjacent teeth, previous extractions and existing live teeth with one dentist reporting a cavitation of 6 cm. Fifty years ago, Dr Patrick Stortebecker MD, PhD identified that the microorganisms involved spread via the cranial veins, the trigeminal nerve and other cranial nerves.
Although extractions are the major cause of cavitations, they can also form as a result of:
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Other surgery/trauma
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Endodontic treatment
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Cushing's syndrome (excessive cortisol production by the adrenal glands) or use of corticosteroids
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Radiotherapy
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Smoking and
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Pregnancy and/or oestrogen therapy such as the contraceptive pill or HRT.
Cavitations: The size of the problem
The extraction of some teeth, particularly wisdom teeth, often result in the formation of a cavitation and in the foreword Dr Christopher Hussar, a dentist and osteopath, suggests that wisdom teeth are badly misnamed and that they really should be known as the 'teeth of misfortune' in recognition of the trouble they bring.
Many wisdom teeth are ultimately extracted due to impaction and the tissues surrounding wisdom teeth frequently become chronically diseased prior to extraction. The nerves in wisdom teeth can also die (chronic pulpitis), the surrounding bone can become ischaemic (necrotic) and infected bone can be left behind after extraction.
Any food or other debris (such as the abrasive agents used in toothpaste) that becomes impacted in the socket can degenerate releasing toxins which may account for subsequent chronic pain, sinusitis, arthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain, multiple sclerosis (MS) and/or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
In their search for answers few sufferers of these conditions and few practitioners ever consider the possibility that these problems may have a dental or oral cause and certainly not one that can be so hard to detect.
"Eighty percent of patient illness I find in my practice originates in the mouth. Daily I continue to be astounded at the worldwide impairment that oral disease has on human health."
Dr Christopher Hussar, DDS, DO
In his clinical experience of treating cavitations, Dr Hussar says that he has witnessed cures of such diverse conditions as headaches, blindness, arthritis, autoimmune disease, tinnitus, fibromyalgia, ear pain, neck pain and the disappearance of cancerous tumours.
There are indications that cavitations from old extraction sites and other areas of trauma to the jawbone are a serious and widespread problem. An estimate of the number of routine extractions that result in cavitations runs as high as 80-90% and the farther back in the mouth the extraction, the more likely they are to occur.
Drs Thomas Levy MD and Hal Huggins DDS showed a 77% overall incidence of cavitations, with 85% for extracted wisdom teeth. They state that in half of all cavitations, the cause cannot be identified but 7% of cases occur in women between 35 and 64 years of age. Further, they estimate that one-third of the population have cavitations in more than one quadrant of the mouth and 10% of the population have lesions in all four quadrants.
However, because of their obscurity and the lack of practitioner familiarity with them, these holes in the jawbone routinely evade detection. People affected are often misdiagnosed and mistreated or told "It's all in their heads." They may frequently have failed to respond to conventional and even alternative treatment modalities and this effect will not be eliminated until such time as the cause is identified and adequately treated.
The diagnosing of cavitations
One of the reasons cavitations have gone unrecognised is the fact that there may be no overt signs on x-ray or the signs may be subtle and easily missed.
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There has to be destruction of 30-50% of the bone before changes in density are detectable on an x-ray.
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The remaining outline of the extracted tooth should not be visible within 2 years of extraction and if seen after that time may indicate the presence of a cavitation.
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There may be a change of bony texture and/or destruction of the compact bone surrounding the inferior dental nerve (the nerve that runs through the lower jaw at the ends of the roots of the teeth).
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Microcalcifications may be detectable using a sonogram.
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Cavitat® is a bone scanning thermogram specifically designed for use in the mouth and shows the circulation or lack thereof to the tissues and can reveal the 'cold' areas of cavitations.
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Electrodermal screening can be used to measure energy flows through the energy meridians of the body to detect pathology and other blockages.
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Although non-invasive, a CAT or MRI scan can show cavitations but is expensive, exposes the individual to radiation, may be interpreted by third party who is not familiar with the concept of cavitations and/or the signs may be easily missed.
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Neural therapy works by using diagnostic anaesthetics in the mouth to determine whether symptoms in distant body parts are affected eg: pain in the knee.
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Muscle testing can also be used to localise pathology in the mouth.
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Cavitations can also be responsible for hyperaesthesia (highly sensitive areas) or for areas of the mouth that are difficult to anaesthetise.
Treating cavitations
When it comes to treatment, injecting biological medicines and other such suggestions into the cavitation site categorically do not work and there is no easy way around the problem other than surgery.
The goal of surgery is to remove the necrotic periodontal ligament and dead bone along with 1 mm of surrounding bone - just like removing a cancerous tumour. The disruption causes the bone cells (osteocytes) to change into osteoblasts which generate new bone and the creation of a clean field and blood clot enables healing.
In treating cavitations as a cause of chronic facial pain, Drs Bennet and Brawn report complete recovery in 60% of cases, mild to occasional pain post-operatively in 14% and no improvement in 26% of sufferers.
Dr Jerry Bouquot DDS, MSD, reports a 70% overall cure rate but with a strong tendency to recur in 80% of patients who fail to respond to initial surgery. These individuals may have some sort of underlying coagulation disorder which prevents the formation of blood clots and this may be particularly the case in relation to lower wisdom teeth and any socket that became infected or 'dry' post-operatively.
The presence of mercury in the jawbone is known to kill cells by starving them of oxygen and some practitioners advise the use of hyperbaric oxygen before and after surgery to improve oxygenation of the affected area.
Post-surgical recovery
Recovering after cavitation surgery requires a nutrient-dense all natural diet.
According to the research of Dr Weston Price who studied the transition from indigenous diets to the western diet in the 1930s, the native diet had both ten times more vitamins and minerals than the diet that replaced it so that we all may be grossly vitamin and mineral deficient and tooth decay may ultimately be a vitamin deficiency disease.
The indigenous people of the world invariably have broad faces which accommodate wisdom teeth. The fact is that the jaws shrank within one generation when transitioning to the nutrient depleted Western diet.
Some experience rapid remission of symptoms after cavitation surgery, but there is a tendency for the cavitations to recur. Dr LaMarche recounts the case of a man who suffered intense trigeminal neuralgia as a consequence of which he had all his teeth removed and cavitation surgery on three occasions. His pain went only to ultimately return and it became so intense that he committed suicide but bequeathed his head to Dr LaMarche!
A history of cavitations
The irony is that none of this is new knowledge.
In fact, cavitations were first identified by G V Black, the 'father' of modern dentistry and the developer of dental amalgam nearly 200 years ago. He described a kind of chronic osteitis involving a "cell-by-cell bone death" with the "unique ability to produce extensive bone destruction without redness and swelling of the overlying tissue and without increasing the patient's body temperature".
Since then various physicians and dentists have been 'discovering' and naming the problem afresh for centuries as the following list of just some of the alternative names that cavitations have gone by shows.
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Ischaemic osteonecrosis
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Chronic osteomyelitis
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Avascular necrosis
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Intraosseous ischaemia
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Ratner's bone cavity
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Alveolar osteopathosis
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Robert's bone cavity
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Neuralgia Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis (NICO)
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Alveolar cavitation pathosis
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Trigger point bone cavity
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Interference field
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Invisible osteomyelitis
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Aseptic osteonecrosis and
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Chronic osteitis
Dr D B Phemister coined the term 'cavitation' in the 1930s and the foci of infection theory championed by such luminaries as Dr Weston Price was dismissed around that time as being incompatible with the prevailing medical theory.
Various articles appeared in the 1950s and 1960s and there was a symposium in 1993 examining cavitations in relation to chronic facial pain. Hal Huggins mentions cavitations in his 1993 book It's All in Your Head and in 1995 Dr Jerry E Bouquot DDS, MS, a former pathology professor at the University of West Virginia published a paper reviewing research into cavitations.
In spite of the fact that cavitations have been recognised by both physicians and dentists for centuries as a cause of systemic health problems, the American Dental Association currently refuses to accept that they exist.
If your chronic health problems may have started subsequent to a tooth extraction and particularly if you had an infected or 'dry' socket or the extraction was of a wisdom tooth, it might be worth exploring the possibility that some of your problems may relate to this overlooked but serious cause.
Further resources
To buy the book click for UK or US Amazon or for an article about cavitations by Suzin Stockton, or for Suzin Stockton's website. Photographs of her cavitations and surgery are also available under Dental Articles on her website.
"If all dentists were to read this book, this horror of a practice (of using amalgam) would end overnight."
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