When Infected Teeth Produce Disturbance In Other Parts Of The Body.

By: Sung Lee, and George Meinig D.D.S



We are all aware that organisms which produce disease vary greatly in the amount and severity of their virulence. Because teeth are relatively small, it is also generally believed that when a tooth has a properly treated root canal filling, it is impossible for an infection therefrom to overwhelm the patient. Furthermore, many express the opinion that the organisms which cause dental infections are low in virulence and occurrence of any systemic involvement is unlikely or, at best, of minor significance.

One of the first of numerous experiments by Dr. Price was to withdraw the moisture content of an extracted tooth in a drying chamber. Measuring the amount of dehydration showed that roughly five percent of the volume of every root filled tooth is a fluid which can quite readily become a culture medium that can become easily saturated with abundant bacteria.

In another experiment, a root filled tooth was taken from a patient suffering acute endocarditis. The tooth was crushed and the particles washed. The settled wash liquid was then injected into a rabbit. The weight of the organisms injected was determined by counting the number present in the dilution, the actual amount the rabbit received was only a millionth part of the gram. Still, the rabbit became seriously ill with endocarditis. With such a small amount of bacteria involved, the question arose as to whether something more than the bacteria could be the causative agent.

To answer this question,the same crushing and washing of extracted root filled teeth was undertaken, but the liquid was centrifuged, thereby removing the bacteria. Now the one cubic centimeter remaining of bacteria free water like appearing liquid was injected with bacteria cultures alone.

In summarizing this particular research data, Dr.Price clarified what transpired: When infected teeth produce disturbance in other parts of the body,it is not necessary that the quantity of infection be large, nor is it demonstrated that it is necessary that organisms pass throughout the body or to the special tissues involved, but the evidence at hand strongly suggests that soluble poisons may pass from the infected teeth to the lymph or blood circulation, or both, and produce systemic disturbance entirely out of proportion to the quantity of poison involved. The evidence indicates that toxic substance may under certain circumstances sensitize the body or special tissues so that very small quantities of the organisims, which produce that toxin, may produce very marked reactions and disturbances.

In a similar study,instead of testing the effects of root canal filled teeth, an investigation was made of teeth which had pulp or root end infections but had never had root canal treatments. Here again the concern was whether the infection material in teeth had any other contents that were injurious other than microorganisms.

This was an important undertaking because no past records of any studies could be found showing that teeth may contain any injurious substances substances other than bacteria. Large numbers of studies were made by Dr.Price, and others, of the organisims present or developed in infected teeth. These investigations concerned the identifying of organisms present, their normal biologic properties, and their disease, or pathologic producing possibilities.

These procedures involved securing the bacteria found in infected teeth; culturing them in suitable growth media; testing their reactions on various sugars and on animals; and, in addition, determining the character of their structures. In this way, starting with but a few organisms, large numbers could be grown and produced. The availability of sufficient numbers of bacteria allows testing the transference of diseases to animals, the efficiency and suitability of drugs and treatment modalitates, and the ability of the bacteria to adjust to environmental change.

In this connection one of the Dr.Price studies concerned two rabbits which were full brothers and weighed within an ounce or so of each other. They were kept continually in the same environment after birth and were fed the same diet. Freshly extracted infected teeth which had not received endodontic treatment were finely crushed and washed, and the washings centrifuged to throw off any sediment and bacteria. One cubic centimeter of the clear, supernatant liquid was injected into rabbit A. RabbitB, its brother, was the control animal.

Rabbit B continued to gain weight while A slowly began to lose weight, though it had no loss of appetite. Both ate heartily and exercised freely in a roomy cage week after week. Rabbit A kept losing and rabbit B kept gaining weight. At the end of four weeks, A had lost 25 percent of its original weight and B had gained 10 percent. At the end of the fifth week, rabbit A died, having by then lost 37 percent of its weight. Autopsy studies showed a withering away of its tissues with marked atrophy of all muscle tissue, along with changes to its digestive tract.

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