Alternative Healing – X – Closing Post on Tooth Infection
Please note that this is quite a lengthy post because there is a lot of information to share, perhaps too much in the end, but I felt compelled to be this detailed after writing so many other posts about this subject.
I’ve been reticent about writing this final post about my experiences with healing a tooth infection using alternative therapies. Why? Well, truth be told, when I started writing this blog I really wasn’t in a position to say that the tooth had been completely healed. Actually, I chose to adopt the philosophy from the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, namely to have such faith that one “act as if” something desired has already occurred. Honestly, I had no doubt in my mind that it was just a matter of focusing on what I wanted (i.e., the healing) and having the necessary patience to allow it to take place.
A few days after my most recent post (4/9/10), in a meditation I got an inspiration that perhaps removing the silver amalgam from the tooth would help it to finally heal completely. That made sense to me given all the research that has been done on mercury fillings and the harmful effects they can have on the body. Fortunately, my new dentist is an open-minded, metaphysically-oriented practitioner who allows her patients a certain amount of leeway in terms of treatment approaches. When I phoned to ask her if she’d be willing (as a first step) to remove the mercury filling and replace it with a composite variety, she agreed and we scheduled an appointment.
On the day of that appointment, she began by matter-of-factly asking me why I had been so relentless about this tooth; what was I trying to prove? Was I trying to prove that I was right and my previous dentist was wrong?? My first response was, “Nothing, I just want to save it,” but she persisted in her questioning. Then, it hit me like a brick in the head – she was right, under the surface I was damned and determined to prove him wrong, because he so patently dismissed my contention that it is possible to heal an infected tooth without a root canal treatment.
Candidly, it was one of those times in life when you know you’re “busted” and the only thing you can do is admit it. With that deeper truth exposed I felt relief, because I no longer had to carry that negative energy. She proceeded to do an examination of the tooth and gum tissue, and indicated that in her view the tooth was actually dead and really did need to be either extracted or have a root canal treatment. While I trusted her opinion, I disagreed largely because just a few weeks prior I actually felt pain in the tooth, which incidentally, occurred right after my best friend passed away. My contention was that the tooth had to be alive, or else how could I feel pain in it? Seeing that we were at an impasse, she asked if I would be willing to have a friend of hers evaluate the X-ray, a retired dentist with 40 years of experience and a real knack for reading X-rays. My answer was affirmative, and we scheduled a follow-up for me to see both of them 5 days later.
When I arrived for the appointment and met the other dentist, I really liked his energy from the get-go and felt comfortable that his opinion could be trusted. He examined the X-ray carefully, then he did a detailed exam; once completed, he reported that in his experience this tooth was indeed dead and needed to be extracted or root-canaled. The only thing he couldn’t be sure of was what exactly caused its demise. When I brought up the pain I had experienced a few weeks earlier, he replied that dead teeth can experience pain around their perimeter because there are other nerves surrounding the tooth.
At that point, I asked if he would be consider to begin removing the amalgam (without Novocain) just to see if perhaps there was life remaining in the nerve chamber. He agreed, and quickly began drilling into the tooth. Well, as much as I was praying to feel pain, the fact was I never felt any whatsoever. So after 2.5 years, regrettably my quest to save the tooth was over. This process also allowed him to determine the cause – a crack that ran through the entire tooth, and which left no option but extraction.
Tears soon filled my eyes, and I said to my dentist, “I feel like such a fool, I went ahead and wrote a bunch of blog posts about saving diseased teeth through alternative means, and now what am I supposed to say to the people who have read this information?” Her reply was something to the effect of: ‘You can tell them that you saved this tooth for over two and half years and also kept the infection localized through all the various steps you took. Not only that, you learned so much about alternative healing modalities that you and many others can now use them in other situations. In this case the tooth was doomed, but it doesn’t mean that another tooth couldn’t be saved; it all depends on the tooth and on the particular pathology.’ I felt better after hearing that, and hope that anyone who’s read about this saga doesn’t feel disappointment with me or the unhappy ending of the story. I really did my best but just wasn’t able to manifest the desired result this time. I learned a ton in the process, and hope that readers of this blog did as well.
There is one final aspect to this story, however, that I really do feel merits emphasis. That is, a great lesson learned here is not to “throw the baby out with the bath water.” Or, put another way, not to totally dismiss conventional dentistry because of one very negative experience with a particular dentist. The fact is, if I hadn’t been so damned determined to heal the situation using alternative means, there might have been a conventional solution to the problem. In this regard, according to the retired dentist, it’s possible that replacing the amalgam early in the process might have been able to save the tooth, as perhaps the crack was small enough at the beginning that it could have been isolated via a strategic adjustment to the bite. I could have then used alternative healing modalities in support of the conventional treatment to strengthen the tooth.
All of that is obviously moot, however, as my #14 tooth is now gone. Even though it was a first molar, it surely served as a “wisdom tooth” in its own right, as the knowledge gained from it will be invaluable to me the rest of my life.
Disclaimer:I must emphasize that the opinions in this post are only that - my opinions, based upon my study of the nature of healing as a spiritual journey. I am not a medical or dental expert and I am not dispensing medical or dental advice advice. With that said, if you use any information on this site without the advice of a licensed medical doctor or dentist, or a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, you do so at your own risk.
I’ve been reticent about writing this final post about my experiences with healing a tooth infection using alternative therapies. Why? Well, truth be told, when I started writing this blog I really wasn’t in a position to say that the tooth had been completely healed. Actually, I chose to adopt the philosophy from the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible, namely to have such faith that one “act as if” something desired has already occurred. Honestly, I had no doubt in my mind that it was just a matter of focusing on what I wanted (i.e., the healing) and having the necessary patience to allow it to take place.
A few days after my most recent post (4/9/10), in a meditation I got an inspiration that perhaps removing the silver amalgam from the tooth would help it to finally heal completely. That made sense to me given all the research that has been done on mercury fillings and the harmful effects they can have on the body. Fortunately, my new dentist is an open-minded, metaphysically-oriented practitioner who allows her patients a certain amount of leeway in terms of treatment approaches. When I phoned to ask her if she’d be willing (as a first step) to remove the mercury filling and replace it with a composite variety, she agreed and we scheduled an appointment.
On the day of that appointment, she began by matter-of-factly asking me why I had been so relentless about this tooth; what was I trying to prove? Was I trying to prove that I was right and my previous dentist was wrong?? My first response was, “Nothing, I just want to save it,” but she persisted in her questioning. Then, it hit me like a brick in the head – she was right, under the surface I was damned and determined to prove him wrong, because he so patently dismissed my contention that it is possible to heal an infected tooth without a root canal treatment.
Candidly, it was one of those times in life when you know you’re “busted” and the only thing you can do is admit it. With that deeper truth exposed I felt relief, because I no longer had to carry that negative energy. She proceeded to do an examination of the tooth and gum tissue, and indicated that in her view the tooth was actually dead and really did need to be either extracted or have a root canal treatment. While I trusted her opinion, I disagreed largely because just a few weeks prior I actually felt pain in the tooth, which incidentally, occurred right after my best friend passed away. My contention was that the tooth had to be alive, or else how could I feel pain in it? Seeing that we were at an impasse, she asked if I would be willing to have a friend of hers evaluate the X-ray, a retired dentist with 40 years of experience and a real knack for reading X-rays. My answer was affirmative, and we scheduled a follow-up for me to see both of them 5 days later.
When I arrived for the appointment and met the other dentist, I really liked his energy from the get-go and felt comfortable that his opinion could be trusted. He examined the X-ray carefully, then he did a detailed exam; once completed, he reported that in his experience this tooth was indeed dead and needed to be extracted or root-canaled. The only thing he couldn’t be sure of was what exactly caused its demise. When I brought up the pain I had experienced a few weeks earlier, he replied that dead teeth can experience pain around their perimeter because there are other nerves surrounding the tooth.
At that point, I asked if he would be consider to begin removing the amalgam (without Novocain) just to see if perhaps there was life remaining in the nerve chamber. He agreed, and quickly began drilling into the tooth. Well, as much as I was praying to feel pain, the fact was I never felt any whatsoever. So after 2.5 years, regrettably my quest to save the tooth was over. This process also allowed him to determine the cause – a crack that ran through the entire tooth, and which left no option but extraction.
Tears soon filled my eyes, and I said to my dentist, “I feel like such a fool, I went ahead and wrote a bunch of blog posts about saving diseased teeth through alternative means, and now what am I supposed to say to the people who have read this information?” Her reply was something to the effect of: ‘You can tell them that you saved this tooth for over two and half years and also kept the infection localized through all the various steps you took. Not only that, you learned so much about alternative healing modalities that you and many others can now use them in other situations. In this case the tooth was doomed, but it doesn’t mean that another tooth couldn’t be saved; it all depends on the tooth and on the particular pathology.’ I felt better after hearing that, and hope that anyone who’s read about this saga doesn’t feel disappointment with me or the unhappy ending of the story. I really did my best but just wasn’t able to manifest the desired result this time. I learned a ton in the process, and hope that readers of this blog did as well.
There is one final aspect to this story, however, that I really do feel merits emphasis. That is, a great lesson learned here is not to “throw the baby out with the bath water.” Or, put another way, not to totally dismiss conventional dentistry because of one very negative experience with a particular dentist. The fact is, if I hadn’t been so damned determined to heal the situation using alternative means, there might have been a conventional solution to the problem. In this regard, according to the retired dentist, it’s possible that replacing the amalgam early in the process might have been able to save the tooth, as perhaps the crack was small enough at the beginning that it could have been isolated via a strategic adjustment to the bite. I could have then used alternative healing modalities in support of the conventional treatment to strengthen the tooth.
All of that is obviously moot, however, as my #14 tooth is now gone. Even though it was a first molar, it surely served as a “wisdom tooth” in its own right, as the knowledge gained from it will be invaluable to me the rest of my life.
Disclaimer:I must emphasize that the opinions in this post are only that - my opinions, based upon my study of the nature of healing as a spiritual journey. I am not a medical or dental expert and I am not dispensing medical or dental advice advice. With that said, if you use any information on this site without the advice of a licensed medical doctor or dentist, or a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, you do so at your own risk.
Posted by Jeff Maziarek at 5/7/2010 8:58 PM 
Categories: Alternative healing
Tags: tooth infection; cracked tooth
Categories: Alternative healing
Tags: tooth infection; cracked tooth
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