Dental cavitations and cavitation infections (ischemic osteonecrosis)

A common and significant health problem according to authors such as the late George Meinig DDS as well as dentists Drs. Graeme Munro-Hall and others, dental cavitation infections are rarely recognised since they are difficult to detect on x-rays and their presence is not taught in dental school.

What is a dental cavitation and how is it formed?

A dental cavitation can form - and frequently does - after some trauma affecting the jaw. It is basically a "hole" forming in the jaw bone which can reach the size of a thumb tip and larger.

Most often, cavitation infections are triggered after a tooth has been (improperly) extracted, particularly in the case of wisdom teeth and molars in adults (children rarely develop them). In fact, according to Cavitat Medical Technologies, Inc., some 80% of all extractions performed on adults eventually turn into cavitation infections.

There are several pathways by which a jawbone cavitation can arise due to technical errors and/or failure to thoroughly remove any underlying infection around the extracted tooth.

When a tooth (even a healthy one) is extracted, the socket and jaw bone around it are typically cracked or fractured which reduces the blood supply to the traumatised bone and thus sets up the perfect stage for a cavitation to form.

Additionally, teeth that are pulled often have infected roots and/or membranes, and unless all of the infected material is carefully removed together with the tooth, some of the infectious material will be left behind.

The blood produced during the extraction will clot in the socket, which gradually closes sealing in the bacteria which happily multiply and start a cavitation infection.

In most all cases, the end result (which can take years to accomplish and is usually painless with no signs of acute infection such as swelling, redness etc.) seems to be the formation of a hollow centre or cavity lined with dead bone (this bone death or ischemic osteonecrosis is due to poor perfusion of oxygen from the blood). The body responds by sealing the area off with fat.

Other ways for cavitations to form

The jaws are not the only bones in the human body where cavitation infections can arise - orthopaedic surgeons have long known them to occur after various traumas to the skeleton.

Since cavitations typically originate from an interruption of the blood supply to the bone with subsequent bone death, any accident inflicting major injury to the bone can cause a cavitation infection, with the dead bone allowing bacteria to settle in the necrotic area.

Regarding jawbone cavitations, in addition to physical trauma such as falling on your chin or receiving a blow to your jaw, root canal^[4] and orthodontic treatment^[5] can also start a cavitation infection in your jaw. Jawbone cavitations are also found under impacted teeth (frequently the wisdom teeth), as well as under infected or dead teeth.

Last but not least, dental injections can trigger a cavitation infection in your jawbone. While this may partially be due to the fact that the local anaesthetic typically reduces the blood supply, it is permissible to speculate here whether this would mostly apply to injections done quickly rather than slowly.

Based on personal experience, the former will hurt like hell (i.e. inflict damage to the tissue) while the latter will be actually painless.^[6] But from experience it frequently seems that time is money so some dentists may not take the bit of extra time it takes to make injections painless.

Effects and symptoms of cavitations

Cavitation infections can be silent, painless and symptomless for many years, but they also can have wide-ranging and extremely serious effects. They can cause trigeminal neuralgia, facial/jaw pain and/or chronic migraine headaches.*

When this kind of pain is mistaken for toothache, sound teeth are frequently extracted or root-treated with all the potential consequences (such as more focal infections).^[2]

Systemic effects of cavitations can include afflictions such as chronic fatigue syndrome (see Testimonial), inability to concentrate, allergies, chronic iritis, Parkinson's-like tremor, anxiety and more.

Since dental cavitations will typically form a dental interference field and/or focal infection, also refer to the numerous case studies of the latter published under the respective site section, including the overview Removal of dental / oral interference fields and focal infections - list of diseases healed (sometimes instantly) as reported by dentist Dr. Ernesto Adler.

* There is a special term - NICOs (neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis, i.e. a cavity lined with dead bone that causes pain) - to designate cavitations that lead to neuralgic pain. The landmark book Root Canal Cover-Up by Dr. George E. Meinig includes a "Brief Review of NICO" written by Z. E. Bouquot, DDS, MSD.

Can cavitations self-heal or be made to disappear DIY?

Not according to the authors mentioned on this page who argue that the infection is encapsulated and inaccessible to the blood supply/immune system and that the only way to get on top of such infections is removing the affected tooth or teeth and surgically cleaning the jaw bone.

(Not only) out of sheer principle, Healing Teeth Naturally heartily disagrees :-). One of the reasons is the following: if cavitation infections manage to have systemic effects, there must be an "exit" somewhere allowing them to spread. And an exit typically also serves as an entryway, so there should exist a natural access to them as well.

Additionally and relatedly, even Wikipedia (not exactly known to be "alternatives-friendly") reports that osteonecrosis (avascular necrosis, ischemic bone necrosis) in various parts of the human skeleton has been seen to spontaneously remit (this admission at least can be found in Wikipedia's German version).

The main proactive approaches Healing Teeth Naturally recommends to try before submitting to surgery include a radical dietary upgrade, vitamin D and K2 supplements, oil pulling, water pulling, uropathy, MSM, various disinfecting herbs, and minimizing resp. protecting yourself to the extent possible from Exposure to electromagnetic fields and radiation (EMFs and EMRs), all combined together.

For specific suggestions, also see further down "Dental cavitation infections: therapeutic self-help approaches?".

Removing dental cavitation infections without surgery

See Treating hidden cavitations, osteitis (bone inflammation) and osteolytic processes (dissolution of bone tissue) in the jaw Could therapeutic intraosseous injections be an alternative to surgery?

Resolution of cavitational osteonecrosis through NeuroModulation Technique, a novel form of intention-based therapy: a clinical case study.

Published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in 2009 (see www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19769473), this groundbreaking peer-reviewed "woowoo" case study involving eleven cavitation patients shows that treatment with “informational medicine” (addressing the informational source of disease and thus the possibly "most overlooked roadblock to healing") may be able to induce regression of osteonecrotic jawbone lesions with an efficacy akin to that of surgical intervention.

For details on this new science-based protocol to promote healing (taking advantage inter alia of the phenomenon of quantum entanglement) and to read the full study including patients' CAVITAT scans, see http://neuromodulationtechnique.com/ClinicalResults.cfm .

Cleaning / removing dental cavitation infections surgically

Depending on the size of the cavitation, this can be a major operation. The bone is opened with a drill, the soft, dead, infected bone is scraped away and the underlying remaining healthy bone thoroughly washed and disinfected (Drs Munro-Hall use saline, iodine and oil of cloves for this purpose).

After a cavitation has been thoroughly professionally cleaned in this manner, the above-mentioned symptoms and afflictions will frequently disappear quickly.

How to tell whether you have a cavitation infection

Try applying increasing pressure with your fingers on both sides of the jaw-bone above a suspicious tooth. A painful sensation as you press harder (likely) indicates the presence of a cavitation.

Since as mentioned, x-rays will hardly give a clue as to the presence of a cavitation (while simultaneously increasing thyroid cancer risk), a specialised machine, the Cavitat Ultrasound Scanner, has in recent decades come to the rescue.

A Cavitat scan will provide a reliable means of determining the presence of a cavitation as well as its location and extent in three dimensions (thanks to the cavitation infection being hollow).

Dental cavitation infections: therapeutic self-help approaches?

The following suggestions are for those who either for financial and/or other reasons don't wish to have their (presumed or confirmed) cavitation infections treated via surgery, or who don't wish to take the time to actually find the (likely rare) dentist who uses a Cavistat scanner and is knowledgeable about cavitations and how to clean them.

Here again, the gentle reader is reminded of his/her responsibility for his/her own health (see Disclaimer). If any of the following home remedies shouldn't help, they are in any case unlikely to do any harm.

(Be aware that cavitations though frequently being "silent", could still be confused with the "simpler" but generally "louder" tooth root infections for which Healing Teeth Naturally has created the dedicated page Tooth root infection remedies: nontoxic, non-invasive and/or natural healing approaches based on anecdotal evidence.)

1 Salt water rinses to "dry out" focal infections

Sodium chloride molecules migrating via osmosis into the jaw bone may be able to reach into the cavitation and kill microorganism. To allow deeper penetration, you may wish to hold the brine in your mouth for as long as possible.^[3]

2 Borage oil (and spirulina): an impressive testimonial

"For several years, I had a rotting molar tooth which had previously been (multiply) treated and filled (first with mercury amalgam, then with gold). I finally just left it to its own devices after the newest filling had fallen out. This led to the gum underneath the tooth (the root area) becoming hard and inflated (sticking out up to 1.5 cm) as well as painful upon finger pressure.

While I do not know the differential diagnosis (i.e. was this a 'tooth root infection' or a cavitation - remember that infected and dead teeth can also trigger cavitations - this is how I eventually got rid of it (after living with it for some three years).

In addition to a healthy diet (which I always observe), I regularly applied tea tree oil and finally tried EFT which somewhat reduced the strangely sticking-out bulge (remember everything is energy). One day I also introduced borage oil which I took together with spirulina, at a rate of perhaps a tablespoon of oil a day. Approximately three weeks into this practice, I noticed the bulge flattening or 'deflating', and to my greatest surprise, completely disappearing within three days.

While the molar itself continues to be some kind of a 'ruin', even hard finger pressure on the gum below it will only elicit the slightest of discomfort today (if any). I attribute this healing to the effect of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA - of which borage oil is a rich source) to which anti-inflammatory and other healing properties are ascribed. I had regularly taken spirulina (incidentally itself a source of GLA) beforehand without dramatic results so I don't presume this unexpected outcome to be due to spirulina."

3 Olive oil and cabbage leaf packs: nature's "secret healing weapons"

Eminent naturopath Father Thomas Häberle (more about him at oil pulling) writes that he reaped great successes using olive oil massages for diseases of the head and bones. Thanks to its ability to penetrate the hardest bones, olive oil can bring healing in these areas. It is anti-inflammatory, penetrates deeply and its effects are long-lasting.

He also combined the olive oil with salt which increases the heat and thus the enhanced blood supply produced by olive oil massages. Minor jaw infections will typically yield to daily olive oil massages.

Thomas Häberle often prescribed cabbage leaf packs as well, a time-honoured folk remedy with powerful detoxification and healing abilities. Background on healing with cabbage leaf packs at Medicinal cabbage leaf poultices Dr. Blanc: background on the therapeutic topical application of Brassica oleracea, and on Father Thomas Häberle's books at Tumors healed thanks to cabbage leaf poultices and ... unconditional love.

4 Oil pulling

Oil pulling is a powerful dental healing modality which in itself may be extremely helpful with cavitation infections, especially when olive oil rather than another oil is used.

5 Ozone

can be used to kill bacteria in cavitations and extraction sockets (if it is able to reach them). Alternatively, hydrogen peroxide should have a similar effect.

Promising results have been obtained with ozone at least in bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw^[7], see studies listed in the biomedical database PubMed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=osteonecrosis+of+the+jaw+ozone).

6 MMS

See Brushing teeth with MMS: Using chlorine dioxide aka Miracle Mineral Supplement instead of toothpaste.

How to prevent the formation of cavitation infections

Avoid any injury to the jaw and teeth as well as the other potential cavitation "triggers" mentioned above. Strive to live as healthily as possible and fortify your body and immune system with natural superfoods and frequent detoxification measures.

If a tooth extraction truly should become unavoidable

... find a dentist who uses a protocol such as the one suggested by Drs. Munro-Hall in their book Toxic Dentistry Exposed which aims to be as gentle and thorough as possible to avoid cracking the bone and leaving infected material behind (a time-consuming procedure). In his book Root Canal Cover-Up, Dr. George E. Meinig details a similar protocol for removing root-filled teeth (see chapter 24: "Extraction Protocol").

How to find a dentist in your area who uses a cavitat scanner

This may or may not be particularly easy. Personally I have no information on dentists using a cavitat scanner or how many dentists use one and where in the world they practise. I would suggest contacting the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (www.IAOMT.org) or, if they should be closer to where you live, the Australasian Society of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (ASOMAT).

You could also try to find contact details of the manufacturer Cavitat Medical Technologies, Alba, United States (in case they are still in business). Please let me know if you are successful.

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Footnotes

1 For greater detail, the interested reader is referred to Toxic Dentistry Exposed.

2 Compare Root Canal Treatment and Tooth Extraction Risks.

3 Salt water overall among other things is the best general toothache remedy.

4 See Interview with George Meinig, DDS & Dr. M. LaMarche on the dangers of cavitations & root canals.

5 More Potential risks of orthodontic treatment

6 Other risks of dental anaesthesia

7 See Potential Serious Side Effects of Conventional (Mainstream/Orthodox) Cancer Treatment (scroll to Osteonecrosis of the jaw [BON], bisphosphonate-associated or due to chemo or radiation.

Miscellaneous Risks Related to Conventional Dental Treatment