This article accompanies the two-part video below. Click to watch (18 mins total).
Jaw cavitations form when a tooth extraction site fails to heal properly. Such sites may not demonstrate any overt signs of being a problem; however experts estimate that they may be a primary cause of a wide range of chronic, serious and degenerative diseases.
The two unwanted consequences of a tooth extraction are a dry or infected socket and a cavitation and these terms are explained below.
Dry or infected sockets
If a blood clot either fails to form after an extraction or subsequently becomes dislodged, then a ‘dry’ or infected socket will ensue. Here, the exposed bone becomes packed with bacteria and food and areas of infection form in a superficial osteomyelitis and portions of the bone may die in a form of osteonecrosis.
This can be very painful, the socket may smell or taste bad, and the individual affected may feel generally unwell, have a temperature and possibly some swelling. The dentist will usually clean the area out, insert a soothing pack and may prescribe antibiotics.
Eventually the socket will at least appear to heal, but fills in from the base and sides in what is known as healing by secondary intention rather than by healing into a blood clot which is known as healing by primary intention. This can result in very slow healing and may also be associated with sloughing of portions of dead bone which may continue to appear for some months after the extraction and which many patients may mistake as being fragments of tooth. These may be shed naturally or may require removal by the dentist.
The formation of a cavitation
The other problem that can occur further to an extraction (not precluded by the development of a dry socket) is that a cavitation can form. These form when the periodontal ligament that suspends the teeth in the jawbone is not removed. This membrane then serves as a barrier to effective healing preventing the entry of the immature cells into the blood clot that enables effective healing.
In addition, the membrane itself decomposes becoming necrotic and harbouring bacteria and some have likened this to failing to remove the afterbirth after a baby is born. The bacteria involved are mostly thought to be derived from the normal flora of the mouth. However, even the cleanest mouth is heavily infected and although these bacteria largely cause no harm in the environment of a healthy mouth, when permitted entry to the depths of an extraction socket, they morph into their anaerobic forms.
In response to the infection, white blood cells enter the affected area and can mutate developing multiple nuclei. In the attempt by the immune system to destroy the pathogens these cells can also create collateral destruction of the bone. The pus that forms can then spread via the circulation and this further impairs the blood flow which causes areas of devitalised bone to be sequestered and create chronic infection.
This process leads to the development of a hole or cavitation deep within the bone. The problem is that the socket usually apparently heals with the gum growing over the extraction site and a thin layer of surface bone forming. The normal signs of infection such as redness, swelling, pain or running a temperature may also all be absent so that not only are these lesions hidden from view, but there is often no overt sign that there is a problem.
However, although infection plays a role in the development of cavitations, many feel that the problem is essentially caused by poor circulation to the area. This results in both a lack of the nutrients and oxygen required for healing and also in compromised removal of toxins from the region.
Cavitations can also spread through and around adjacent structures such as adjacent teeth, blood vessels, nerves, veins and other extraction sites and can grow to become quite large.
In addition to extractions, root canal treatments are also recognised to introduce bacteria deep within the bone as the canals within the teeth are instrumented and cleaned. And this procedure may also cause a localised osteomyelitis or osteonecrosis around the tips of the roots of the teeth.
Cavitations: Foci of infection
One of the problems posed by cavitations is that they can act as a focus of infection which means that the toxins that they produce and the microorganisms that they harbour can enter the circulation and affect distant body parts. Although focus of infection theory has fallen from favour in allopathic medicine, many natural health practitioners and holistic dentists feel that there is a lot of merit in the concept.
The toxins that cavitations produce may also account for subsequent chronic pain including neuralgia and headaches, and for chronic disorders such as sinusitis, arthritis, fibromyalgia, back pain, multiple sclerosis (MS) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Specialist practitioners treating cavitations report cures of disparate conditions including, blindness, autoimmune disease, tinnitus, fibromyalgia, and the disappearance of cancerous tumours.
Cavitations: Blockage of meridian flows
The second big issue with cavitations is that they can adversely affect the energy meridians that flow through the teeth and jaws. This is a two-way process so that an underlying weakness in an energy meridian may account for why poor healing occurred after an extraction or even why the tooth decayed in the first place.
Equally, the presence of a cavitation or any other pathology on the meridian pathway can cause poor function of the affected organs or systems served by the meridian. For example, the development of a cavitation after extraction of a wisdom tooth may adversely affect the heart, small intestine and hormone production and cavitations forming further to extraction of the first or second molar teeth may cause problems with the large intestine or lung.
The incidence of cavitation formation
Some specialist practitioners estimate that up to 90% of routine extractions may result in the formation of cavitations, and the further back in the mouth the extraction, the more likely they are to occur. They are also estimated to affect half the population with the majority of those affected having multiple cavitation lesions.
Of all sites, lower wisdom tooth extraction sites form cavitations the most frequently. This may be because the area was often necrotic and infected prior to extraction, the bone in this region particularly dense and also because the extraction usually involves a surgical procedure involving removal of bone.
However, because of their obscurity and the lack of practitioner familiarity with cavitations, these holes in the jawbone routinely evade detection. Sufferers may frequently have failed to respond to conventional and even alternative treatments and this effect will not be eliminated until the cause is identified and adequately treated.
Continued in Dental Cavitations 2.
