********** 10 Stars!
Price: US$ 17.47, Available worldwide on Amazon.com
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ISBN: 1890035130
Description
A call for reform worth reading if you have any teeth left.
Reviewer: archimedes_tritium from Pasadena, CA USA
The author makes the point that once a person dies, their teeth may last thousands of years. Yet, while alive and part of an nutritional/immune system, most people are hard-pressed to keep them from rotting out of their mouth within a few years -- and think this is normal.
He lays out the chronology of most people's progressive dental deterioration; the first fillings at 8-12, progressing to crowns in 20's-30's, root canals and bridges in 30's-50's with subsequent extraction and dentures in old age. There is nothing left, after having marched arm-in-arm with the state-of-the-art dental care ... and thinking this is normal, despite folks in other parts of the world living life with a set of choppers the likes of which most dentists never even see.
The author lays out the realities and falsehoods behind each common dental procedure, as well as a dental care profession that has managed to isolate itself from the rest of medicine. This permits denial that the procedures and materials used in dentistry usually result in chronic infections and toxicity that have far-ranging, degenerative health consequences all over the body.
The latest thing is radioactive composite fillings "that show up better on x-rays". Banned from glowing wrist-watches, but OK for implantation in your mouth (the levels are "safe").
The good news is you don't have to wait the generation or two it will take for the policy-making ADA dental leadership (whose egos and prestige are at risk if the last century of treatment methods are recognized as being erroneous and harmful) to die off and reform to set in.
Tooth and gum rot can be arrested and dental health improved by changes in behavior and diet. It's your choice: have the Mountain Dew for breakfast every day, gradually destroy your dental health while setting yourself up for a lifetime of futile, painful dental work that will only establish a range of other chronic infections and diseases ... or don't.
The book lays out the information you need to manage your own dental health and find a dentist more concerned about your health than toeing the party line.
It's remarkable how advances in medicine are thought of as a major benefit of modernity. Yet, considering what's going on with cancer, dentistry, AIDS, in which politics, ego and perpetuating institutions are more important than solutions, perhaps this time will be looked upon even less favorably than when "leeching" was common. At least back then, it was lack of knowledge. Nowadays, the errors are due to perversity; the knowledge exists but is disregarded to perpetuate human power and dodge responsibility for error. Who is living in the Dark Ages?
Reviewed by Kate Lin of The New Times
Reviewer: Kate Lin of The New Times from Seattle, WA USA
Dentistry has never been at the top of my list of things I would like to learn about in this lifetime. In fact, for most of my life, dentistry has been on a different list: "Things I would prefer not to know." But while ignorance is bliss, ignorance can also be costly. The costs come in the form of declining health and money spent for dental treatments that aren't in one's best interest.
Tooth Truth provides some shocking and disturbing information about the current practice of dentistry. By the end of the book, I could see why Dr. Frank Jerome, D.D.S., states in his introduction, "This book is a warning to every person that there is much danger every time they enter a dental office." The dangers include almost every aspect of dentistry, from treatments recommended to the materials used.
Dr. Jerome states, "It is common knowledge among dentists that over 95 percent of all dental treatments are optional." It is important, therefore, that the patient have the information to discern which of these treatments might be beneficial and which might not. Tooth Truth is a book for the consumer, a dental primer, providing an understanding of dental techniques and materials so that informed decisions can be made when your dentist makes recommendations.
For most people, the normal course of action is to accept a dentist's recommendations, have the treatment done, and then forget about it. In contrast, Tooth Truth provides a broader perspective, letting us know the consequences of a particular treatment ten years later so that we can decide whether or not it is wise to have a particular treatment in the first place.
For example, if you know that crowning a tooth increases the probability of needing a root canal later, then you might choose not to have a tooth crowned. Dr. Jerome explains how damaging it is to remove all of a tooth's enamel in order to crown a tooth. Furthermore, we learn that twenty percent of all crowned teeth die. Once the tooth dies, most dentists will want to do a root canal.
Rather than having a tooth crowned, Dr. Jerome suggests either a composite filling or an onlay. An onlay is bonded to the top of the tooth and allows more of the enamel to remain intact. An onlay is far less damaging to the tooth than a crown, yet dentists are less likely to suggest this option. Dentists are taught that they need to "do more crowns to increase practice profitability."
In fact, in quite a variety of areas, dentists do not seem to take into account the toxicity of the treatment being recommended. An example of this is the continued use of mercury in fillings. Dr. Jerome explores the use of mercury in dentistry and discusses its toxicity. Mercury is poisonous to the body, and has been proven to cause birth defects.
In addition to the health threats that mercury poses, the disposal of the mercury-containing amalgam is a noticeable threat to our environment. The mercury-containing amalgam filling is considered hazardous waste before it is put in your mouth, and it is also considered hazardous waste if the filling is ever removed from your mouth. (Yet, somehow it is considered safe while it is in your mouth!) A newspaper reports that 25 percent of the mercury in the air in Denmark comes from crematoriums. Mercury enters the sewers from dental offices and contaminates the environment. Some dental offices in Europe are required to use mercury separators on their sewer lines, but there is no such requirement in the United States.
As it turns out, it is actually quite common to find toxic elements in dental materials. Porcelain, for example, commonly has radioactive material added to help give it luminescence. Nickel, which is carcinogenic, is commonly found in braces and crowns.
In addition to toxic materials, dentists frequently recommend toxic procedures as well. An example of this is the root canal. Since the philosophy of dentistry is to "save every tooth," root canals are frequently recommended in spite of the fact that root canals are a heavy burden on the immune system. According to Dr. Jerome, the acute infection in the tooth may subside, but a chronic infection continues and the bacteria continue to produce toxins.
In contrast to the "save every tooth" philosophy, Dr. Jerome's philosophy is "no tooth is worth damaging your immune system." Dr. Jerome recommends having the tooth pulled rather than leaving the dead tooth in your mouth. In addition, he discusses the importance of properly cleaning the tooth socket after a tooth is extracted.
Those who are familiar with Dr. Hulda Clark's books (The Cure for All Cancers, The Cure for HIV and AIDS, etc.) will recognize this philosophy. In fact, it was through Dr. Clark's books that I first learned about Dr. Jerome, as Dr. Clark interviews Dr. Jerome in all of her books. Because of this connection between Drs. Jerome and Clark, I assumed that Dr. Jerome's new edition of Tooth Truth would have the same dental recommendations as Dr. Clark's latest book The Cure for All Advanced Cancers [see The New Times, September 2000 issue for review].
As it turns out, they have different recommendations in the area of fillings. Dr. Clark recommends laboratory-processed composite inlays (cured according to the procedure in The Cure for All Advanced Cancers so that no toxins can seep), while Dr. Jerome uses the composite Visiofil. This is a major difference in recommendations, and Dr. Clark devotees will want to take note of this difference.
However, in spite of this difference, Tooth Truth contains a wealth of information that can benefit everyone. Such technical distinctions and details may seem like too much information for the average dental patient, but, given the current practice of dentistry, it is no longer advisable that we blindly follow a dentist's recommendations. For the preservation of our health, it is essential that we become informed consumers in the area of dental care. Tooth Truth provides the details of dentistry to help us make those informed decisions.
