Anyone who starts to read this article is sure to wonder what in the world ever motivated a successful dentist and endodontist such as I to state that ROOT CANAL TREATED TEETH HAVE SIDE EFFECTS which cause many disorders.

Certainly my dental colleagues, particularly those who know me and are familiar with my background, are going to think I have really flipped my lid.

How could a successful dentist, who was honored at the May 199s five day 50th anniversary meeting of the American Association of Endodontists(root canal therapists) for being one of the nineteen founding members of the organization, ever come to publish a book of this critical nature?

Dental Research Specialist Dr. Weston Price, after observing many patients with crippling degenerative diseases not responding to treatment, suspected infected root canal-filled teeth to be the cause.

Dr. Price devised a testing method which disclosed the presence of infection in a tooth which otherwise seemed to be healthy - that is,implanting of the root filled tooth under the skin of a laboratory animal. He found, in almost every case, that when the root-filled tooth of a patient with a degenerative disease was extracted and imbedded in an animal, that animal would develop the patient's disease.

In the beginning, Dr. Price did not know just where the infection was hiding in the tooth, only that a patient's illness was rapidly transferred from his root-filled tooth to laboratory animals in case after case.

Dr. Price later able to culture the bacteria in root-filled teeth and trap their toxins, reproducing a disease in a rabbit by injecting the cultured material into the animal.

Dr. Price discovered a wide variety of degenerative disease to be transferable to rabbits, such as endocarditis and other heart diseases, kidney and bladder diseases, arthritis, rheumatism, mental diseases, lung problems, pregrancy complications,almost any degenerative problem - and after extraction of these teeth,a large percentage of patients recovered from their illnesses.

When sound, uninfected natural teeth or other sterile objects were implanted in animals, no adverse health effects were experienced.

Why this important research was forced underground, and has remained virtually unknown since its 1923 publication, will be covered in later chapters. If the patient had kidney trouble, the rabbit developed kidney involvement; if eye trouble, the rabbit's eye failed. Heart trouble, rheumatism, stomach ulcers, bladder infections, ovarian diseases, phletitis, osteomyelitis, whatever disease, the rabbit is poor- died within two weeks.

Dr. Price tested the theory further by implanting sound natural teeth under rabbits' skins, such as healthy teeth removed for orthodontic tooth-straightening or those which were impacted and couldn't grow in properly, In addition, sterilized dimes and other coins were implanted and, in each instance, nothing detrimental happened to the rabbits.