The Benefits of Minimally Invasive Dentistry
February 03, 2013
Story at-a-glance
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Early intervention with minimally invasive dentistry can
eliminate 80 percent of future dental interventions on the
vast majority of patients
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By identifying hypocalcific areas and using a miniature air
abrasion tip to clean out those pits, fissures and grooves,
removes the initial decay. The area is then sealed with
glass ionomer. The end result is that those teeth tend to
not decay in the future
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Tooth decay is primarily driven by the symbiotic
relationship between bacteria and acidity, which creates a
pathogenic bioflora in your mouth. If you’re continually
lowering the pH in your mouth, you start losing calcium,
which is necessary for strong healthy teeth. Calcium
deficiency leads to porosity in the teeth, which allows
plaque that has turned pathogenic to attack the tooth more
thoroughly
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The three main components of minimally invasive dentistry
comprises dietary prevention (creating a healthy bioflora in
your mouth and body), dental prophylaxis (baking soda; oil
pulling), and minimally invasive restorations, which will
help prevent ever needing more invasive procedures like root
canals, crowns, bridges and implants
By Dr. Mercola
It’s very difficult to achieve high-level physical health if your
dental health isn’t effectively addressed. I’ve been involved with
alternatives to regular dentistry for quite some time. I think many
people fail to appreciate how important dentistry is to our total
health.
Most tend to separate these two components, but both need to be
considered as working in tandem.
Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry,
like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;”
creating an endless loop of revisits and retreating the same tooth
again and again.
Instead, by using dietary prevention to create a healthy
cavity-fighting bioflora in your mouth; dental prophylaxis such as
brushing and irrigating with baking soda, and oil pulling; combined
with minimally invasive restorations starting as early as possible,
you can prevent about 80 percent of future dental problems.
Minimally Invasive Dentistry — A Valuable Aspect of Biological
Dentistry
Dr. Tim Rainey is a true pioneer in biological dentistry, and is
a big proponent of and leader in what’s termed “minimally invasive
dentistry.”
“Basically, I knew that the way that we were preparing
teeth back then was dead wrong; that you couldn’t go in and
justify destroying massive amounts of tooth structure,” Dr.
Rainey says. “...We need to be much more conservative.”
After dental school, the training and dogma of which he rebelled
against, he began investigating alternatives to the standard “drill
and fill” dogma. After reading a hallmark article by a Japanese
researcher back in 1977, he began to put everything together:
How tooth decay actually occurs, what the tooth looks like on the
inside, how the decay looks like, and finally, what could be done to
minimize the damage being done to the tooth while trying to restore
it.
“It took me about until 1983 to really understand what
was really going on within the teeth. I’m talking several years
there. I’m talking about dissecting hundreds, if not thousands,
of teeth...
I realized two things. Number one, we did not even have a
rudimentary understanding of the decay process in the teeth.
Number two, everything that we’ve been taught about tooth
structure and anatomy was just dead wrong.
By 1985, I had actually published the article on how to
address 80 percent of all decay, which is in the chewing surface
of the back teeth. That’s where most decay starts. We had a
rather crude rudimentary way of going in and treating these
teeth,” he says.
Minimally Invasive Restorations Can Last a Lifetime
The first patient he used his newly devised procedure on was the
daughter of one of his class mates from dental school. The girl
received these minimally invasive restorations in 1983 or ’84.
Today, she is Dr. Rainey’s lead hygienist, and those restorations
are still there, and those teeth have never decayed or broken down.
This is in stark contrast to what happens with most conventional
fillings, especially if the dentist uses amalgam (about half of
which is mercury, despite being deceptively referred to as “silver
filling”). When you drill into the tooth with a high speed drill,
and then stuff amalgam or other incompatible material in there, you
can be almost certain that you will need additional work on that
tooth down the road as the tooth begins to crack and the tooth
structure fails.
“The average is somewhere around 14 to 15 years before
the breakdown of the first restoration in the tooth and then
somewhere around eight years for the second restoration,”
Dr. Rainey says.
“Then you’re into the tooth has fractured, you start
getting decay in between the teeth. That’s the root. That will
destruct your teeth. Decay starts breaking down the teeth, and
then you start getting into crowns and root canals. Here you
have a whole series of manmade iatrogenic (dentistry-caused)
'disasters,' which fuels the future generations of dentists. It
also fuels 80 percent of what all dental practice is about, that
is repairing previous dentistry.”
By using early diagnosis and early intervention with minimally
invasive dentistry, Dr. Rainey and other dentists trained in his
techniques have eliminated 80 percent of future dentistry on the
vast majority of their patients who are privileged to grow up in a
practice such as theirs. As someone who has struggled with my own
dental health, this sounds absolutely extraordinary. That equates to
phenomenal savings in terms of money, pain, and emotional anguish,
if you happen to be afraid of the dentist chair.
“Remember, there are several other people throughout the
world who are now doing this. It has a very profound effect.
We’re talking about something that the evidence of information
has been out there approaching 30 years – three decades. Dental
patients found out about it like they did in alternative
medicine... They seek me out from all over. We have patients
coming in from Canada. We haven’t even counted the number of
states; I would say something around 30 states,” Dr. Rainey
says.
“Of course, there are easier and simpler ways to do
dentistry! You start these kids off very early. You eliminate
the decay... and guess what? They don’t have much decay later
on. We call it bulletproofing the teeth; where we go in,
identify the defective pit, fissures, and grooves in the teeth,
and clean those out.
There are several different types of materials that we
can use. My preference is for glass ionomer cement... Not only
do those chewing surfaces on those teeth never decay, but the
interproximal areas are gaining some degree of protection
because you’re removing the nidus of the infection, which is the
bacteria within the teeth that are causing decay. You don’t have
that bolus of xbowel bioactivity there to lead off into decay.”
Understanding Tooth Structure
The tooth is covered with a layer of lipoprotein, laden with
calcium phosphate that comes and goes — eating and drinking,
especially acidic foodstuffs and beverages, remove it, while saliva
puts it back. Beneath that is an extremely hard and dense layer of
enamel, which is about 0.2 millimeters, or 200-400 microns thick.
Inside of that hard layer, the tooth structure becomes much softer.
These parts all form the structural integrity of the tooth.
When you bite down on the tooth, the stress is transferred
through the entire tooth down into the root, which deforms slightly.
This is part of its natural stress-relieving mechanism. During the
formation of the tooth can form little pits, fissures and grooves
that may be hypocalcific — a defect that causes the enamel to be
softer than normal and susceptible to decay.
“In the ideal world, you do not have decay start down in
these pits and fissures, because you have a natural oil-based
organic plug that seals that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains.
“However, in the real world what happens is as these teeth are
finalizing development, you’ll get what we call 'hypocalcified
enamel.' Now, if you put acid in that area, then you start
getting a calcium deficit. That’s the beginning of decay in
teeth.”
He identifies those areas, and using a miniature air abrasion tip
that is very precise and focused, cleans out those pits, fissures
and grooves. This removes the initial decay. Then he seals it with
glass ionomer. The end result is that those teeth tend to not decay
in the future.
Why Decay Occurs
Tooth decay is primarily driven by the symbiotic relationship
between bacteria and acidity, which creates a pathogenic bioflora in
your mouth. If you’re continually lowering the pH in your mouth, you
start losing calcium, which is necessary for strong healthy teeth.
Calcium deficiency leads to porosity in the teeth, which allows
plaque that has turned pathogenic to attack the tooth more
thoroughly. Once certain types of bacteria are able to penetrate the
enamel, they put out enzymes that begin to break down the collagen
of the inner structure of the tooth.
“That’s where you get cavitation, which is the loss of
tooth structure to the point where you have a hole in that
tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains.
One of the most important things Dr. Rainey instructs his
patients to do is to use nothing but baking soda on their teeth at
night.
“The pathogenic bacteria must have an acidic environment.
Then you have the bacteria – the probiotic bacteria – that live
in a neutral environment. You’re going to have X number of
bacteria regardless of what you do. So, why not promote the
non-pathogenic bacteria by neutralizing the acidity with baking
soda at night, which has profound effects on the overall oral
health of the individual?” Dr. Rainey says.
You can brush with it, use it as a mouth rinse, and even dissolve
a little in the water you use in your WaterPik or HydroFloss.
- To brush: Wet your toothbrush and dip it into the baking
soda. Brush as usual. Your teeth should feel smooth when
finished
- To rinse: About a teaspoon in a small glass of water is
sufficient. Just swish it around in your mouth and spit out
- To floss: Dissolve a small amount of baking soda in water
and fill your irrigation instrument. Make sure not to let it dry
inside your water pik as it will cause buildup and eventually
render the tool useless. So, always keep water in your
irrigation tool, and instead of storing it standing up, store it
upside-down in a glass of baking soda and water, as the baking
soda will prevent harmful bacteria from proliferating. Once a
week, drain it all out and rinse it thoroughly with water
In the mornings, you could use toothpaste containing calcium and
phosphate salts, or even hydroxyapatite, which can help remineralize
your teeth.
“Since the Pro-Enamel [toothpaste], I’ve believed that
almost all of the toothpastes out there now have calcium of some
form in them. The magic is the calcium phosphate. You want those
present, so they can precipitate back into the teeth as
amorphous hydroxyapatite... You’re rebuilding an amorphous
crystal of enamel, because of all the interactions of the
enzymes, calcium, phosphate, and everything else that goes on
within your mouth.
Where you really mess this up is by getting it too
acidic. That’s where the baking soda comes in.
We use it in our cancer patients, where they have a real
deficit of calcium and phosphate in their saliva – people who
have problems. The brand name of it, as a prescription item, is
called Caphoso®. You actually get it in a calcium solution, a
phosphate salt solution. You mix those together, and then you
rinse with them.” That;s the building block of enamel, and what
it takes to remineralize enamel.
Promote Beneficial Oral Bacteria with Fermented Foods
To promote a beneficial oral bioflora he also recommends taking
Evora tablets while you’re trying to change the bacterial balance in
your mouth. Eating fermented foods, such as cultured yoghurt made
from raw organic milk (AVOID store-bought yoghurts as they are
worthless in terms of probiotics. Most are loaded with sugars and
other detrimental ingredients, and all of them are pasteurized), or
fermented vegetables, which you can easily and inexpensively
make at home.
According to Dr. Rainey, any type of probiotics will naturally
help get rid of harmful Strep mutans. This includes Lactobacillus
and bacteria that are bioactive in high concentrations of lactic
acid.
To Pull or Not to Pull...
Another interesting technique that can help improve your oral
health is oil pulling. The technique is thousands of years old, and
it’s an ancient Ayurvedic Indian tradition. To perform it, you
vigorously swish an oil in your mouth, “pulling” it between your
teeth for 20-30 minutes. You can use a number of oils for this, but
sesame, sunflower or coconut oil are commonly used. Dr. Rainey is
also working extensively with ozonated oils.
Oil pulling is thought to remove pathogenic bacteria, improve
oral hygiene, and help detoxify your system. Dr. Rainey agrees the
technique can be beneficial. A drawback is that it is time
consuming. You need to go at it for quite some time in order to get
results. It’s not like swishing with mouthwash for 30 seconds.
Ideally, you’ll want to reach close to 30 minutes.
The Three Main Components of Minimally Invasive Dentistry
Contrary to conventional dentistry, minimally invasive dentistry,
like biological dentistry, is not about “drilling and filling;”
creating an endless loop of revisits and fixing old dental work
until there’s nothing left to work with. It comprises three main
components:
- Dietary prevention (creating a healthy bioflora in your
mouth and body)
- Dental prophylaxis (baking soda; oil pulling)
- Minimally invasive restorations
As for dental prophylaxis, the simplest thing is just adding
baking soda to your nightly oral hygiene. Ideally, add it to your
dental irrigator, and brush with it. You can also use oil pulling in
conjunction with this. They’re not mutually exclusive. You can
combine the two, because it will provide a sort of organic matrix
plug, which helps combat dental decay. And ultimately, you want to
change the bioflora in your mouth, which is done through your diet.
Fermented foods are key. A high-quality probiotic supplement may
suffice if you really cannot stand fermented foods. I urge you to at
least try some fermented veggies though, as they are, for most
people, the most palatable. I think they’re delicious!
The next step, (where, ideally, you’d start your kids off) would
be to see a dentist trained in minimally invasive dentistry. Kids
treated with the NovaMin or baking soda air abrasion process to
clean the pits and fissures and then seal them with glass ionomer,
receive significant protection against future decay.
How to Find a Biological and Minimally Invasive Dentist
At present, there are a number of dentists trained in Dr.
Rainey’s techniques. Several of them are in California and Florida.
There’s also one in Beirut, Lebanon, and in New Zealand. To locate a
qualified dentist, you can contact Dr. Rainey’s office at
www.jtimrainey.com, or call 361-526-4695.
If there’s no minimally invasive dentistry practice in your area,
or within reasonable travel distance, the following links can help
you to find a mercury-free, biological dentist. These may not be
trained in Dr. Rainey’s minimally invasive dentistry technique, but
are trained to treat your oral and physical health as a cohesive
whole. If you’re considering removing amalgam, you also need to make
sure it’s done by biological dentist that’s been properly trained to
do it safely, as removing amalgam can lead to severe and acute
mercury poisoning:
© Copyright 1997-2013 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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