The Focal Infection Theory, While Rarely Talked About Now

The gum crevices surrounding every tooth, and particularly between teeth, are loaded with bacteria, plus food debris and calculus deposits which also contain bacteria. Some bleeding during scaling and curetting procedures can easily introduce these bacteria and toxines into the bloodstream and result in bacteremia that can seriously damage the heart.

This means that even during tooth brushing, flossing, toothpick use, or chewing hard crusty items of food, it is easy to start minor bleeding which can allow mouth bacteria to be introduced into the blood stream. Scientific tests have established that bleeding of the gums can cause a high incidence of bacteremia; that is, bacteria in the blood.

The fight against the focal infection theory was mainly carried out by Doctors Percy Howe and John buckley.

Howe based his opposition on a study he conducted injecting rabbits with normal placid streptococcus bacteria secured from the mouth, not bacteria from an infection site or a root filled tooth.

In his investigation, none of the animals became sick or died. Buckley was unable to see how infected teeth which showed excellent evidence of bone repair after root canal therapy could possibly still be infected. Then too, because some who had root filled teeth removed did not recover, he questioned the validity of the conclusion that a percentage of patients did get well due to the removal of a tooth or teeth.

The arguments of these two men were weak and they failed to consider or believe. That poor nutrition and inherited genetic problems are also causes of degenerative diseases.

That oral bacteria do not act in the same manner as do the germs that cause measles, smallpox, mumps, scarlet fever, etc.

That when teeth become infected, oral bacteria find the dentin tubules an ideal cave-like hiding place, and these germs and their toxins- like the viruses that cause cancer - metastasize and escape to infect hearts, joints, kidneys, lungs, the stomach, eyes, and countless other tissues.

That what makes these bacteria so dangerious is their ability to become polymorphic; that is, to mutate, adapt,change,become smaller, anaerobic,more virulent and more toxic.

That pregnant women or others experiencing a higher than normal degree of stress become particularly susceptible to diseases arising from oral infection sources.

By the mid-thirties, most physicians and dentists believed the focal infection theory to be correct and valid.

With the advent of penicillin, there arose the belief that antibiotics could cure all these probelms, and little is heard today about focal infections.

However, the fact is that antibiotics can't get inside the dentin tubules once a tooth loses its blood supply due to root canal treatment. If antibiotics can't get inside tubules, they can't get inside the dentin tubules once a tooth losses its blood supply due to root canal treatment.

If antibiotics can't get inside tubules, they can't kill the bacteria therein.