Degenerative Disease Caused by Tooth Infections-Case Histories -Kidney Trouble,Stomach Ulcers

Originally Dr. Price believed kidney infections only remotely related to dental focal infections. He eventually found, however, many 30 to 40 year olds were developing nephritis (kidney disease) without the disease being suspected by the patient or the physician. Invariably, these patients were also found to have definite dental infections.

The case report of a 41 year old married woman who was suffering from rheumatism and heart trouble is of particular interest. A routine urine analysis also disclosed kidney involvement. Her extracted tooth was cultured and a rabbit inoculated in a vein with one cc of the 24-hour old culture. After 49 days, the rabbit died; autopsy results are shown in the in the pictures on the following page.

Stomach Ulcers:

Another case concerned a 43 year old woman who had been an invalid for six years suffering from vervousness, neuritis, and nervous indigestion. These symptoms were associated indigestion. These symptoms were associated with neuralgic pains that occurred at her waistline. Such cases were usually grouped together as a alimentary trac and associate organ lesions, as they involved the digestive tract, the gall bladder, stomach, intestinal indigestion, and the appendix.

Because this patient had a severe amount of condensing osteitis (dense bone just below the roots), and such cases usually showed little x-ray evidence of infection, all of her upper teeth were removed. This brought a prompt improvement in the patient's health which allowed her to return to previous activities.

Most dentists would say that even though this patient had severe osteitis, her root canal fillings appeared satisfactory and the root of the upper left second bicuspid appeared relatively easy to treat. However, a culture taken from other teeth and inoculated into a rabbit produced the ulcer you see in the accompanying picture.

Most who do endodontic treatments would have misjudged the extent of the infection present in these teeth and their relationship to the patient's six years of ill health, which cleared on removal of her upper teeth.

Ovarian Cysts:

Lacking in the medical and dental literature of Dr. Price's time was any teaching about acute and chronic infections of the sex organs, or any mention of their relationship to focal infection. Dr. Price found that a large number of women with ovarian gland difficulties had infected teeth, or teeth which contained root canal fillings.

Even though most women made excellent recoveries when infected teeth were removed, Dr. Price stated he could not determine whether the bacteria had an ability to select a woman's ovaries, tubes and uterus or whether their presence aggravated already compromised tissues. Over a thousand rabbits were used to study the causes of these frequent female problems.

A good example of the many cases investigated concerns a 20 year old unmarried woman whose distress at the time of her menstrual period was so severe she was bed-ridden for several days. In time it became obvious her physical and mental health was being seriously affected.

Review of the history of her difficulties showed that some five years previously she was hit by a golf ball over her left ovary. She did not think the event significant as there was no evidence of local injury and only a short period of discomfort. At the time she did have some infected teeth which she carried during the intervening period.