I don't talk about it much because it sounds kind of woo woo, but I'm
convinced my RA was triggered by some dental work (I had a crown put
in). Now I may need a root canal on that tooth. I also had a root canal
on a different tooth about 5 years ago.
I just found this article at rheumatic.org:
http://www.rheumatic.org/teeth.htm
Has anyone else made a connection between their dental work and their
arthritis? And even better, has anyone had any root-canalled teeth
extracted, and if so, did they otice any changes to their health? I
know that last question is a long shot....
WEll I have had an awful lot of dental work done on my teeth over the years that is for sure. I think ther eis a connection.
I had one crown from a root canal just pop off and had to have that redone... a cool ,000 I think it was or just under that. Then I had to get started on my cracked molars. 2 of them were due to grinding my teeth at night ( stress, and stress and stress). The others I'll not comment on.I do grow weary of all the dental work but hey, I would rather do that than have false teeth right now.
I have been trying to get to the point of having them whitened professionally.HA! pipedream!
I'm currently avoiding even the thought of a dentist. I've had a broken molar for months and I dread the words, "root canal". I'm definatly going to wait until my present flare calms down and I get my JRA under somekind of control.
I don't know about fillings causing disease, or stuff like that, but I know any stressful event (including good ones, a wedding, new house, etc) can put my immune system in high gear, starting off flares.
Strangly, my arthritis seems better when I have a mild cold!
hey gimpy,
I read that Marijuana can suppress RA on some board.. with a spray but heck I just wish we had that option in america.......
OMG Gimpy. I had a root canal from hell. Just would not heal. In pain for a month and then bam - I am in the hospital because I cannot walk. Turned out - I had RA. Strange coincidence - huh? I was very scared but I lost a baby tooth a few months back and had to get a bridge. No problem thank God. So who knows. Root canals expose you to a lot of bacteria that was being contained by your bad tooth That is why I am attracted to AP therapy. I had surgery right before my first more minor onset of RA and then my major onset was the root canal. Also, the first symptoms were right after my daughter got sick. I think stress will do it too. Dental work is stressful. I also had a bad root canal that had to be redone.The root canal was due to a broken molar. I have mentioned this to my reumy.She does not see a conection.A few months later I was diagnosed with RA.Oh my goodness. This article is making me see things totally differently. My mother ignored her dental work for years. Recently, within the last year or so, she went through a lot of dental work. Suddenly she is having joint inflammation and pain. Now she is diagnosed with RA. There is something to be said about that. Hi! I had to have a root canal in Feb 2002. That Sep, I came down with Ra. Makes me wonder...
RA and infection seem to go hand in hand...
not directly but Ialso read that your nice siver fillings may be having an effect also.. now every dentist will say hell no but I really wonder if i said ok rip every tooth witha silver filling out and replace it with a white filling.. who knows but there are dentists that do that..
The infection connection seems stronger all the time.
With this thought in mind, although her (root filled) tooth looked fine, he advised this arthritic patient, to have it extracted. He told her he was going to find out what it was about this root filled tooth that was responsible for her suffering. "All dentists know that sometimes arthritis and other illnesses clear up if bad teeth are extracted. However, in this case, all of her teeth appeared in satisfactory condition and the one containing this rootcanal filling showed no evidence or symptoms of infection. Besides, it looked normal on x-ray pictures.
"Immediately after Dr. Price extracted the tooth he dismissed the patient and embedded her tooth under the skin of a rabbit. In two days the rabbit developed the same kind of crippling arthritis as the patient - and in ten days it died.
"..The patient made a successful recovery after the tooth's removal! She could then walk without a cane and could even do fine needlework again. That success led Dr. Price to advise other patients, afflicted with a wide variety of treatment defying illnesses, to have any root filled teeth out."]
I am slowly but surely removing all my silver fillings with porcelain crowns. It makes me feel like I am doing something right. Your mouth is full of bacteria and the mercury in the old fillings is very bad for you. I say do whatever you can to take contaminants out of your body - DO IT. Don't give your immune system a reason to react as much as possible. Same with processed foods. I am going to say it over and over again but I swear, exercise, low impact, helps your overall frame of mind which makes you less likely to get sick. I cannot wait to get back into warm water therapy. It also relieves stress. I am amazed I have not gained weight since back on pred. but I know why - I have had a stress monster partying with my RA monster. We really need to keep our RA monster boredSo, I have this abscessed back molar that I was trying to save. Finally it got so bad they had to pull it. 3 weeks later I have my salivary glands swell up and go back to the dentist and say, "what did you do to me?" He swears it isn't him and sends me for a CT scan. The scan is normal (no fish bone lodged in there etc.) and as I'm leaving, this doc says, "any more autoimmune responses, come back and see me". The rest, as they say is history.
So I'm arguing and arguing with docs - this is some sort of infection. I want antivirals - but my OB/Gyn says antivirals won't help if it's bacterial. So now I'm demanding both antivirals and ABX. Did I mention how freaked I was?
I find and start AP and the rest is history - everything pretty much under control within 3 months. (Mind you - your milage may vary - I had not been diagnosed long and no history of immune-suppressants). Well, except the Predisone packs that made me worse.
On the RB I learn of the connection from AI diseases to dental work. Did you know in Maine they have a law that the risks for dental amalgams must be disclosed to patients?
I have since had all my amalgams removed by a biologic dentist. They use dental dams and high powered suction to remove them so you don't get sicker by accidentally swallowing stuff. I can never remember the type of dentistry. Hodgkins? Higgens? Huggins? Something with an H - sorry, not real helpful.
I did not notice a major improvement - but others at the dentists did. The dentist told me the teeth should be done quickly in one short time period. Apparently if there is too much time between amalgam pulling the effect might not be as noticible. There was 2 months between my start and finish - I ran out of insurance.
Anyway, the dentist I saw said he's going someplace out west to film 'cavitations' which are when you have your wisdom teeth pulled and then the back heals over. Sometimes they don't get everything and later people develop AI illnesses from matter left in the hole.
And my abscessed tooth was right next to something that sounds suspiciously like that. I even told THAT dentist he left something in that part of the jaw. Of course, he pooh-poohed me.
And when I told the periodontist (the guy that started this whole thing by pulling the abscessed tooth) that I was on ABX the rest of my life - he told me that he's NEVER be on ABX forever, it was just too dangerous. (Not if you're on probiotics). And I said to him, "are you telling me a drug safe enough to give to teenagers for acne is too dangerous for me???"
He didn't answer me or look me in the eye.
He also neglected to tell me that my supposedly incurable periodontal disease would be cured. Which, BTW, it has been. Hmmmm.
These guys know.
Pip
I have had quite a few root canals, and also had my wisdom teeth taken, but didn't notice any immediate connection specifically to my teeth.
What I did notice is that in 2000, I had six (count'em six) strep infections in a six-month period. They were ready to yank my tonsils (not a fun op for an adult) when the infections finally stopped. However one tonsil opening is now permanently "swollen" (for lack of a better word) and partially digested food gets stuck inside the folds all the time. When this happens, I get a very sore throat and sometimes lose my voice. I have to use a long object to free the particles...they are embedded too deep for gargling. The dr's have no advice.
So after this horrible period of infections, then came the fibro.
Fast forward to last year. Despite my nurse practitioner telling me I just had a "stomach bug", my appendix burst. I was hospitalized for 9 days just to get the infection under control and was on antibiotics for a total of 6 weeks. Later I had to return to have it removed, which was another 4-day stay.
So after that horrible period of infections, then came the RA.
But back to the teeth questions...I did recently have a tooth extracted (my first non-wisdom extraction). It was a root canal done 15 years ago and the tooth inside had decayed. I was pretty annoyed that my dentist didn't do anything proactive to prevent it, but what's done is done. The extraction was about a month ago, and I haven't noticed any changes in my autoimmune symptoms.
Sophista -
You said, "No one listened to me. It was instantaneous". Sweetie, they never do. :-( This is why I advocate us all becoming our own researchers/medical team - these docs just want to write perscriptions and have us go away. Seems like they don't do any old fashioned doctoring anymore.
InnerGlow -
Funny, the only mycoplasma I tested positive for was strep - and I have a childhood history of bad, bad, bad strep infections. If I were you I'd have those tonsils pulled anyway. I think I've read where that can be a long term benifit to us. Yes, it's bad for an adult, but I guess their function is to 'strain' for microbes. If you have one constantly infected...and you know that strep has been linked to heart disease. Better safe than sorry.
This biologic dentist did some sort of weird test on my teeth. He rubbed a wire on each tooth looking for some sort of charge. Yes, I know it sounds funny, but since I'm convinced that the straw that broke the camels back in my case was the abscessed tooth, I'm not taking any chances in my mouth. Anyway, they divide the mouth into 4 quadrants and depending on the how much of a 'charge' the tooth gives off, they decide which quadrant has to be dealt with first. I had one tooth giving off a 60 - what ever that means. So, they did that one first. Guess what - it was rotted inside. Looked good from the outside but some dentist somewhere did not get all the cavity off and this one was 'emitting' the most toxins. I read on the RB that the capillary structure in a tooth, if laid end to end, would be 3 miles long.
I don't know how I feel about all this - only that I want to remove any impediment to healing in my path.
Pip
Remember all those silver filings are pretty old. Accordingly to my dentist and my experience, sometimes those fillings start to crack letting air and bacteria under that filling--sometimes causing more decay--that is why they are replacing them.
I have never had a root canal (knock on wood) but have RA. I may be an exception. In fact, I have been doing very well at the dentist--just cleanings but I do take really good care of my teeth. I do all the things they tell you to do--floss, brush, mouthwash . . .
Hindsight is soo good--thinking back--I think I have had this stuff for a long time but then something made it explode and go nutz. My case was not root canal but that could be for someone else. I think stress is the cause.
[QUOTE=mark1]RA and infection seem to go hand in hand...
not directly but Ialso read that your nice siver fillings may be
having an effect also.. now every dentist will say hell no but I really
wonder if i said ok rip every tooth witha silver filling out and
replace it with a white filling.. who knows but there are dentists
that do that..
The infection connection seems stronger all the time.
[/QUOTE]