Based, primarily, on the works of
Dr. Robert O. Nara
Visit our web site: http://mizar5.com/omedia1.htm
This issue is going out a day early, as I have promised my daughter a day alone - away from the PC tomorrow, and she deserves it. Today has been one of the finest summer days yet here in Upstate, NY. In six months I'm going to be thinking back on this day, for sure.
Let's get on with it...
Thank you,
-Tom Cornwell
July 13, 1998
Mr. Tom Cornwell
OraMedia
PO Box 496
Elmira, NY 14902
It was such a delight to finally hear from someone who shares my beliefs on oral health. I want to take my time writing this letter, because, first, I’m not much of a writer, and second, it’s important I make sense.
It seems to me, after reading your newsletter, my beliefs are confirmed; General medicine has improved its products and techniques, because of patients needs, and dentistry, for the most part, has improved only so the doctor can work faster or cheaper and throw caution to the wind about patient needs (if you need more info on this just let me know. I have tons).
Reading your work is truly delightful... now find the people or set it up so they can find you - those who want to know will listen.
Your recent OraMedia Newsletter describes correctly the truth about decay, gum disease and breath disorders... GERMS... BACTERIA. To correct a gum disease problem; it’s taught in Dental schools simply, “Remove the source of irritation...” Tartar and plaque buildup and long term accumulation of the same are the major culprits. Brushing alone has never been the answer, yet when the dentists scrape teeth once every six months, that’s supposed to do the trick. What a joke.
Again, “Nothing cleans better than what dentists use,” but is it wise to leave bacterial buildup on teeth for six months, until you see your dentist on your next regular visit?
I wonder, if you had a bacterial infection in your body or vessels, would you leave it alone until your next annual checkup?
Plaque buildup generally starts within 12 to 24 hours of a professional dental cleaning. It starts as a soft, white substance, difficult to see on the teeth, however; it’s is easy to spot when it’s on the end of the dental tool once you remove or dislodge it. When left intact over a period of just a short time, it calcifies and hardens to the point where it needs to be “mechanically” removed. A toothbrush won’t work!
The enclosed scaler or dental tool I use, is and has been recommended by “top” dental officials or ADA dentists, AGD dentists and officials, as the “most appropriate,” tartar removing tool for home use. When removed in the early “soft” stages, there is no scraping required. Simple and easy, yet a little extra time for those who wish to keep their teeth for the rest of their life. “Clean only the one’s you want to keep,” and don’t worry about the rest, they’ll fall out and you won’t have to bother with them then, ever again.
Toothpaste is the number one health and beauty item (unit-wise) sold in America. $1.47 BILLION in 1997 (ref: Mass Merchandising Magazine). The first to break the billion dollar amount. This is over and above shampoo, deodorant, all other health and beauty items known to man. Yet 3 out of 4 adults over 30 still have some form of gum disease. Mouth rinses (breath solutions) are a temporary “fix” only, you need to remove the bacteria - not cover it up with alcohol and flavoring. The reason tartar doesn’t build on the crowns of teeth so much is because food erodes away it’s chances to develop... but bacteria around the areas below the crowns and down near the gum lines don’t have food constantly wearing away their chances to develop. Tartar has to go somewhere and the likely place to go is down below the gum line. No pain, only slight bleeding and definitely a positive slow killer of helpless teeth, soon to be lost. (Note: If the front side of the tooth is clean and the back side has tartar dissolving bone...you will still loose the tooth to gum disease.) That’s why the mirror and disclosure tablets.
My feelings are: It should be said that no tools or gadgets, brushes and toothpaste included, are a 100% cure-alls. Dentists still need to look below the gum line to see if there’s danger gone below.
One concept I have is: We are in charge of the health of our teeth 363 days of the year... the dentist only 2. How can any thinking human, believe that this the answer to a lifetime of healthy teeth. “All professional treatments will fail if home care fails.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard dentists tell me they saw a patient just two years ago, did complete full-mouth rehabilitation etc., and now the patient’s mouth is in total shambles. This is extremely frustrating for the dentist who really did try his or her best. The phrase is all too common; "Patients neglect their mouths." I don’t, for a moment, believe that - in it’s entirety.
People brush, and granted not long enough, or even use the correct method or brush, but the toothpastes' flavorings give a feeling of “greatness or freshness of breath,” rather rapidly, and thus, why brush any longer... my mouth feels clean... and if I use ADA approved paste and brushes, and believe only one tenth of what is said on the TV screen... my teeth should last a lifetime. In fact, going to a dentist is just a waste of time, not to mention the cost!
People are misinformed and sure, there is no perfect solution to save all, but the intelligent ones will survive once they receive the knowledge of truthful facts. You’re on the right course!!!!
OraMedia is on the straight and narrow road of truth, and I personally applaud your efforts and pray the smart ones will listen. It’s like smokers... They hear of the dangers and the reports of poison to their system, yet if you had a syringe of only a little poison to inject, they would think you’re nuts and would avoid the situation at all costs.
Truth, is hard to sell; because it seems the liars have way more money to use on advertising.
“New developments,” truth and iron-strong determination will prevail and I pray HOMEDENT sales will bring mountains of revenue to your organization, enough to spread the truth to all corners of the earth. Also, I’ve heard Europeans will buy far more than Americans and their teeth are in worst shape than our’s.
Please write in BIG LETTERS AROUND, ABOVE OR BELOW THE HOMEDENT KIT, “GUM DISEASE IS PREVENTABLE.” IT’S UP TO YOU!!!
If numbers are correct 168 million adults have gum disease in America alone, and the number will grow to 210 million in the next 5 years because of the “Baby Boomers,” and... gum disease is the NUMBER ONE ILLNESS in America, affecting more people than even the common cold.
You mention the multi-billion-dollar waste every year. ABC aired not once, but twice in 1997, “Brushing Away The Hype,” and the untruths about toothpaste and toothpaste whiteners. Wonder if you caught their program??? Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs, 20/20. I’ll enclose their transcripts if found in time.
Good Luck.
Kent Murray
Foreword - (July 5th Issue)
Chapter One - (July 5th Issue)
"Let's Get Honest"
Chapter Two (July 12th Issue)
The Truth About Dental Disease
Chapter Three (This Issue)
...That No Doctor is Going to Tell You
Chapter Four
The Inside Story: About the Mouth
Chapter Five
Germ Warfare
Chapter Six
Today's Oral Hygiene is Sickening
Chapter Seven
The Power to Heal
Chapter Eight
"Let Them Eat Cake..."
Chapter Nine
The A.D.A.--Specialists in Symptoms
Chapter Ten
Psychology of Oral Health Awareness
Chapter Eleven
The Hardware Business
Chapter Twelve
A Question of Ethics
Chapter Thirteen
What Can I Do?
Chapter Fourteen
"Whatever Happened to Doctor Nara?"
Chapter Fifteen
Let's Sum It All Up…
Isn't that an amazing statement? "The truth about dental disease...that no doctor is going to tell you..." Who would make such an assertion in our day and place; implying that medical and dental doctors are engaged in some huge, ugly conspiracy to defraud American patients?
Obviously one of two things can be assumed: Either the person who makes that statement is, plainly speaking, a nut-case fanatic...or there exists circumstances which prevent doctors from reaching the public with this information.
The latter is the case. Medical doctors don't tell us about these things because for nearly two centuries now, the mouth has been "out of bounds" for M.D.'s. It just isn't expected of medical doctors to provide training or counseling about "dental disease" any more than a dental doctor would be consulted for a broken ankle.
The American Medical Association would probably sanction any M.D. who began publicly and frankly discussing diseases of the mouth the teeth. We can't, in all fairness and honesty, imply that M.D.'s have abdicated their responsibility: Instead, we need only to realize that the development of health care delivery systems has circumstantially relieved M.D.'s of this responsibility.
Generations ago doctors were trained to care for the whole body; but there came a time when the dental profession split away from the medical profession. As the two went their separate ways, colleges began to specialize in dentistry and, ultimately, offer this as their exclusive "product."
Associations were formed; customs were established and as years passed, these customs became first "ethics" and, ultimately, laws. The net effect of this was to render oral health "off limits" to medical doctors and, today, no living "emdee" (MD) has ever thought of the mouth as part of "his" responsibility.
Is the M.D. at fault? --Of course not. Why on earth would we "blame" doctors for doing what they are clearly supposed to do? --Or, in the case of dental disease, we can hardly blame M.D.'s for not doing what they have traditionally, ethically and maybe legally been aware they are not supposed to do.
As it relates to medical doctors, then, if there is a conspiracy of silence it is equally a conspiracy of circumstance. Probably every M.D. in the country would understand the processes of dental disease and oral health if he gave it his professional attention. Doctors are trained and deeply experienced in microbiology, pathology and diagnosis/treatment methods. It is likely that a medical doctor would understand odontosis almost intuitively, if he looked into it.
Why should he?
As the popular young "Chico" of TV fame in the program, "Chico And The Man" would have said, "it's not my job..."
All right, then...whose "job" is it; to first develop a total understanding of dental disease and then, in turn, to inform the public? It's the "job" of the dental profession, obviously. Why haven't dentists done their job?
Traditionally, dentistry has been symptom-oriented. Many medical problems began this way, also. When science didn't have the answers to causes and cures of disease, doctors were forced to attend to symptoms. Throughout history, there have been maladies for which the only prognosis was to help the patient rest as comfortably as possible until he died... or recovered.
This is the unfortunate "state of the art" in dentistry, today. Because the profession either cannot or will not respond to dental disease in a medical, preventive approach, all that's left to the dentist is the task of helping the patient's mouth "rest comfortably" while the teeth "die."
Whole sub-sciences have become an integral part of the medical profession in the past decades. Such areas as microbiology and pathology, to name only a few, have wide application in research about the causes, effects and cures of diseases. Doctors almost universally are oriented toward correcting problems; toward curing and preventing disease, with less and less accent on trying to ease the symptoms.
For example: One of the good reasons doctors are so adamant about not mis-using antibiotics is that some disease symptoms are masked while the disease itself is not eliminated. In a typical situation, a person has a half bottle of oral penicillin lying about in the medicine cabinet from a recent illness (his or another family member's). When he feels out of sorts and decides he has "a bug", the person takes the antibiotic. Soon the symptoms recede...and the person smugly decides he's just saved himself another doctor's bill and the cost of a new prescription.
Wrong! Several days later we see this person at the emergency room of a hospital; or seated in a doctor's office, sweating and shaking like a leaf. The symptoms he covered up could have told the doctor, earlier, that this patient was headed for big trouble... could have told him early enough to head off that trouble.
So it is also with odontosis, with the various forms of dental disease. Dentists can address themselves to the symptoms (that's usually all they do); but the disease itself is there, masked and undercover, ready to break out with renewed strength.
As the patient leaves the dentist's office with a new filling in place and all the remaining teeth freshly cleaned and polished, he may think that he's done his best toward dental health. The sad truth is that even as he walks away from the dentist's office, odontosis is already regrouping its forces; already looking for a place to recolonize and continue its dirty work: As a matter of fact, the dentist may well have helped spread the disease to other parts of the mouth, areas which were uninfected before he began his examination. (More about this startling statement in a later chapter.)
The dentist is trained, and trained well, in reparative or restorative, mechanical dentistry. This means that he is concerned only with the technical aspects of a "symptom-fixing" approach to the teeth, themselves. He knows about the physical makeup of the mouth; he's been trained in anatomy and essential medicine. His days in dental school were filled with classes which are not unlike those attended by medical doctors. While the M.D. may have had more depth, and had other emphasis placed on what he learned; the D.D.S. has an amazing amount of training about overall human health.
It is the emphasis of his training that begins the process which the dentist follows for the remainder of his professional life. That emphasis is, of course, on teeth; to the exclusion or diminution of all else. The further "into dentistry" the doctor goes, the more he begins to exclusively concentrate on "fixing teeth" (or replacing them).
Thus there is one part of the human body that is "no man's land" to the medical and health sciences. That part, of course, is the mouth. Medical doctors and those involved in medical research all avoid the mouth because that is, as a matter of ethics and law, the domain of the dentist. Dentists, however, are almost exclusively concerned with only one part of the mouth: Teeth. This situation was summed up by Clinton T. Messner, D.D.S., chief of dental service for the U.S. Public Health Service:
"The medical profession has backed away from the oral cavity, leaving it as the province of the dentist, but the dentist has thought only of the welfare of the teeth. He has been so busy devising ways and means of replacing lost tooth structures that he has, in a measure, neglected the equally large field of the oral cavity itself."
Doctor Messner's comments continued, taking his profession to task, with this accurate but all-too-easily forgotten statement:
"Our dental magazines are filled with measures and methods whereby we might help to prevent disease of the teeth and gums, but little attention is given to the control of the spread of communicable diseases; and yet the field in which we work is the site of 90 percent of all infection which enters the body."
How important is a clean, healthy mouth...a disease-free oral ecology? To Doctor Messner, at any rate, the importance of a healthy mouth lies somewhere in the range of 90 percent of all human disease exposure. How important is this to dentists? "...He has been so busy devising ways and means of replacing lost tooth structures that he has, in a measure, neglected the equally large field of the oral cavity itself."
Doctor Messner indicates that dentists "in a large measure" ignore oral health. How large is that measure? Doctor Messner didn't choose to use language which would express the extent to which the dental profession has forsaken oral medicine; to what extent dentists are not interested in disease cure and prevention.
It may well be that this is a subjective evaluation at best --how would you back up an opinion which said two-thirds, or three-fourths, or any number of dentists were lax in their approach to oral health?
Let's approach it from another avenue. Instead of trying to express an opinion as to how prevalent this attitude may be, let's just look at a fact; a statistic, and see if that has any bearing on the attitude of today's conventional dentist. The fact: 98% of the people in the U.S. today are suffering from some form and degree of dental disease, according to the U.S. Public Health Service. The question: How many dentists are involved in cure or prevention of dental disease? The answer...?
An opinion will do; yours is invited at this point.
While there is no way to make a flat statement that advances in oral health have been retarded mostly because this one area of physical health is a "no man's land," it is at least good common sense to reach that conclusion. While truly significant research has seen progress in medical science, with one breakthrough after another, there is a strange silence from the dental world.
What research is being done? Tabloid "newspapers" describe with monotonous regularity a mysterious pill soon to reach the market that will immunize us all against dental disease. Someday, when astrologers are licensed to practice dental medicine, we will see these predictions come to pass...but for now, what is being done? Is anything being done? --And if it is; why are news media so reluctant to print it? Why won 't anybody tell us anything about dental disease?
What doctor would tell you? Not the medical doctor: He's not involved in oral health. Certainly not the medical specialist-researcher: He's off on a fast track somewhere, studying the implications of disease and/or remedies elsewhere in the body or mind.
And don't expect to hear it from the dentist: What research is being done in dental/oral health is a crystal clear indictment of the dental profession. If today's dentist wants to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, he must first learn it himself; then and only then could he tell us about it. Ah: But to do this, he would have to renounce his brothers and admit his own guilt. He would have to be willing to say, to anyone:
"The repair and replacement I've been making all my living doing for people was a stop-gap. I haven't been treating disease, I've been treating symptoms. I have no excuse other than that I thought that's what the people wanted...and because that's what my professional codes of ethics made me do..." Who has the courage to do this, knowing that instant reprisal will follow from the organization; knowing that it is most likely he will lose his license and be drummed out of the rolls of his societies? Before the reader judges dentists, as individuals, too harshly; let him stop for a moment and consider whether he himself could summon up that kind of courage.
Tough, isn't it? Until the American public and its government learn the truth and raise enough outcry, the institutions of organized dentistry will be able to control all dentists through fear. Even those who secretly want to stop doing "business as usual" are inhibited. If dentistry is ever to come of age, it will have to be from outside force. The only tether strong enough to pull such a reluctant jackass into the 20th century is the "rope" of public opinion and pressure.
That public pressure will only come after the people are informed about the sad, sorry state of affairs in America's oral health. That task, informing the public, should be a job for the profession...and for obvious reasons, the profession isn't going to do it.
The next thing we have to rely on is the public media: Newspapers, TV, radio and books. In another chapter we'll take a look at why the media has failed us in this case; again it's more a conspiracy of ignorance than any willful intent to share that ignorance.
Until there is a groundswell of public sentiment, the task of telling America has to fall on those few who are aware of the state of things and are willing and able to tell others about it.
As of now, that includes you: As you learn more and more, either charity or obligation toward your fellow man should impel you to tell others. It might very well be that if you don't tell another person, that person will never know these things. If you don't tell him, who will? Without you, how will he learn the truth about the health of his mouth and body... ...that no doctor is going to tell him?
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Thank you,
Tom Cornwell
OraMedia@aol.com
http://mizar5.com/omedia1.html
800-555-9205 Ext. 4539 (Voice Mail)
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