What is the "focal infection" theory? The "focal infection" theory states that germs from a central focal infection - such as teeth roots, teeth, inflamed gum tissues or perhaps tonsils, metastasize to the heart, the eyes, the kidneys, lungs or other organs/tissues, establishing the same infection in new areas.
Revolutionary thinking in the early 1920s, this theory has been demonstrated and proven many times over. However, today, both patients and doctors have been brain washed into believing that infections are less serious because we now have antibiotics. That is not the case. In the case of root-filled teeth, the no-longer-living tooth lacks a blood supply flowing to its interior. So circulating antibiotics can not impact the bacteria living there because they can not get at them
In his research, Dr. Price did hundreds of experiments, which Dr. Meinig discusses in his book Root Canal Cover-Up. In one of those experiments, for example, Dr. Price removed an infected tooth from a woman who suffered from severe arthritis. As soon as he finished with the patient, he implanted the tooth beneath the skin of a healthy rabbit. Within 48 hours the rabbit was crippled with arthritis.
Dr. Meinig claims that all root-filled teeth harbor some bacteria and or other infective agents. No matter what technique or material is used, the root-filling shrinks microscopically. Another point is key: the bulk of the solid-appearing teeth, called the dentin, is not solid and actually consists of miles of tiny tubules.
In a healthy tooth, those tubules transport a fluid which carries nourishment to the inside of the tooth. To give you an idea, it is said that if the tubules of a front tooth were stretched out, they would be 3 miles long... A root-filled tooth no longer has any fluid circulating through it, but the maze of tubules remains. The anaerobic bacteria that live there seem remarkably safe from antibiotics.
Microscopic organisms hiding in this maze of tubules simply migrate into the interior of the tooth and set up housekeeping. A filled root seems to be a favorite place to start a new colony.
Another thing we need to understand is that large, relatively harmless bacteria common in the mouth, change and adapt to the new conditions. They shrink in size to fit the cramped quarters and even learn how to survive on very little food.
Those organisms that need oxygen mutate and become able to survive without the presence of oxygen. Though this process of adaptation, these formerly friendly/normal organisms become pathogenic - capable of producing disease - and more virulent and they produce much more potent toxins.
Today's bacteriologists are confirming the discoveries of Dr. Price's team of bacteriologists. They isolated in root canals the same strains of streptococcus, staphylococcus and spirochetes.
Not everyone who has ever had a root canal filled is made sick by it. It is believed now that every root canal filling does leak and bacteria do invade its structure. However the variable factor is the vitality of the person's immune system. Some people in good health are able to control the organisms which escape from their teeth into other areas of their body.
It is believed that this happens because their immune system's white blood cells and other immune system fighters are not constantly compromised by other diseases. In other words, their immune system is capable of preventing those new colonies from taking hold in other tissues throughout the body. But over time, most people with root canals do seem to develop some kinds of systemic symptoms which they did not have before.
The "focal infection" theory says that the bacteria can migrate out into surrounding tissues where they can travel to other locations in the body via the bloodstream. The new location can be any organ or tissue, and the new colony will be a new source of infection in a body plagued by chronic or recurrent infections.
