From Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients
by Susan Stockton...
About six years ago I made the eye-opening discovery that my chronic health
problems, which had eluded resolution for many years, had their origin in --
of all places -- my jawbone. I would never have deduced this had it not been
for a fortuitous chance finding: the complete disappearance of bladder
problems of one year duration within days of having an abscessed tooth
removed. When I reported the "coincidence" to my dentist, he was surprised
and incredulous. He shouldn't have been, for he considered himself to be a
"holistic" practitioner. That same dentist would later, despite his lack of
understanding of focal illness, unknowingly help me to learn more about it
by creating the conditions that triggered the full expression of a long
silent jawbone disease -- osteomyelitis (a.k.a cavitations and a dozen or so
other names). This disease is actually quite common, though infrequently
diagnosed, and is perhaps the most common source of focal conditions in the
body. A "focus" is a walled-off area of concentrated toxins and necrotic
(dead) and/or infected tissue.
A jawbone cavitation is simply a hole or pocket in the bone. It is not
readily visible to the eye and generally causes no local discomfort, though
it can be the hidden cause of facial pain syndromes (hence one of its names,
NICO - Neuralgia Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis). There are many
possible causes, chief of which is trauma to the jaw, especially the trauma
of tooth extraction.
I'd first encountered the word, "cavitation" about seven years ago in the
writings of Dr. Hulda Clark. She'd described it in her books as "a bone
infection resulting from an incompletely extracted tooth" -- i.e., an
extraction where bits of infected bone were left behind. That description
didn't resonate in me then, despite the fact that it was exactly what had
been silently going on in my jawbone for many years. I guess I thought if I
had an infection in my jaw, I'd know it: Surely there would be pain,
inflammation, tenderness -- and my dentist would find the problem in the
course of my routine check-ups. WRONG! Osteomyelitis of the jawbone is not
characterized by the usual signs of infection -- it most often is a silent
condition. And it's one that dentists are not trained in school to
recognize. In fact, they're not even taught that the condition exists. This
is a somewhat perturbing state of affairs, for the jawbone cavitation is not
a new disease. It was described in 1848 by Thomas Bond in the first oral
pathology book. He wrote about a jawbone necrosis that existed independently
of abscessed teeth and gums. In 1915, Dr. G.V. Black, the father of modern
dentistry described the condition as "chronic osteitis."
Jawbone cavitations are exquisitely described in an eye-opening book
entitled Death and Dentistry written in 1940 by Martin H. Fischer, medical
doctor and professor of physiology at the University of Cincinnati. Citing
the research of Frank Billings and E.C. Rosenow (early 1900s), Dr. Fischer
speaks of "infarctions induced of microorganismal emboli" that have broken
into the general circulation from a peripheral focal point in the jaw or
tonsils. This "metastasis" of microorganisms is the cause of a surprising
number of conditions. According to Fischer (p.8,9): Embolic infection that
has struck the heart valves will be endocarditis; the heart muscle,
myocarditis; the pericardium, pericarditis; if all are struck, it is
pancarditis. Involving the skeletal muscles, the same pathological
background will give rise to myositis; when their tendinous junctions are
struck, fibrositis; and when the synovial bursae are affected, bursitis or
tenosynovitis. The process in the joints is arthritis; and in the nerves and
ner ve ganglia, neuritis. In the brain, this is cerebritis, and in its
coverings, meningitis.