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Step One
Let's take these steps one at a time. First and most important, there is active disease in your mouth; there is active disease in the mouths of members of your family. Unless you fall into the category of those who are naturally immune, odontosis is at war against your oral health right now. Who is immune? --Statistically, some two percent of the world's population has a high degree of immunity from odontosis; some of them even seem to have a total immunity.
We don't know for sure why this is, but there's a good way for you to determine whether you fall into that category. You can go through the first step, the Lactobacillus Saliva Test, the same as everyone else. If you've never done anything in particular to keep your oral health ship-shape, and have never suffered cavities or any other oral disease symptom, and if your lacto count is under 8,000 naturally --you are probably immune. The odds against you are 50 to 1: If you were gambling something besides your oral health, you probably would not bet against those odds, so it's a "safe bet" that you have odontosis.
Must of us have no problem concluding that we have active disease. Instead, the question is: "What do I do about it?"
Before you can begin any response to this disease, you should first be aware of the extent of the problem. Don't expect your old frame of reference to work, now. This is nothing like having a dentist tell you, "Yep...you have two cavities..." (or whatever).
We want you to begin thinking of odontosis as you would expect to think of disease elsewhere in your body. In other words, you should know what causes it and how it operates; and you should begin to think in terms of diagnosis, clinical tests and individualized approaches to therapy.
In Chapter Five you'll find a step-by-step explanation of odontosis and its three most easily recognized forms; cariosis, gingivosis and periodontosis.You needn't take the time now to study that chapter --just remember it is there as a reference for your use later. At present all you need to be reminded of is that odontosis, like so many other diseases, is caused by germs: Lactobacillus acidophilus and streptococcus mutans, to name the principal bad actors.
These germs create a waste by-product that makes a film on your teeth --and particularly between your teeth --in which the germs colonize. Now another by-product...acid...begins to "insult" tooth enamel, resulting in cavities.
The disease process continues, ultimately causing other symptoms which you recognize as gum problems. Frame of reference: Cavities, gum problems, sore gums --often bleeding --toothaches, abscessed teeth... all of these are symptoms. We've been trained since childhood to think of these things as the sources of our troubles. They are not the source (cause). They are all effects (symptoms) of a hidden cause--disease.
Now, obviously: If the disease is caused by germs, all we have to do is get rid of the germs and we're home free, right?
--Well, in a manner of speaking, that's right. But we can't "have a shot" to get rid of these germs; and there are no pills which will make them "go away." If we did have such an injection or medicine, you'd simply end up "catching" these same kinds of germs all over again, sooner or later.
We have to get rid of them, and keep them absent, in order to be free of odontosis. And so, like so many other diseases, we begin our war on germs with a test; one which will determine the extent of the present involvement and become a point of departure for our therapy.
This test is called the "Lactobacillus Saliva Culture" or, more simply, the Oramedics Saliva Test. It is performed at a laboratory, using a sample of your saliva which you mailed, yourself, in a special container.
Technicians at the lab will use special equipment which enables them to actually count the number of lactobacillus in a given amount of saliva to come up with the germ count per milliliter of saliva. There is a well-established mathematical relationship of the number of strep mutans germs present for a given number of lacto germs, and so the technicians can determine the extent of both microorganisms from this one test.
When a saliva test is below 8,000 lacto per ml. of saliva (consistently), that mouth is probably --almost certainly --without cariosis. Anything over 8,000 is moving into the danger zone. It is not unusual for the average person to have a lacto count in the tens or hundreds of thousands per milliliter.
This would be true even alter a visit to a dentist; perhaps especially after a trip to a dentist. Why? Colonized germs would have been disturbed by the exploring, drilling or scraping. The number of germs present in "free" saliva would be increased. This wouldn't invalidate the test in terms of establishing the presence of disease, it would simply give an incorrect "reading" of the oral environment.
It is not unusual to encounter a saliva test result of 500,000 lactobacillus per ml. of saliva. This would mean --incredibly --that there are 500 millionstrep mutans germs per milliliter.
Now, even when you're talking about things as tiny as germs, anybody will recognize that a half billion of anything is a "whole bunch" of 'em. Considering that the only "safe" level of these germs is less than 8,000...the saliva test instantly tells us:
1. Whether disease is present (confirming your suspicion);
2. What extent the germs have set up housekeeping;
3. What logical steps to take from here on out.
For an analogy --although admittedly it's like comparing oranges to tangerines, which aren't quite the same --think of a doctor being almost sure, from symptoms, that you have diabetes. Would he immediately start you on insulin therapy without making any tests, without analyzing your individual, personal situation? --What if he was wrong; the symptoms seemed like diabetes, but that wasn't really the disease? Or...what if he was right? Should he prescribe oral insulin, or injections? How much? How often? What about your diet: Would he simply suggest that you "avoid sugar, and visit your doctor every six months for a check-up?"
No, of course he would do none of these things. He would use a well-established, definitive clinical testing approach so that he was sure; and so that he knew what you need, as an individual. Then --and only then --would he discuss things like medicine, therapy, diet control, and your own responsibilities in achieving personal freedom from disease.
To take the saliva test, you first obtain a specimen bottle and instructions. Oramedics offers this through the mail. As with many other things, Oramedics is not the only place, or organization, which offers saliva tests...but they are hard to locate even for conventional dentists, who usually don't bother with them. Finding a laboratory which would deal directly with the public would be extremely difficult.
If you can obtain satisfactory testing elsewhere, and want to, of course you should. If not, you may obtain the saliva specimen bottle and instructions from Oramedics.
Once you have this, you will, upon rising in the morning, chew a small piece of sterile wax provided in the test kit, then spit in the special bottle, seal it tightly, and drop it in the mail. It is pre-addressed to the laboratory.
The laboratory will return its findings to the doctor or agency sponsoring your test and, together with the other personal history you've given, it can be used to establish a diagnosis about the present state of your oral environment, and suggest a course of action to correct it, individualized for your personal condition.
A second benefit of the saliva test is that after you have begun the recommended corrective "treatment" you can check your progress by re-testing at appropriate intervals. Obviously, secondary testing can reassure you that you are progressing...and it can also disclose any continuing problem.
You may have unsuspected nutritional difficulties. You may have a severe dietary problem. You may have need for closer supervision or additional instruction. For whatever reason, if you are embarked on a program of becoming self sufficient, the tests will show you absolutely whether your program is working --or whether you need additional help.
"To test is to know...not to test is to guess." For those who are enrolled in the full through-the mail Oramedics self-help program, the testing is mandatory...and for a very good reason. Oramedics doctors refuse to guess, on a matter as important as a patient's oral health, when it is so easy and virtually foolproof to test.
Step Two
After testing, the next step in your program of oral self sufficiency is to learn about oral hygiene. Be careful of your present frame of reference on this point. because there are hundreds of thousands of Americans wandering around out there, convinced they are taking good care of their mouths...and they are not.
More than ten years ago, writing for other dentists, Dr. Basil G. Bibby, D.M.D., wrote an article, "Do we Tell the Truth About Preventing Caries? in the Journal of Dentistry for Children, Vol. 33, 1966. Let's "drop in" on that article, shall we?
There have been few more successful educational programs than the one which has convinced the American people of the desirability of tooth brushing as an adjunct to oral hygiene. It now rates close to motherhood in respectability. Its promotion gives the dentist something to talk about and the dentifrice manufacturer good advertising angles. Commerce being what it is, the manufacturer cannot be blamed if he oversells oral hygiene for the purpose for which he is in business. The same cannot be said of the dentist, whose very title of Doctor suggests that he should be teaching the most up-to-date information on the subject.
Dr. Bibby then asks other dentists:
Is it correct to say that brushing the teeth will prevent dental decay, or have we repeated this statement so often that, as the ultimate victims of propaganda, we have become incapable of questioning it? One does not have to be against brushing the teeth to question its value in preventing dental decay...
Emphasis added
No, Oramedics is not "against" tooth brushing. (We're not "against" motherhood, either...) What Oramedics wants the world to know, even if the profession doesn't (yet), is that tooth brushing alone won't do the job; and tooth brushing ineffectively is --aside from making you feel good cosmetically --probably a waste of time.
Worse than that: If you are a conscientious tooth brusher, and have believed the toothpaste commercials, you are with dentists as far as Dr. Bibby would be concerned: You are an "ultimate victim of propaganda." You are a victim, in this case, because you've come to believe (frame of reference) in your efforts at oral hygiene: You feel that you're doing all you can and should do. That attitude leads, almost inevitably, to odontosis...no matter what you think your tooth brushing is doing for you.
You will need to learn a great deal more about oral hygiene; and you will, in this book...after you've learned more about the way your mouth is put together, and what the chemistry is like in there, and so on.
For now, please understand that for the rest of your odontosis-free life the one single most important thing you will personally be involved in is oral hygiene. This one area is yours, exclusively and individually: You can be shown how, but only you can provide the initiative and the persistence it will require.
Understand, also, that we are not going to ask you to go to extraordinary lengths, to become so involved in oral hygiene it becomes oppressive. In fact many folks have discovered that the right approach to oral hygiene is less time-consuming, less restrictive and easier to maintain than their former hit-and-miss, guilt-laden routine of alternate frenzy and lapse; self satisfaction and despair.
Step Three
The next stage of oral health self sufficiency is to become knowledgeable about teaching others in your family; caring for babies, infants and children. You should (and will) also come to know about how to respond to toothache pain and what to do in emergencies: Oral / dental "first aid."
In order to help you with this, we will take you in easy steps through the necessary technical information. You won't be deluged with big words and abstract concepts, although we'll make a point of telling you what some of those big words mean; and what some of those concepts imply. It is during this phase of your reading and doing that you will become familiar with the chapters of this book that, later on, you can use for your reference library.
Step Four
Sooner or later, you will probably require the services of a dentist. You've had odontosis long enough now, probably, that there is irreversible damage to your teeth. We are speaking of damage which nature cannot repair without assistance, when we mention irreversible damage: The kind we are now talking about is repairable damage.
In a sense, the distinction is that you will need to have some things fixedthat can't be healed. For those problems, the only solution is reparative dentistry: The kind of dentistry that any competent Doctor of Dental Surgery is prepared to perform.
This is not a contradiction, in a book about becoming self sufficient, when we suggest that you will ultimately have to obtain corrective help from a doctor. Only a doctor has the requisite thousands of hours of education, the skill and experience, the equipment, and the legal right to actually "operate" on your teeth.
While it should be the last time you require this kind of help, the odds are that you will have to have it at least once more after you've become self sufficient. For that, we will help you understand what is needed and how to go about getting it done properly. In brief, you will first achieve freedom from disease; then freedom from earlier symptoms... and then remain free of both the disease and the symptoms.
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