Thanks to Dr. Gammal for this excellent work.

source: Biocompatible Dentistry
 

The aim of Root Canal Therapy is to ‘save’ a tooth which has become infected or dead, in an attempt to make it functional and pain free. 

After scraping out the inside of the tooth the dentist will attempt to disinfect the tooth and the canals to eliminate any source of infection.  The canal is then filled with a combination of cement and Gutta Percha in an attempt to completely occlude these canals.  This is supposedly to prevent any microorganisms from entering the tooth either through the crown or the root. 

If you consider pain control, mechanical function and aesthetics to be the limit of good dental treatment, then you will have "SAVED" the tooth. 

If systemic effects are included in your concept of dentistry, than all that has happened, is that you have kept dead, infected tissue, buried in the bone, within a couple of inches from your brain.

For some obscure reason we are all conditioned to think that teeth are not a part of the body,  but that they are inert calcified material, and that they are sort of dead anyway. Dentistry is the only one of all the medical & para-medical professions that thinks it is a good idea to keep dead, gangrenous tissue in the body.

One eminent Endodontist says:

“It is wrong to speak of  (Root Canal Therapy) as a dead tooth; it is more correct to describe such a tooth as non-vital or, better, pulpless.  Even though the central blood supply to the tooth has been lost, the tooth itself still retains its connection to the body via the periodontal membrane and the cementum.”[i]^{, [ii]}

The Oxford dictionary defines ‘non-vital’ as “Fatal To Life”.  It defines ‘Dead’ as “No longer Alive”.  It is like saying that even though the blood supply to your leg may be completely cut off, it would be wrong to suggest that the leg is dead, because it is still connected to your body by your hip joint! 

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Treatments Based In False Beliefs

Dr. Weston Price was the leading dental researcher at the turn of the 20^th century.  He was the head of the American Dental Association and wrote numerous papers on subjects as diverse as  the role of nutrition on dental health to the effects of dead teeth and root canal therapy  on systemic health.   He was able to correlate different disease states with the types of pathology seen around dead teeth.  He demonstrated thousands of times, the creation of diseases from non-vital teeth.  He demonstrated how every belief about Root Canal Therapy, held by the dental community at the time, was based on a complete lack of scientific research.  They were myths which developed and were then believed.   The current dental communities have now set these beliefs as concrete truths and continue to teach them as though the earth were really flat. 

The dental institutions claim that

• Root Canal Therapy is safe

• Dr Price’s research is out of date

• Focal infection Theory is irrelevant in dentistry

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1  Dentistry teaches that you can see infection on an x-ray.!  

FALSE!  Only if the angle is correct you may see some bone loss on an x-ray.   It is impossible to demonstrate infection with an x-ray as dental radiographs only ‘see’ hard tissue.  They do not see soft tissue or infections and x-rays are not microscopes.  Due to the shadow cast by the root it is often impossible to see the bone loss. [iii]

2  Dentistry teaches that you can gauge the extent of infection by the amount of bone loss on an x-ray.

FALSE!  It is assumed in dentistry that the extent of bone loss is a direct indication of the amount of infection present.  This is a false assumption because the bone loss may take time to develop.   The extent of the bone loss about the end of the root is also a function of the body’s immune system being able to isolate the infection process.  It has little to do with the degree of infection.[iv]

Sometimes there is no bone loss, but instead, a condensation of bone about the end of a dead tooth.  We are taught in dentistry that this indicates a lack of infection.  The reality is that teeth showing a ‘Condensing Osteitis’ are demonstrating that the body’s immune system is incapable of quarantining the infection locally.^1,9  These are often the teeth, which cause the greatest systemic effects.  This very crucial issue is explained by Dr Josef Issels 1995

“If the body's local resistance is weakened to such an extent that the inflammatory process cannot be encapsulated by the granuloma cyst, the toxins will be able to advance unhindered into the marrow spaces, the tonsils, and into the body. In this case, it is proof that….the organism has become largely incapable of reaction. Radiographs of these teeth as a rule show no transparencies, and are therefore called X‑ray negative.

In my cancer patients, I have found that such non‑encapsulated foci, that is those who show X‑ray negative‑were particularly common, as one would expect from people whose body resistance had been lowered.”

3 Dentistry teaches that you can determine the length of a tooth by x-ray.   

FALSE!   

Dentistry teaches that a root canal must be filled to within 1mm of the root apex.   The apex of a root canal is only rarely determinable by X-ray.  Thus most root canals are worked too short, or so long that the root filling will protrude through the end of the tooth and into the bone. This is born out by research published in the dental literature which demonstrates that approximately 17% of root canals, filled by specialist orthodontists, are in fact ‘overfilled’. In other words basic endodontic procedures done by specialists have a failure rate of  17%.

Is this significant?

"In the canals which were overfilled, the extruded materials were always associated with advanced destruction of the surrounding tissue and liquification necrosis"[v]

It is not possible with an x-ray to see

•   the end of the root canal,

•   the angle of  the root canal,

•   the number of canals or

•   the various branches of each canal

4 Dentistry teaches that it is possible to actually treat all of the hollow areas of the tooth. 

False!

It is assumed that the only part of the tooth, which contains soft tissue, is the actual root canal.  Even in the latest Australian Dental Association handout on root therapy they state, “All root canals in the effected tooth must be treated”. [vi] 

The root canals are really like the taproot of a tree - one main root with hundreds of branches coming off it and opening to the edge of the root all the way along its length.  It is impossible to treat these accessory canals or to remove the gangrenous products from them.

In a front tooth, which has only one root there, is over three kilometers of tubing.  This equates to billions of microorganisms in just one tooth.  Upper molars usually have three roots and lower molars two.

The volume of the root canal is actually quite small in comparison to the volume of the accessory canals and the dentine tubules. 

When only the root canals are treated, a massive amount of gangrenous tissue, which is infected by anaerobic microorganisms will remain in the tooth. 

One of the finest descriptions of this process is again presented by Dr Issels: ⁹

In an understandable desire to preserve as many teeth as possible, to maintain the masticatory apparatus and its functions, attempts are often made to save teeth which are in fact lost. There is a widespread conviction that this can be done without risk by the sterile evacuation of the pulp, and then refilling the cavity. For decades, the erroneous belief was held that, after such treatment, the tooth is an isolated, lifeless thing, no longer involved in any of the body's processes. This assumption was originally based on the premise that the pulp cavity had only one orifice to the apex of the root below, and by filling, this opening was sealed. However, the dentinal canal does not end in just one opening; instead, it resembles a tree with many branches which penetrate the tooth's body in all directions.

The finer details of the entire dental structure have been exhaustively studied by Austrian researchers. They have established that there is a lively metabolic interchange between the interior and exterior milieu of the tooth, and that this two‑way process takes place along many thousands of hyperfine, capillary canals joining the pulp cavity to the exterior surface of the tooth.

Very careful conservation measures may possibly seal off the vertical central‑medial‑tube of the dentinal canal, but it will never reach the lateral "twigs" branching off from this tube. Nor can it ever close off the innumerable capillary canals. Some protein will always remain in these secondary spaces. If this protein becomes infected, toxic catabolic products will be produced, and conveyed into the organism.

It was established in 1960 by W. Meyer (Gottingen) that within devitalised teeth the dentinal canals and dental capillaries contain large microbial colonies. The toxins produced by these microbes in a tooth with a root filling can no longer be evacuated into the mouth, but must be drained away through the cross‑connections and unsealed branches of the dentinal and capillary canals into the marrow of the jawbone. From there, they are conveyed to the tonsils, and thus the flowing systems of the body. In fact, the conservation treatment may literally convert a tooth into a toxin producing factory.  It then may be left to develop its devastating effect on the organism for decades or even for a lifetime.[vii]

Can Antibiotics or your immune system clean up the mess?

Most endodontic teaching, claims that the body’s immune system will take care of whatever infected tissue remains.  This is an assumption based in fantasy.  If the blood supply of the tooth has been removed (which is what happens when the root canal is ‘cleaned out’) the cells of the immune system cannot get there. 

Often a dentist will administer antibiotics during or before root therapy is started.  Pain relief which may follow is due to the control of the infection in the bone only.  The antibiotics do not effect the organisms which reside within the tooth which are the original and continuing source of microorganisms and their toxins.   As there is no blood supply to the tooth it is NOT possible to get the antibiotics in there either.[viii]

“ In the case of an acutely infected tooth there is no natural process of drainage and there is no mechanism by which the antibiotics which have been administered can reach the bacteria inside the tooth” ¹

5   Dentistry teaches that it is possible to sterilize the canal by using medicaments placed inside the canal.

FALSE!

It is impossible to sterilize the canals.  The medicaments and antibiotics used do not penetrate the dentine tubules. Dr. Price was even able to culture bacteria from teeth through which he had poured fuming formaldehyde.  Even the recent dental literature reflects this:

  "It is now known that complete sterilization of an infected root canal is very difficult to achieve and complete removal of all pulp tissue remnants frequently is not possible.”  [ix]

6  Dentistry teaches that when the canal is sealed and the oxygen supply cut of, these bacteria  die. 

FALSE!

It is now known that dead teeth are usually heavily infected with gram negative anaerobic bacteria. [x]    Sundqvist,  in 1976 isolated 88 species of bacteria out of 32 root canals with periapical disease.[xi]  “Only 5 of those bacteria could grow in air…long standing populations of infected root canals do contain a mixture of strict anaerobes.  Low grade but chronic periapical inflammation is the result that may last for years.”    Other organisms such as yeasts, funguses and ‘cell-wall-deficient forms’  (Lida Mattman) also inhabit this tissue.[xii] 

The dead teeth thus become a focus of infection, which can cause numerous disease states throughout the body.    Anaerobic bacteria produce incredibly potent neurologic and hemolytic toxins.  A true “Toxin Factory”.

7 Dentistry teaches that if it does not hurt it must be OK!  

FALSE!

Weston Price’s comments are most succinct;

“Local   comfort......... may constitute both what is probably one of the greatest paradoxes and one of the costliest diagnostic mistakes through injury to health, that exists in dental and medical practice ............ the absence of this local reaction and the consequent destruction by the infection products, permits them to pass through the body to irritate and break down that patient’s most susceptible tissue”.

Lack of pain around the tooth is usually taken to mean a successful root therapy.  Unfortunately lack of pain around the tooth does not reflect the seriousness of associated systemic effects.

8 Systemic effects need not be thought of in relation to dental disease.

FALSE! 

All researchers from Weston Price[xiii], Billings, Rosenow, Stortebecker, Ratner and many others, have demonstrated the spread of systemic disease from infected teeth and gums.  It is only the dental profession, who are not trained in medicine that refuse to accept this basic concept.  The research of  Steinman [xiv] in the 70’s conclusively demonstrates the relationship of metabolic dysfunction and dental disease. 

Patrick Stortebecker and others have demonstrated the transport of all materials, microorganisms and their toxins directly from the tooth back to the brain via the blood and by transport along the nerve fibres.^2,3,4,5  Many other research articles have shown that whatever you put in a tooth can be transported to the rest of the body.[xv],[xvi],[xvii],[xviii]

9 Dentistry claims that the materials used to fill a dead tooth are safe

FALSE!

The dental literature is repleat with research that demonstrates that all of the root filling cements and Gutta Percha itself are all CYTOTOXIC.  There is NO safe material.  In fact root filling cements have been shown to;

Induce calcification in various organs of the body[xix]

Cause neurological damage and interfere with nerve transmission, in some cases irreversibly[xx]^,[xxi]

Be Mutagenic and Carcinogenic[xxii]^,[xxiii]

Many of the root filling cements either contain or breakdown to Formaldehyde – a substance known to cause cancer, breathing problems, damage to embryos, and a host of other disastrous effects.  It is the substance which is used to mummify tissue.

One of the most commonly used root filling materials in Australia is a material called AH26.  This is commonly used throughout the world.  Look at what the manufacturer says about its own material in its Material Safety Data Sheet:

Dangerous Components; Bismuth Oxide, Methanamine, Silver, Titanium Dioxide   .

Dangerous Breakdown Products; Formaldehyde, Nitrogen Oxides, Ammonia

Warnings: Skin Irritant, Eye Irritant, Sensitization Inhalation and Skin contact. After Swallowing:  Rinse mouth thoroughly and then drink plenty of water.  Call a doctor immediately.

Ecological Information:  Do not allow product to reach ground water, water course or sewage. Do not allow to enter sewers/surface or ground water.  Water Hazard class 2 (German regulation) (Self assessment) : hazardous for water.

How would you like to have this material implanted into your body?

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Focal Infection Theory

“A root canal treatment which does not plant a focus, does not exist”   Schondorf

The concept of focal infection has been around for well over 150 years.  Since the time of Pasteur, the medical and dental authorities have claimed that the concept of focal infection firstly cannot exist and secondly does not hold relevance to dead teeth which  have been root therapied.  Lately the dental associations are stating that, to promote the theory of focal infection is to set dentistry back by 150 years.   This unscientific lie is nothing short of “popularist dogma” as highlighted by the Journal Of Endodontics, as recently as 1976 –

“The concept of focal infection in relation to systemic disease is firmly established. The origin of many toxic or metastatic diseases may be traced to primary local or focal areas of infection”.[xxiv]

Many researches over the years have successfully demonstrated that dead, root therapied teeth can in fact release organisms and their toxins into the body.  These can then initiate disease states in other parts of the body.  Stortebecker has even demonstrated that these organisms and their toxins can be transported directly back to the brain via the blood and also by transport along the nerve fibers.  Other researchers have demonstrated that the brain can be directly infected from dead teeth[xxv]^{,[xxvi],[xxvii],[xxviii]}  

“A Focus of infection has been defined as a circumscribed area infected with microorganisms which may or may not give rise to clinical manifestations.

A Focal Infection has been defined as sepsis arising from a focus of infection that initiates a secondary infection in a nearby or distant tissue or organs.”

From yet another of the dental journals – none other than the Journal of the American Dental Association (1951) we read:

Two mechanisms can produce focal infection:

1-  an actual metastasis of organisms from a focus,

2-the spread of toxins or toxic products from a remote focus to other tissues by the  blood stream.  [xxix]

“If the bacteria pass the barrier (of the abscess wall) a number of  things may happen;

(Appleton)

1-  the bacteria may be discharged from the focus onto a free surface whence, conveyed by mechanical means, they determine an extension of the disease by re-inoculation.

2-   the bacteria escaping from the focus may be conveyed to distant parts of the body by way of the lymphatics or blood.  Once the bacteria leave the focus they may be arrested by the nearest lymph nodes.  A lymphadonitis gong on to abscess formation may develop. If the bacteria pass this barrier three things may happen (a) they may multiply in the blood setting up an acute or chronic septicemia. (b)  they may be carried live to a suitable nidus where they infect the surrounding tissue. (c) they may produce a slow but progressive atrophy with replacement fibrosis in various organs of the body.

3-  Products of bacterial metabolism or of the interaction of bacteria and the cells …….may reach remote parts of the body.

4-   the bacteria at the focus may undergo autolysis or dissolution.  Some of the products of this dissolution, diffusing into the blood or lymph , may sensitize in an allergic sense various tissues of the body.  A later diffusion of these products on reaching the sensitized tissue may call forth an allergic reaction”

There is a suggestion in dentistry that if the infection is ‘quarantined’ it will not pose a danger to the rest of the body.  The quarantining is regarded to be in the form of a Dental Granuloma (an encapsulated abscess).   Unfortunately this position is not supported by the dental literature;

 “the capsule contains a meshwork of capillaries among its fibers and is penetrated abundantly by larger vessels;  thus direct communication is established in the inner part, or seat of inflammation and the circulation………”

  In 1931 Freeman reported “ there is no question that bacteria or their toxins are not limited by the fibrous capsule.”  ³³

To ignore the reality of focal infection is to allow dentistry to operate in the dark ages.

Who may be affected by a focus of infection?  We do not have to go far to find that the dental literature itself provides the answer, again demonstrating the falseness of the position upheld by dental authorities.

“A patient becomes susceptible to infection if any of these mechanisms  (immune function and reticuloendothelial system) decrease in function, or if an organ is damaged to the extent that microorganisms can localize and produce an infection.”

“Patients with rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease, heart valvular prosthesis, or patients with an inadequate defense mechanism are susceptible to severe consequences if they are subjected to a bacteremia.  Inadequate defense mechanisms to resist bacteremias may result in cases of; debilitation or dehydration, exposure to radiation, diabetes, cancer, blood dyscrasias, malnutrition, vitamin deficiency, leukemia, multiple myeloma, diseases of the liver or kidney, and in patients undergoing prolonged therapy with antibiotic, corticosteroids, immunosuppresives, and antimetabolites.”[xxx]

This is just about everyone who undergoes any stress in their lives.  Increase in the amount and variety of types of stress produces a severe drop in immune function.

Trigeminal Neuralgia – A special note!

Peripheral nerve damage (as far away as the teeth) in human beings can result in central nervous system damage or hyperexcitability in the trigeminal ganglion and nuclei with subsequent development of Trigeminal Neuralgia [xxxi]^{,[xxxii],[xxxiii],[xxxiv],[xxxv]}

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Neural Focal Interference

Focal infection is just one of the problems associated with dead teeth.  The other way that dead teeth can affect your health is by interfering with the control mechanisms of the body.  This knowledge was first developed by two doctors called the Heuneke brothers, in Germany in the 1950’s.  What they found was that areas of dead tissue, scar tissue, foreign bodies, cystic tissue and infected tissue could interfere with the body’s regulatory systems.  They called these areas “Foci of Neural Interference.”

A neural interference field will create an imbalance in the body’s regulatory mechanisms, which include the tissue fluid around all of the cells of the body.  Dead and infected teeth fulfill all the criteria to become Primary Foci of Neural Interference.   The imbalance in the regulatory system will then either create or potentiate disease states in other parts of the body,  which are remote from the original focus.  These disease states will often coincide with areas of the body that are on the same acupuncture meridians as the primary focus.  This has been verified by the work of Voll who was a German physician and electro-acupuncturist.   For example we often see disease states in the areas of reproductive system, kidney and knees in relation to non-vital front teeth.  (See the EAV charts at the end of this section)

The mouth and teeth are a primary source of focal infection and neural interference fields.  No other parts of the body have dead tissue routinely left in place.  The only thing, which seems to separate individual reactions, is the state of that person’s immune system and genetic factors.  Consequently other factors, which may reduce immune function, will allow a greater reaction to the non-vital teeth.   (e.g.  Mercury from dental amalgam fillings will have a direct and deleterious effect on the immune system)

The German Medical Association for Focal Research and Control, defines focus as: "an abnormally localised alteration in the organism, with the capacity to induce distant actions out of its immediate proximity.”  Any local circumscribed pathogenous organic alteration such as a chronic inflammation, a degenerative altera–tion, or a scar (independent of its size and location), can be active as a focus or as an "interference field".

The "focus" is defined by Pichinger and Kellner as a "chronic devious localised alteration in the connective tissue, which can cause the most diversive reactions out of its immediate environment and consequently is located in a permanent active relationship with the localised and general immune system.”

Any chronic inflammation, any scar, any degenerative or other alteration can obviously satisfy this condition. The focus is embedded in the mesenchymal base tissue and in that way has direct contact with the capillary system of the blood and lymphatic vessels and the neuro‑vegetative nerve fiber. This produces the connection to the whole organism. Through any of these conduction systems, it will be able to cause distant actions in other organs. The focal nerve impulse will be first projected into the vegetative centers, where it can cause a vegetative dysregulation which likewise can become retroactive to the whole organism again. On the other hand, focal toxins and bacteria will be infiltrated by the vessel systems where they are able to spread their infectious, toxic and allergenic properties everywhere.”⁹

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Apicectomy & Retrograde Root Fillings

Sometimes, when an infection at the end of a root does not seem to heal, the dental surgeon will perform a surgical technique to clean the abscessed area.  This is called an Apicectomy.  This surgery is based on the false belief that infected material escapes only through the end of the root.   Therefore as part of this procedure, a filling is often placed at the end of the root.  This is called a Retrograde Root Filling. The material of choice, which is most commonly advocated by the dental profession, is Mercury  Amalgam!  

There is not one area of medicine that would condone the implantation of amalgam or mercury into bone.  This is in fact what is being done daily in dentistry.  It is equivalent to an implant of mercury directly into the brain!  This is not an exaggeration. Many researchers have demonstrated that mercury vapor released from dental amalgam will migrate through the palate and the nasal linings to pass directly into the brain. [xxxvi]  If the mercury is already inside the bone it will migrate freely to the brain.

If you have had this treatment it is vital to remove all bits of amalgam from the bone.

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Pulpotomy

Due to the anatomy of the end of the root of a baby (deciduous) tooth it is not possible to do a root therapy.  If a baby tooth is infected or dead, the treatment, which is still taught at Sydney University, is called a Pulpotomy.  This involves the removal of only the crown section of the pulp while leaving the remainder of the infected pulp in the root of the tooth.  This pulp stump is then covered with a material which ‘mummifies’ the remaining tissue.  The mummifying material is in fact a mixture of Formaldehyde and Cresol.  The belief is that this material remains in the tooth.  There is NO scientific foundation for this belief!  In fact there is a large amount of published research which demonstrates that Formaldehyde placed in teeth will migrate easily to every tissue in the body[xxxvii].  Formaldehyde is carcinogenic (cancer producing) in minute amounts. 

Pulpotomies not only mummify the pulp but

may start to mummify the child as well.

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Symptoms

The types of disease states, which relate to dead teeth, are so numerous that it is impossible in an article of this size to discuss them all.  They range from head and neck pain all the way through to rheumatism and cancer.

·       The most common symptom is in the form of head and neck pain.  This may range from mild headaches to migraine to Trigeminal Neuralgia.

·       Sinusitis is very often associated with non-vital and Root Canal Therapied teeth especially if they are in the upper arch.

·       Price found that most patients with non-vital teeth had some thyroid dysfunction.

·       A number of researchers and physicians are finding a relationship between cancer and non vital teeth[xxxviii]. 

·       Reduced immune function is common.

·       Eye and Ear problems are common and rheumatic and arthritic changes are almost the norm amongst people with dead teeth in their mouths.

·       Many heart problems and nervous disorders are associated with dead teeth.

·       Multiple Sclerosis has also been linked to the toxins and organisms from dead teeth.[xxxix],[xl]

The location of the tooth, the types of organisms inside it and the nature of the person’s genetic make up will determine the areas of disease found clinically.  The one thing that is certain is that if you are sick you should look very carefully at all non-vital teeth, whether root therapied or not.

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Treatment

Dentistry is the only medical/paramedical profession that consider it O.K. to leave dead infected tissue in the body.  (Not only is it OK but it is condoned and paid for by the health funds.)  No medical practitioner would consider leaving gangrenous tissue in the body. 

Unfortunately there are no good alternatives for this situation.  The only treatment for dead tissue in the body is to remove it.  Therefore the treatment of choice is to extract a dead tooth rather than root fill it.  It is also important to remove any infected tissue from around the tooth.  This usually requires a very easy surgical approach to access the end of the socket.  Although this does not sound attractive, the results usually are, and the actual surgery is usually very easy.

NICO Lessions

As dentists we are taught to extract teeth with forceps and that any infected tissue left in the bony socket will be dealt with by the cells of the immune system.  This does sometimes happen.  Often, though, the bone will heal around the infected tissue, which remains indefinitely as an infected hole in the bone.  These areas are usually colonized by gram negative bacteria.[xli]  They are called areas of Osteitis or NICO Lesions (Neuralgia Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis)  NICO lesions[xlii],[xliii] can act as Foci of Infection and also Neural Foci just as the Root Therapied teeth can.  This is the main reason that a surgical approach is used for most extraction.

The next obvious question is ‘How do you fill the space?’   The solution depends on the location of the space and the condition of the adjacent teeth and or lack of teeth in the area.  It will usually involve the creation of some sort of bridge or partial denture.  Each person must be assessed individually.

I do not believe that Titanium implants are a suitable solution.  The electric currents generated by these devices may also act as a neural interference field.  [xliv]

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 source: Biocompatible Dentistry