The following is a brief description reflecting my own recent dental health journey.

It was in June and July of 2001 that I began having severe pain in my upper left tooth, which I now know as tooth #14. With the pain I began having fevers which would not go away. I saw an endodontist and he performed a root canal of the tooth. Unfortunately, the pain and fevers did not go away after treatment. I began having pain in my jaw and neck and eventually spread throughout my whole body. I visited the endodontist again, and he said x-rays of the tooth looked fine and there was no infection.

As the summer progressed my pain progressed. With the pain came extreme stiffness and fatigue. I began to have trouble walking, especially down the stairs. I stayed in bed most of the time I was at home and started to become frightened because I did not know what was happening. I kept thinking “this started when I had the tooth problem.” Luckily my work schedule was flexible, and during brief times I started to research what might have caused these terrible pains and changes in my body. I never had arthritis or other pains. I visited a doctor (my family doctor was unavailable) and he diagnosed fibromyositis, or fibromyalgia and gave me Mobic for the pain.

I attended a Christian healing service at my church. Through a series of very interesting “coincidences” I began to learn about the relationship between dental health and overall body health, and how root canals could very seriously impact your body. I kept running into people who knew about this also…and that verification was important because my work at the university involves research---I needed to understand the background on these dental health issues completely before I took action. I was amazed at what I was learning and what others were telling me---especially how root canals can cause pain or other problems in some people.

I began researching fibromyalgia and discovered some interesting links, such as to thyroid problems. I was taking a thyroid medicine and have since learned through the Fibromyalgia Research Association that these pains could be related to under-treated hypothyroidism or thyroid hormone resistance. (I later looked at the tooth-organ chart and learned that tooth #14 could be related to the thyroid.) I visited the Fibromyalgia Research Association and began taking a different thyroid hormone at a larger dose, which helped with some of the pain. I learned that I had pain in over 75% of my body (pain I had never had before in my life); the new thyroid medicine began to help with the pain and stiffness.

After learning as much as I could I decided to have tooth #14 extracted. After the tooth was pulled, any remaining pain, tension, and stiffness left my body. I have had all other root canals extracted and I have no more pain or stiffness. It is hard to believe the pain came on so suddenly back in 2001, but I now understand why, and I am wondering how other people might be helped by learning about these serious impacts of root canals on overall health.