Dental Health

[iamthatis]

Thank you for the summary of that documentary @meadow_wind - I'm definitely going to check that out.
My wife has just been diagnosed with Periodontal Disease, and of course, has been scheduled for a root canal procedure.
This article from Unbekoming came at the right time and was a real eye-opener - I've heard it said many a time (or read in different places) that oral health is a window to overall health, but I didn't really grok what that meant. Now I have a better idea and I'm going to keep digging. It seems that Unbekoming has published a book on dental health, 'Drilling for Profit: The Dietary Truth Behind Dental Disease' (for paid subscribers). I'm going to start there.
In the meantime, I've explained the above linked article to my wife and have hopefully convinced her that a good first step is get those troublesome carbohydrates out of her diet. That, and taking the 'Ultimate D3 supplement from DCM.
The cleaning schedule the dentist recommended, I now understand, is an entirely superficial response to what is fundamentally a systemic health issue. It will also keep her returning as a paying customer.
I feel a bit like I'm treading a fine line here. I've been eating a ketogenic / carnivore diet for a number of years, and whilst I've spoken about it a great deal with my wife, she's never felt as though she wanted to give it a go, and I haven't laboured the issue because it's not for me to determine what's good for her. I can only hope that this 'lesson' won't be too painful. I really don't want to see her suffering.
Now, a significant question, given the summary from the documentary above: what about the root canal that is scheduled a week on Saturday?

I'd say have a conversation with her, expressing yourself from a place of care and concern based on what you've learned - but then you just gotta leave it up to her.

 

[Il Matto]

Thank you @iamthatis.
So, I downloaded and read Unbekoming's book 'Drilling for Profit: The Dietary Truth Behind Dental Disease'. Then my wife and I read a few chapters together and discussed it.
As it turns out, her tooth started to get a lot more painful over the weekend. She called the dentist and had a consultation - the dentist agreed to remove the tooth rather than doing the root canal. Removing the tooth isn't exactly ideal (especially if the dentist doesn't remove all of the dental ligament), but on balance I think its the lesser of two evils.
This whole process was quite the learning experience for us both in the end - I can't recommend Unbekoming's book enough. I had no idea what a root canal was or what it involves:

The procedure is presented to patients as tooth preservation — a way to save a damaged tooth rather than extract it. What it actually involves is this: the nerve and blood supply are removed from the interior of the tooth, the hollow chamber is filled with a rubber compound called gutta percha, and the dead structure is cemented back into the jaw. The tooth has no blood circulation, no nerve sensation, no immune response, no capacity for self-repair. It is, by every biological definition, a dead organ left inside a living body.
(Drilling for Profit: The Dietary Truth Behind Dental Disease, page 65)

The normal oral streptococci bacteria that are left inside the tooth (on the dentinal tubules), in their new anaerobic environment mutate and become more virulent. The still porous tooth leaks pathogenic material (a focal infection) and can cause a disturbing list of issues:

coronary heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer of the lung, kidney, pancreas, and blood, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, obesity, pneumonia, epilepsy, and a host of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.
(ibid)

In short, I'm relieved that my wife decided to take the root canal option off the table.