There is no question that most scientists today will be skeptical of Dr. Price's research, claiming his results to be anecdotal- that his reports and stories are derived from his own personal beliefs and prejudices. Double blind studies, designed to prevent such misinterpretations,were not known or used at the time of the Price research. Although Dr. Price knew nothing of such procedures, he was acutely aware of the possibilities of his investigations' being influenced by his own feelings and pas experiences. It was his consciousness of such a possibility which led to his repeating studies so many times, in so many different ways, and using so many animals. For example, when a rabbit became ill and died of a specific illness, he would replant the same tooth in numbers of other animals to verify whether or not the same illness would be repeated. With several types of infections, he transferred the patient's tooth into 30 rabbits in succession, and in one series of experiments he repeated the process in 100 animals. In all instances, the disease being investigated reoccurred. It was pointed out in this chapter that when healthy teeth extracted for orthodontic purposes or impacted wisdom teeth were implanted, nothing harmful happened to the rabbits. Implanted sterile coins, glass and other items produced no harm to the animals. These tests were carried out 100 times to rule out possible error. The most startling study was one in which an infected tooth has removed from a rabbit which had dies of a patient's illness. In this case, the tooth was washed and pumiced and then placed in boiling water for one hour. This tooth, when imbedded in another rabbit, resulted in the rabbit's dying in 22 days. Even more amazing was an even more stringent investigation. Teeth which had been implanted in rabbits several times, causing illness and death, were subjected to hospital autoclave temperatures and pressures of 30 pounds and 60 pounds for one hour. An additional test was carried out at 300 pounds pressure for 2 hours. Still, when those teeth were imbedded in rabbits, the animals lost weight, developed blood changes and died - not so rapidly, but in 35 days. Studies were undertaken to determine if the deaths were occurring because of infection from bacteria. In these studies, root filled teeth were crushed and washed, and the washings were passed through a Berkefeld filter - a method which removes all bacteria. The remaining solution was then subjected to culturing to prove all bacteria had been successfully remvoved from the solution. When this solution was inoculated into rabbits, it caused them to decline; their ionic calcium was lowered, loss of weight took places, and death occurred in a few weeks. |