By Julianne Stead
Bonnie, the littlest one in the family and still too young to talk, gave her mother a big smile – revealing that half a tooth was missing.
“Why didn’t you take better care of Bonnie?” Bonnie’s mother, Jane, scolded her teenage daughter, who had been washing little Bonnie in the shower.
Yet Jane was mistaken about what had happened. While she believed at the time that Bonnie’s tooth had broken off when she fell in the shower due to her sister’s neglect, when Bonnie’s three other top front teeth also broke and her first molars began to crumble, Jane came to understand that Bonnie’s teeth were actually breaking off of their own accord.
What was happening?
Because Jane was familiar with Weston Price (a dentist who studied the correlation between the deficient western diet and tooth decay), the family had a conscious diet which Jane thought would have prevented this kind of thing from happening to her children. Furthermore, only certain teeth were affected, the others were in perfect condition. This convinced Jane that the cause wasn’t too much sugar, another dietary problem or bacteria.
Then why did Bonnie have some teeth like this?
Jane sought the advice of a dentist, who went into action mode and wanted to give Bonnie a general anesthetic to pull the troublesome teeth. A second professional opinion gave the same advice. Yet why should she put her daughter through this if Bonnie wasn’t in any pain, especially when her deciduous (baby) teeth would fall out when her adult teeth came through anyway? She declined the dentists’ offers.
Besides her daughter not being bothered by the dental issues, Jane also found out about a friend’s young daughter who had experienced similar problems and whose second set of teeth had grown in perfectly. This reassured Jane about her decision to let nature take its course, and indeed, Bonnie’s next set of teeth came through without a problem.
Yet, at the back of her mind, Jane continued to ponder what had happened.
Could it have been just something random?
It wasn’t until fifteen years later that Jane discovered Dr Ryke Geerd Hamer’s German New Medicine (GNM) and finally found answers to her long-unanswered questions about Bonnie’s teeth.
Through GNM she learned that all disease has its origin in a conflict shock (Dirk Hamer Syndrome – DHS). A moment in time when the individual is caught “on the wrong foot”. Something unanticipated and for which they were unprepared. The body then follows biological laws of “conflict active” and “restoration”. And this, she came to understand, is actually part of our natural biological adaptation process, which helps us evolve to be stronger the next time something similar happens.
Jane discovered that Bonnie’s dental problems had been communicating powerful messages, especially through the particular teeth that began to deteriorate. The following is how Jane came to understand what had happened to Bonnie and her teeth.
At just under three years old, Bonnie lacked the vocabulary to express her needs or frustrations. Although she had no pain, she did have two teenage siblings who could do many things she couldn’t. “Wahh, I can’t use the breadboard!” (That, by the way, is a circuit board.) Many of her teenage sister and brother’s activities – crafts, games, schoolwork – were out of her reach, and this created a conflict for Bonnie that she did not have the ability to communicate.
However, the greater fear for Bonnie was her fear of being left by her mother. When Jane went out to run errands, she often left her teenage siblings at home on their own. And, if it was a simple errand, she’d just pop out quickly and leave Bonnie’s siblings to take care of their little sister. Whenever Jane picked up her keys, Bonnie would become clingy and distressed. It was only after she’d learned to speak could she ask, “Who’s going to look after me?”
So, Bonnie’s dental issues stemmed from a conflict of not being able to “bite down” on things like her older siblings, and her inability to “express” her fear of being left alone. Also, at this time she was breast fed. This may explain why it was particular teeth that responded to this conflict.
The tooth dentin is mesodermal in origin. It responds to conflicts of self-devaluation. Being “unable” to have or hold onto a “morsel”. Through the GNM lens, it seems most likely that the thought of being left alone was the major issue for Bonnie.
This led to the decalcification of the dentin in Bonnie’s incisors and molars – the very teeth used for “expressing” and “biting down”.
When dentin is exposed to air, it oxidises. It may turn brown or (in Bonnie’s case) black – similar to the browning of a cut apple. This is often mistaken for a dead tooth. However, it is not dead; the dentin has simply been exposed. As long as there is enough structure for recalcification, the tooth can restore itself.
For Bonnie her blackened dentin became covered with hardened, glossy enamel that grew over the exposed areas of her black stumps. Her molars formed into doughnut shapes but they didn’t cause a problem either. And in time, they all were replaced by healthy adult teeth.
To the amazement of both friends and health practitioners, Bonnie’s teeth did heal themselves! Although her mother never doubted that they would: “If bones and skin heal, then as long as there is structure for recalcification, why not teeth?”
Bonnie’s story is a beautiful illustration of the biological laws of nature. And thanks to the meticulous work of Dr Hamer that explains these laws, we have the tools to understand and learn from our experiences and live life without fear.