Unlike the other reviewers on here, I am a dentist. The fact that anaerobic bacteria exist in teeth is not news, nor is the idea that these bacteria in other parts of the body are unhealthy. Thus, the idea of disinfecting a bad tooth was born, and it is a HUGE leap forward from the old GV Black school of yanking teeth. (Another reviewer mentioned that GV Blacks texts are still used in dental school. He is noted for his original ideas on cavity preparation design for silver fillings and a classification system of different kinds of decay. He is not considered a great researcher or real authority on modern dentistry. He would not recognize dentistry as it is practiced today, and you would not want to go to any office that practices the way he practiced 50 years ago.)
The whole point of having a root canal procedure is to kill the bacteria inside the tooth's roots. We access the canals and literally shave the dentin tubules with small files made for that purpose. We flush out the canals and irrigate them with a dilution of bleach. I even add an extra step of placing a cotton pellet loaded with a fixative for a few weeks to insure that nothing survives. In 7 years of practice, I have never had a problem. Patient's, of course, are welcome to choose the level care they desire, but I hope nobody would base a decision this book.
The public would be hard pressed to find a profession that tries as hard as dentistry to put itself out of business. And anyone who thinks money is a factor in a dentists decision to do a root canal is a fool. It would be far easier and more profitable for me to pull teeth and replace them with implants than go through the heroic steps I do to save natural teeth.

Unlike the second reviewer from Boston, who from his comments exposes the fact that he/she probably only glanced through the book without reading it carefully, I think this book is a GREAT SCIENTIFIC ADVANCE. The millions of bacteria living in dental tubules of a root canal treated dead tooth (the tooth without living roots is dead since it has no blood supply) do not cause any external pain symptoms. These bacteria get no oxygen (since blood is absent) and so their adapted metabolism produces very harmful toxins continuously damaging important organs of the body. I would suggest this reviewer to read some politics behind how the dental associations were created in order to eliminate any responsibility dentists had for protecting human body versus protecting dead teeth. Most dentists are trained and paid to be teeth savers and somewhat innocently end up becoming body killers. They don't know what they are doing, just like the pawns of any systematic hierarchy where the leadership defines the agenda, and makes the pawns serve its interests. The words "Science" and "Prophecy" are much abused by the establishment in order to spread fear among the curious population. I found no prophecies in this book. I only found good, responsible, and non-political Science at its best. And finally, I am no high school drop-out inventing conspiracy theories. I have a Ph.D. in my field and I have investigated the dental profession by reading many journal articles, lawsuit information, and books.

Dr. Meinig's book is first rate in all respects. This information was first brought to light by the genius of Dr. G.V. Black, the dean of the dept. of oral surgery at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Black fully disclosed the conditions that occur involving osteonecrosis of the maxillary and mandibular bones as well as the treatment protocalls needed to correct them in one of his many textbooks titled "A Special Dental Pathology". Black is still touted as the "Father of Modern Dentistry", and many of his texts are still used to this day. The interesting thing is that this work was done in 1915 ! Good doctors such as Black, and Dr. Weston Price, as well as others performed a great deal of excellent and invaluable research work many years ago that should have, and still can save mankind from a myraid of suffering and misdiagosed,mistreated maladies that can often become life threatening. Many actually expire from conditions that began as a result of the irresponsible endodontic, and general improperly performed dental procedures that we all fall victim to by trusting our dental proffesionals. Dr.Rosenow from the Mayo clinic postulated on the "Focal Infection Theory" over half a decade ago that dealt with this situation and his great work has been laid aside as well. I believe our dentists need to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask themselves how many lives they have destroyed. Its time for a major change in the way dentistry is performed in our country. We the people must become informed and educated so we can prevent these abuses by our "trusted" dentists. By all means, buy, and read Georges excellent book, learn all you can about your health and find an open minded, honest, dentist who is willing to "LEARN" to do things properly. YOU, are the final authority regarding your health. Don't forfeit that right by trusting an uninformed, greedy dental person. I nearly died doing so, and will suffer the rest of my life as a result. The Endodontic Society has a great deal of "Flawed" statistics that they have absolutely no back-up research to support.