Australian film director, Frazer Bailey, had no idea that one single powerful punch would send him on a compelling journey for a further 10 years searching for answers to his health. Documenting his story in his own movie, Root Cause, Frazer lifts the lid on the controversial subject of root canals and how this could be a silent link to many underlying chronic illnesses.
As spoken to: Emma Lodge
For people who haven’t seen your documentary, can you give us a rundown of your story and where it all began?
Frazer: The documentary is essentially my personal story and search to get my health back. For 10 years my health was in decline, panic attacks gave way to chronic fatigue, out of the number of Western doctors and health practitioners I saw, they either thought I was faking it, or they didn’t have any solutions.
It didn’t take me long to realise that western medicine didn’t have the answers I was looking for. That is what catapulted me into this journey of getting to the root cause.
So, you stepped outside of the box?
Frazer: Completely, I was on a mission to try anything and everything. At the time I was very fortunate for two reasons – 1. I had money and 2. I had time. I had to stop work for 6 months which gave me the time to research.
I had to have a chuckle at the start of your movie seeing all the different alternative health modalities that you tried, it reminds me of me! I went through a similar self-exploratory process a few years ago. There are so many weird and wonderful modalities out there, is there anything that stands out that makes you laugh that you tried?
Frazer: There are so many very crazy and ridiculous things I tried, but the thing is, when you’re desperate you’ll try anything. I remember I joined this group called ‘The Oneness Movement’ which is a spiritual movement out of India. It was pretty wild and ‘out there’, you get amazing energy transfers, but if a normal person came in and saw what was going on, they’d think everyone had lost the plot! But all these things were stepping stones helping me along the way.
And that’s great that you chose to be proactive in whatever way you could, there’s so many people who would just give up, and their condition becomes their life. Like you said, when you’re that desperate and when the doctors aren’t giving you any answers or accusing you of making it up, then it’s a choice to take your health into your own hands.
Frazer: Exactly. I even tried urine therapy! The American and English press gave me a bit of a hard time about it, but I was more so trying to be illustrative of the fact that I had tried anything and everything to get my health back. I’m not telling people to try urine therapy, but there are amazing amounts of information out there about how effective it is. And when you’re desperate you’ll try anything!
Sounds like there has been a lot of self-discovery and character shaping along this journey too.
Frazer: 100%
So, when did you discover your root canal was the cause?
Frazer: It was purely by chance, my girlfriend at the time was a pharmacist, and through hanging out with me she became interested in alternative medicine. I heard about a modality in America called Bioresonance Analysis of Health (BAH) and was watching videos on it and showing her. We were both blown away so I suggested to her she should be the first person to bring this modality to Australia. We soon headed over to San Francisco, I was just playing tourist while she was on her course, but whilst there I asked if I could get my blood tested. So I had my blood pricked and put on a slide (in BAH the doctor looks at the blood from a frequency quantum physics theory rather than a physical like how a normal doctor would test), he also used a German instrument called a Lecher Antenna, which looks very basic but essentially measures frequency and resonance.
When I got back later that day to pick her up, she said my results showed an infected root canal. That completely flawed me as firstly I didn’t tell him I had a root canal, and secondly no dentist had ever commented on the dark discolouration of my gum, so I let it slide.
Was the dark discolouration infection?
Frazer: Yes, and that was the start of my research into root canals. I started exploring YouTube and podcasts listening to doctors and dentists talking about them being toxic to health. I literally threw the book at trying to get my health back through eating well, detoxing, having regular infrared saunas, but I kept sliding back, that’s when I realised there’s something to this. So, I decided to go to a dentist that specialises in holistic dentistry, he had an EAV machine (Electro Acupuncture by Voll) which measures the energetic state of specific points along the body known as the meridians. Everything was fine as he was testing, until he reached the one tooth that had the root canal and the machine just screamed, the needle was off the scale, and that was enough proof for me that I had to get this sucker out.
And did you get it replaced with a denture?
Frazer: Yes, you have a denture while the gum repairs, and then I had a bridge. The alternate would be to remove the tooth, but for me I was punched in the face, it was my front tooth, so that was the reason I ended up with a root canal.
In hindsight, what I should have done is what I did now, and that is get the tooth removed and have a bridge.
Why do people choose the root canal option? Is it cheaper? or is there more work involved with a bridge?
Frazer: A root canal is really a cosmetic procedure. It was invented for the rich people in the 1930’s as they didn’t want a tooth missing which made them look poor. Most people choose a root canal because they are ignorant to the fact that root canals are toxic. If you’re given an option of saving a tooth compared to removing a tooth, chances are most people would choose to keep the tooth. That’s why I opted for it, it was my front tooth and I was ignorant to the fact that it could have systemic consequences to my health.
But surely with state-of-the-art technology there would be new practices in dentistry offering fewer toxic options?
Frazer: A bridge is the best option and zirconia implant second best. There is a bit of conjecture to the second option. 99% of implants in Australia are titanium which are shocking, don’t do that either! The zirconia implant is a material that the body more readily accepts, but it’s still the second-best option, where the bridge is the best option, or simply leaving it alone.
So how did the movie come about?
Frazer: I said to my business partner “we’ve done a doco before (called e-motion), I think we should do a doco about this whole root canal thing”. Naturally he was a bit unsure as he didn’t know much about it, then once we started interviewing the doctors and dentists around America, he was shocked to realise that this literally is like modern day tobacco!
The tobacco industry used to promote smoking is good for you there’s nothing wrong with it, but now the truth and consequences have finally been exposed.
Wow just like your movie; you’re exposing the truth and consequences to root canals. Were you prepared for the controversy and backlash it has received?
Frazer: I knew I was going to get a backlash from the dental community, firstly getting the movie on Netflix and then the American Dental Association removing it. I mean you’ve just got to follow the money and 25 million root canals done a year at $3,000 a pop, that’s big business you’re pissing off. I’ve got zero animosity to dentists because they’re good hard-working people and they’ve been trained that way, but to have 10 years of learning and then the average Joe comes along and tells you otherwise, they don’t really want to hear it.
It would be hard to take.
Frazer: Yes exactly, it’s hard to take so I don’t blame them. But I do believe that high above in the dental community they know, but the problem is it opens such a legal can of worms that they’ve just got to shut it down.
And what did Netflix say to you when they shut your movie down?
Frazer: We’re one step removed; we go through a distributer. We knew there was pressure, as we had dentists on the inside sending us information that the president of Netflix had been contacted.
Oh wow.
Frazer: Reading between the lines here… from Netflix point of view, let’s face it, the ADA have credibility, and have concluded that my movie is causing harm to people, according to them it’s all pseudo-science and people are being damaged from watching it. In the eyes of Netflix, we’re just a small film, it’s not worth their while stepping into a legal battle for a small documentary. So that’s the way I see it, I don’t blame Netflix, it’s just like I said, the people high up in the ADA know that its toxic but imagine once they admit that to the general public, it opens up a can of worms that they don’t want to open, and I think the legal battles would be huge.
From what I’ve seen there are heaps of journal studies backing up the health implications of root canals.
Frazer: I always get attacked that there’s no science to what I’m saying, but I’ve got a ton of science that’s all on the website and it’s all throughout the movie, but what I find really interesting is there’s no science to prove that root canals are healthy and don’t cause harm. They’re attacking my film on pseudo-science which is crazy as there’s so much research being done to prove that every root canal is toxic, however there is no science to back up that root canals aren’t harmful.
I was reading the reviews from your movie, there’s hundreds of them and I got totally sucked in! What was interesting however is I could see a distinct trend, the ratings were either 1 or 10, there was nothing in-between.
Frazer: Yes, the 1’s are usually dentists!
And the people giving 10 are the people who have been in your shoes, who have had the same experience, and they know how it’s changed their life getting their root canal taken out.
Frazer: Yes, exactly. Dentists are being told to rate the movie 1 star to bring my score down and there’s not much I can do about that.
No but the movie says it all, and you can tell the difference with the reviewers who have rated 10. Their personal testimony says it all.
Frazer: People email and chat to me on Instagram. I get the abusive dentists who want to punch me and then I get the other people who thank me. I received a touching email from a lady who had a devastating health condition. She saw Dr David Howard and wrote me a beautiful email saying after 7 years she got her health back because she watched my film and got her root canal taken out, if it wasn’t for my movie, she’d still be sick. Touching, really touching emails make all that abuse worthwhile.
During your 10 years of suffering (obviously at the time it would have been awful), but now do you look back and think of it as a blessing? Everything you’ve learnt along the way and the impact the movie has had on so many people’s lives?
Frazer: I think secretly most people when they’re that down and desperate make a pact with God or the divine source or whatever you want to call it. I said if you get me through this, I’ll do good. So sharing my story in this documentary is my way of giving back, and mostly trying to set the record straight.
The message I picked up overall from the movie is its getting people to think outside of the square when it comes to health, and bringing awareness to the fact our body isn’t just individual components, it’s intrinsically linked and must be treated as a whole,
everything feeds off everything else.
Frazer: Yes, we need to try and convert people from the Newtonian way of thinking with the body. We’re an energetic body as well as a physical body and I think once you affect the energetic body which is the meridian system, then the physical body can manifest health or disease.
And I guess the other thing is just because you can’t feel it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there. I’ve seen testimonies of people saying they’ve had root canals for years with no problem, so I guess some people are more resilient than others?
Frazer: In the documentary I use the smoking analogy where we all know someone who smoked their whole life and didn’t die of lung cancer, and then dies of something else. Then there are people who smoke for 10 years and they die from lung cancer.
A root canal is a toxin in the body, but again if you’ve got a strong constitution and you’re doing a lot of things right, then you may be able to go your whole life without any adverse effect, however some people can feel the effects within a year. For me it was 10 years later. So that’s why most people don’t join the dots because it is such a slow burner.
I see a lot of people asking where they can find a holistic dentist. Is there a website or directory? And how do you know they’re credible?
Frazer: There is a find a dentist link on the website, or a very quick way is to google holistic dentist in your area. Make sure they don’t give root canals, but they do zirconia implants instead, then I’d say 9/10 they’re a good holistic dentist.
I think it’s a fantastic thing you’ve done with speaking out. It’s a shame it’s been taken down from Netflix but at the same time its created conversation and ruffled some feathers, which is what we need to grab people’s attention and get people uncomfortable, no change happens without getting uncomfortable.
Frazer: Thanks Emma. I’m pleased that you think it’s as important as I do.
