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Six Common Dental Procedures That can Harm Your Health, and How Environmental Dentistry (aka Holistic or Biological Dentistry) can Help
dental health
Date: 9/4/2007 9:27:00 PM ( 17 y ) ... viewed 2939 times Conventional dentistry and conventional dental practices have certainly helped a great number of people enjoy good dental function for many years now. And if that's the case, why should anyone be interested in seeing an environmental dentist rather than a conventional dentist? What is an environmental dentist, anyhow?
Environmental dentistry, also know as, holistic or biological dentistry, in a nutshell, respects the fact that the mouth is an integrated part of the entire body, and that it should always be viewed and treated in this respect. The primary aim of environmental, holistic or biological dentistry is to resolve a given patient's dental problems while impacting the rest of the body as little as possible. Unfortunately, even though many patients leave the office of a traditional dentist chewing much better than before they went, a significant negative medical impact on the rest of their body will result from what was done in the dentist's office.
The negative medical impact of conventional dentistry can come from any of a number of sources. The most common ones are:
Mercury-Amalgam Fillings: Commonly known as silver fillings or just amalgam fillings, these fillings should really be called mercury fillings, since mercury has been and remains a full 50 percent of the content of these fillings.
Conventional dentistry long asserted that the amalgamation process rendered the mercury non-toxic by the chemical reaction that was supposed to be taking place. In our holistic practice we also take precautions and follow a protocol to minimize patients' exposure to mercury upon its removal.
Other Toxic Dental Materials: Unfortunately, conventional dentistry continues to evaluate new dental materials primarily, and sometimes exclusively, by their mechanical characteristics. Little thought is given, even today, in trying to evaluate whether a given material will have a long-term adverse toxic effect on the patient.
Holistic dentists use biocompatible materials that will not adversely impact a patient's immune system. Stainless steel and other metals continue to be used in the mouth even though they have been well-established to have a cancer-causing effect when used elsewhere in the body.
Root Canals: Root canal-treated teeth are proving to be almost always infected, and the toxins that have been isolated from them are often incredibly potent. Some researchers claim there is a strong relation between the presence of root canals and the development of cancer and heart disease. It appears that the longer root canal-treated teeth stay in the body, the more the immune system becomes compromised.
Cavitations: Pockets of gangrene in the jawbone are often found at the sites of previous extractions by conventional dentists. These toxins are essentially the same as those found in root canals, being the product of aerobic mouth bacteria being forced to live in an anaerobic environment. Most traditional dentists still think cavitations do not exist, even though they have been shown to be extremely common, especially at the sites of wisdom teeth extractions.
Implants: Currently, implants continue to be done without biocompatibility testing, and they are often started at extraction sites where cavitations are already developing. Autoimmune diseases seem to be often aggravated or even initiated by implants.
Periodontal Disease: Not enough emphasis is put on how severely the infection in the gums of the periodontal-disease patient impacts that patient's long-term health. Heart disease is clearly the result of such disease in many patients. Repeated surgery and antibiotic courses are not the first choices of environmental, holistic and biological dentists in treating this condition.
We recognize that the mouth and its contents can have a huge impact on a patient's health and the way in which it is approached can either support our health or do the opposite. We have to understand that we function as a whole and as doctors, we must pay attention to the whole and work with other disciplines in order to create continuity for our patients.
Traditional Osteopathy is one excellent medical discipline that works well synergistically with environmental, holistic and biological dentistry, as it is an approach to the patient that is based on health rather than disease. This is not a therapy, but rather a medical treatment.
The Traditional Osteopath is taught the art of medicine in addition to a unique hands-on treatment that supports the whole patient on all levels that include the body, the mind and the spirit. This is not manipulation, massage therapy or craniosacral therapy. It is a simple but detailed regimen that works individually with each patient using very subtle approaches and requires a minimum of 10 to 12 years of post-doctoral training to practice.
Here at The Optimal Wellness Center, we integrate these principles with all of our patients and work diligently with a treatment plan that includes nutrition, lifestyle changes, perceptual training, and a lot of reading in addition to the above treatments.
Our commitment is to shift to a new medical and dental paradigm--one that will integrate the human being as a whole and not as mechanical parts. Our purpose of the Wellness Center and our Web site is to educate our patients, physicians and dentists to make better and wiser choices for themselves and their loved ones.
In subsequent issues of Dr. Mercola's newsletter we will explore these issues and many others related to biological dentistry and your overall health
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