They don’t mean to. They have the best of intentions. You became a patient to have your teeth worked on… and that’s exactly what your dentist has been doing. Unfortunately, it’s been at the expense of the rest of your body, and now you’re sick, but have no idea why. Problem is, no one thinks their doctor would make them sick. No one thinks their dentist would make them sick. But it happens… it happens all too often.

Sound far-fetched? Maybe to you, but not to a legion of people around the United States who get very ill every year because their dentist did what he or she was trained to do: fix their teeth.

The problem goes back to dental school. Dentists are taught separately from internal medicine. Treated as a completely different industry instead of recognizing dentistry for what it is: a medical specialty. You see, most specialists go to medical school and then do additional schooling for their speciality. Think of podiatrists, neurosurgeons, cardiovascular specialists. But not dentists. Dentists don’t go to medical school then do additional work for dentistry. Instead, they go straight to dental school, where they learn about the mouth rather than all parts of the body and how they work together. That’s dangerous and that’s where most of the problems arise.

Your mouth is part of your body. Not only that, it’s the GATEWAY to your body. Everything that goes into it has an adverse affect on your health. Anything done in your mouth also has an affect on your entire body. Your teeth are inside your body. Your tongue is inside your body. Your gums? Inside your body. So why do dentists pretend that work they do — inside your body — doesn’t affect YOUR BODY?

It’s not negligence really. It’s ignorance. They pretend to not know. They pretend that their work is relegated to the mouth and only has an affect on the mouth. They pick and choose correlations between the mouth and the body.

“Gum disease can cause heart disease? Sure, that one sounds good! Means more people will go to the dentist.”

“Mercury fillings can make you sick? NAH! That would make me look bad because I place mercury fillings.”

It’s a dangerous game they are playing… a dangerous game they are playing with YOUR health.

That’s why more and more people are turning to “holistic dentistry.” As an holistic dentist — also referred to as a biological dentist — we do our best to study and learn about interconnections between dentistry and your overall wellness. It means we do extra courses. Spend more time researching. Take fewer chances. Practice a more conservative approach to dentistry. Recommend treatments that are less likely to cause you other problems down the road.

At The Center for Natural Dentistry, we have patients that fly in from all over the world seeking treatments that won’t cause them greater health problems. Many of our patients come to us with illnesses caused by traditional dentistry in the past. They were allergic to nickel, and their dentist placed a crown with nickel in it, “promising” it wouldn’t affect their health because it was “self-contained in the mouth.” They have Hashimoto’s disease, yet their doctor — who has absolutely NO training in thyroid problems — tells the patient that the mercury won’t cause any problems. Why? Because they are afraid to say they don’t know?

Why are dentists so afraid to tell patients they don’t know about mouth-body connections? Why do they so often resort to outright lies? My theory is that it often boils down to ego. The doctor has spent his or her entire life learning to do dentistry and practicing dentistry. Now a patient mentions a correlation between mercury and thyroid problems and the doctor is afraid to admit a lack of knowledge and/or afraid to admit that they might been making a mistake for his or her ENTIRE CAREER.

The thing is, we learn new things about the body every day. Almost every medical discipline is constantly reevaluating practices and procedures to ensure the health of it’s patients. Not dentistry. Dentistry is content to do things the way it has for over a century. It’s not a case of “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”… because IT IS broken. It’s a case of “ignorance is bliss”. It’s like a child being told they did something wrong so they stick their fingers in their ears and stomp and make noise. If they don’t hear it, no one can say they did it wrong and everything will carry on the same.

It’s time to wake up. It’s time to recognize the fact that not every procedure is good for every patient. That not every material is healthy for every patient. That the mouth doesn’t live in a vacuum outside the body. That the work we do in the mouth CAN and DOES affect the health of our patients.

Holistic dentistry is a growing field, despite what many stodgy ignorant dentists would like you to believe. They will stomp their feet and yell that holistic dentists are “liars” and “crooks.” Right — because we do LESS invasive dentistry. We take a CAUTIOUS approach. We would rather our our dentistry fail than have the health of our patients fail. Because we don’t believe that everything we were taught in dental school 20, 30, or 40 years ago is still EXACTLY the same. We don’t believe that our ego is more important than the health of our patients.

If you are concerned with your health and well-being and want a different approach to dentistry, give us a call or find a progressive, modern, holistic dentist in your area who will actually LISTEN to your concerns and provide treatment accordingly. You DO HAVE OPTIONS, even if they aren’t always the easiest to find.

Give us a call if you have questions or want a fresh look on dentistry: 760-536-1199.

Dr. Marvin

PS: I’m sure this article will anger many dentists. You will probably read their comments below that it’s all a lie. That it’s all a ploy to charge more and do more work. I am used to it. The definition of ignorance “a lack of knowledge or information” and most dentists who bad mouth our approach fit that definition perfectly. It’s easier for them to plug their ears and shout than open their minds and change.