Your oral health is a mirror of your overall well-being. It offers clues about the conditions in your mouth, which can affect the rest of your body. Though there is a lack of awareness about the connection between oral health and well-being, this association cannot be ignored.
While you probably envision only the traditional practices talking about dentistry, there is a dental philosophy born out of a desire to treat the body as a whole and consider the effects of dental procedures on your entire body by offering only nature-based and biological methods for your treatments. The contemporary approach to dentistry, which is founded on the principles of the relation your mouth has to the rest of your body, is generally referred to as holistic or biological dentistry.
What is holistic dentistry?
Holistic dentistry presents an innovative type of dental practice, offering a safe and cost-effective alternative to mainstream dentistry by identifying new scientific discoveries in traditional dental techniques and utilizing them for your safety and health. The treatments that this form of dentistry offers are said to carry minimal side effects and bring more health advantages than traditional dental treatments.
Why is holistic dentistry any better than traditional dentistry?
Both traditional and holistic dental approaches maintain the standards outlined by the American Dental Association, doing their best to ensure relatively effective treatments though having differences. The main reason for their difference is the view on overall health as related to the mouth.
Holistic dentistry takes a broader perspective, considering your teeth and your muscles, airway, and bones, while traditional dentistry only focuses on fixing the problems in the mouth, and does not address any other issues.
Holistic dentistry focuses on the mouth as an integral part of your body that plays a key role in your overall health. This biological health practice looks at every part of your body and how they connect, and assumes that none works in isolation from another. Traditional dentistry follows a problem-oriented model and focuses on your dental problems.
What is the association between oral health and overall well-being?
Your mouth, as the entry point to your digestive and respiratory tracts, can let some bacteria in your body, and this can cause various diseases. Although your body’s natural defenses can typically keep bacteria under control, without proper oral care, bacteria might lead to oral infections, tooth decay, and gum disease. According to studies, certain disorders also tend to reduce your body’s natural immunity, making oral health problems more serious and severe.
What physical concerns can be affected by oral health?
Your mouth is the gateway to your respiratory tract, allowing the healthiness of the oral cavity to impact your overall well-being. It is the beginning of your digestive tract, and its ability to give you a functioning chew makes it an essential tool for the proper digestion of your food. As such, it is also the site of gum disease and tooth decay.
Therefore, your oral health might contribute to different health conditions and concerns. One of the diseases related to your oral health is endocarditis. It is the infection of the inner lining of your heart chambers or valves, and generally appears when bacteria from another part of your body spread through your bloodstream and stick to specific spots in your heart. Cardiovascular disease is another heart disorder that is suspected to be linked to the inflammation that oral bacteria can cause. Certain bacteria in your mouth can be pulled into your lungs as well, and this can cause a variety of respiratory diseases, including pneumonia.
What benefits does the holistic health approach offer?
In recent years, several biological approaches to holistic dentistry have been adopted throughout the world, since holistic dentistry presents several benefits over mainstream dentistry.
- Holistic dentistry is natural and safe. It advocates the use of nature-based and biological materials for oral health maintenance. These materials are much safer than those used in mainstream dentistry.
- Holistic dentistry has no severe risks. It employs a minimally-invasive dental approach focusing on regeneration and recovery.
- Holistic dentistry prevents medical conditions. It goes beyond cleaning or fixing teeth and takes your entire well-being into consideration. Since your overall well-being is affected by the healthiness of your mouth, this approach to dentistry offers health to your whole body.
- Holistic dentistry puts a lot of emphasis on minimizing toxic materials. It is also fluoride-free. This method opts for developments and treatments to make you stronger, using alternatives to fluoride, such as topical ozone therapy, which can provide many more benefits without any harmful effects. Ozone dental treatment reduces the number of bacteria and viruses in your mouth before and after dental procedures, and prevents the bacteria from being transported to other parts of the body and potentially causing infection.
- Holistic dentistry is focused on modern technologies like advanced 3D low dose digital x-rays, laser treatments to treat gum disease, high-tech ceramic dental implants, same-day crown technology, and impression scanning.
- Holistic dentistry can help with your snoring. It manufactures a comfortable method to allow proper breathing throughout the night by targeting the signs of snoring that are noticed during a routine dental exam.
What services does holistic dentistry provide?
Holistic dentistry offers you a wide range of holistic dental solutions that not only improve your oral health, but also positively affect your overall health by focusing on biocompatible treatments. Some of the services it offers are mentioned below.
Holistic dental cleaning
Teeth cleanings effectively reaches the spots that your toothbrush misses. This is where a holistic approach is recommended to be employed in order to help promote health by taking into account what goes on in your mouth as a microenvironment of your overall health picture. Biological dentists deliver fluoride-free, antibiotic-free, and toxic-free oral care and safe prevention practices like regular cleaning, deep cleaning, periodontal maintenance therapy, and ozone and laser therapy for kids and adults.
Holistic mercury amalgam removal
The holistic dental approach gives an excellent consideration to the materials used for the treatments. It does not apply mercury amalgam. While this silver filling has been used in dentistry for the last 170 years, the holistic approach to dentistry replaces your metal restorations by utilizing SMART protocols in order to detox from the toxic mercury of the existing restorations. To protect you from harmful mercury vapor during traditional amalgam removal, this method allows the mercury amalgam to be carefully withdrawn using a rubber dam and a nose piece with oxygen coming through so you don’t inhale the mercury vapor.
Holistic 3D CBCT scan
Cone-beam computed tomography scans are special X-ray devices employed by holistic dentistry that create a 3D digital model of dental structures and pathologies to diagnose issues and plan complex treatments. This piece of technology plays a vital role in helping your dentist visualize your oral bones, soft tissues, and nerve pathways by providing accurate high-tech dental imaging.
Holistic root canal alternatives
When the nerve in a tooth dies, either because of decay or trauma, the dead tissue should be extracted from the canal, and localized antibiotics are typically taken to clean the inside of the tooth and the canals. However, it is impossible to make the tooth canals completely sterile. Any remaining bacteria left within a tooth could pose a threat to your health, and every dead tooth in the jawbone can affect the autonomic nervous system. Holistic dental approaches avoid root canals whenever possible. Root canal therapy or RCT is the conventional standard of care for a dead or dying tooth, which involves removing the nerve, blood vessels, and lymph tissue from within the tooth. As a specialty within the field of dentistry, root canal therapy targets the damaging effect of a root canal and cares about your well-being.
Holistic ALF orthodontics
ALF, or advanced light force, is a modern holistic orthodontic treatment oriented to the whole body, which involves new solutions for crooked teeth by using a non-traditional method to address the underlying reasons.
ALF is not just a way to form a beautiful smile, but a preventive strategy to enhance your overall health. It aims to develop the upper jaw and the midface, avoiding the extraction of permanent teeth with the help of light, flexible wires. It is a modern orthodontic treatment that presents a new solution for Malocclusion, addressing the reasons behind crooked teeth while at the same time taking into account whole-body health.
Holistic stem cells recovery
Plasma Rich Growth Factors or PRGF is a biological technique to restore your teeth stem cells. It helps accelerate the healing procedure and restore bone and tissues from your own blood, not any chemicals or foreign substances.
Holistic DNA appliance
DNA Appliance is an FDA-regulated technique to reshape deformed craniofacial structures with the goal of straightening teeth and creating an even smile, like any other orthodontic method. It uses a unique concept to help you achieve the smile of your dreams by enhancing your entire facial appearance. DNA Appliance acts by gradually expanding the nasal airways to treat the improper bite, crooked teeth, and orofacial muscle imbalances.
Holistic therapy for cavitation infection
Dental cavitation refers to a hole that occurs at the site of tooth extraction in the jawbone that has not been appropriately healed. When a tooth is extracted, the body tends to fill the space in the bone where the tooth once was; over time, this hole gets filled with dead tissues, chemical toxins, and metabolic waste products, which can create dead bones, cause inflammation, and lead to chronic illnesses.
In order to prevent any possible complications due to dental cavitation, it should be detected, which can be challenging since there will not be any visual signs if the gums and jawbone have healed over the cavitation.
This is when holistic dentistry steps in with its 3D imaging tools to get an inside view of your mouth. This practice will benefit from the imaging equipment to help spot the cavitation and proceed with a proper treatment plan.
Holistic therapy for a bite disorder
Bite problems develop when the top and bottom teeth do not fit together correctly. Not only can bite issues affect your smile, but they can also cause trouble in your speaking and chewing. In addition, they can cause occlusal disease. Malocclusion is one of the significant oral health concerns that could affect overall health. It is essential to detect and treat this condition as soon as possible.
Holistic therapy for TMJ
The joint that connects your lower jaw to your skull is called the temporomandibular joint. It can be found on both sides of your head in front of your ears, allowing your jaw to open and close so as to help you speak and eat. According to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Trusted Source, disorders in the temporomandibular joint are common among Americans. Temporomandibular joint conditions can lead to a variety of complications such as difficulties in eating and speaking, tenderness, and orofacial pain. Orofacial pain is a chronic dental disease with a complex phenomenon that can lead to conditions that affect your spiritual and emotional health. Holistic dentistry incorporates various techniques for diagnosing and treating these types of dental issues, offering long-lasting outcomes.
BPA-free composite fillings
Encouraging the use of composite as a restorative material, holistic dentistry is concerned about BPA in dental fillings. While Bisphenol-A is added to most of the composite resin fillings and restorations, the composite applied by this biological dental practice is required to be BPA-free.
If your health and safety are your priority, the modern unconventional methods of holistic dentistry can help with natural remedies. You can take advantage of this dental procedure by scheduling an appointment to share your medical history and discuss your desired improvements. Our biological dentists will develop your proper treatment plan addressing your demands.
Aria Dental is the home for trustworthy holistic dentists who offer you a wide range of biological dental solutions, ensuring the well-being of not just your mouth but your whole body by applying nature-based practices with minimal side effects. So, if you want to get your teeth treated in a safe, relaxed, and calm environment, Aria dental will be your go-to practice in California, USA.
