Have you ever wondered, “What is holistic dentistry? What does holistic dentistry mean, really?” Here is the answer: It’s a contemporary approach to dentistry founded on the principles of your mouth’s relation to the rest of your body. In other words, oral health mirrors your overall well-being, and its condition affects the rest of your body.

In this article, we will look in-depth at holistic dentistry and why you should go holistic instead of the traditional approach. Here it goes:

What Is the Association Between Oral Health and Overall Well-Being?

As the entry point to your digestive and respiratory tracts, your mouth can let some bacteria into your body, which 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 reduce your body’s natural immunity, making it harder for your body to deal with oral health problems.

What Physical Concerns Can Be Affected by Oral Health?

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 suspected to be linked to the inflammation that oral bacteria can cause. Certain bacteria in your mouth can also be pulled into your lungs, which can cause various respiratory diseases, including pneumonia.

What Does Holistic Dentistry Mean?

Holistic dentistry presents an innovative type of dental practice. It offers 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 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 Better Than Traditional Dentistry?

Traditional and holistic dental approaches maintain the standards outlined by the American Dental Association, ensuring relatively effective treatments despite differences. The main reason for their difference is the view on overall health related to the mouth.

Holistic dentistry takes a broader perspective, considering your teeth, muscles, airway, and bones. In contrast, 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 integrative holistic dentistry 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.

Reasons to See a Holistic Dentist

You can have several reasons to visit a holistic dentist. The best part is that they are licensed dentists using alternative techniques and natural remedies. Therefore, surgery is considered a last resort.

If you have a persistent issue that does not respond to traditional treatment, we recommend you make an appointment with a holistic dentist. They might have an alternative solution for you!

Dr. Horiyat further explains how you should find a holistic dentist:

What Are the Benefits of Holistic Dentistry?

Several biological approaches to holistic dentistry have been adopted worldwide in recent years. Holistic dentistry benefits include:

1. Safety

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.

2. Less Risk

 Holistic dentistry has no severe risks. It employs a minimally-invasive dental approach focusing on regeneration and recovery.

3. Considering the Whole

Holistic dentistry considers your entire well-being. Since your overall well-being is affected by the healthiness of your mouth, this approach to dentistry offers health to your whole body.

4. Fewer Toxins

Holistic dentistry puts much 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.

5. Modern Technology

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.

6. Snore less

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 a wide range of holistic dental solutions that improve oral health and positively affect overall health by focusing on biocompatible treatments. This approach has been very popular in California in recent years. Here are just some of the services a holistic dentist in Orange County offers:

1. Holistic Dental Cleaning

Teeth cleanings effectively reach the spots that your toothbrush misses. This is where a holistic approach is recommended to help promote health by considering what goes on in your mouth as a microenvironment of your overall health picture. Holistic 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.

2. Holistic Mercury Amalgam Removal

The holistic dental approach gives excellent consideration to the materials used for the treatments. It does not apply mercury amalgam, as it is considered dangerous for high-risk groups by FDA. 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 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.

3. 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 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.

4. 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 in dentistry, root canal therapy targets the damaging effect of a root canal and cares about your well-being.

5. 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 using a non-traditional method to address the underlying reasons.

ALF is a way to form a beautiful smile and 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.

6. Holistic Stem Cells Recovery

Plasma-Rich Growth Factors, or PRGF, is a 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.

7. Holistic DNA Appliance

DNA Appliance is an FDA-regulated technique to reshape deformed craniofacial structures to straighten teeth and create an even smile, like any other orthodontic method. It gradually expands the nasal airways to treat improper bite, crooked teeth, and orofacial muscle imbalances. DNA Appliance uses a unique concept to help you achieve the smile of your dreams by enhancing your entire facial appearance.

8. Holistic Therapy for Cavitation Infection

Dental cavitation refers to a hole at the tooth extraction site 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.

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 uses 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.

9. 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 speaking and chewing. In addition, they can cause occlusal disease. That is why detecting and treating this condition as soon as possible is essential.

10. 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 to help you speak and eat. According to The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, disorders in the temporomandibular joint are common among Americans. Temporomandibular joint conditions can lead to various complications, such as difficulties in eating and speaking, tenderness, and orofacial pain. Holistic dentistry incorporates various techniques for diagnosing and treating these dental issues, offering long-lasting outcomes.

11. 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 holistic dental practices must be BPA-free.

What to Expect at a Holistic Dentist Office?

A holistic dentist’s office has a warm and friendly atmosphere offering a different experience of dental treatment. A holistic dentist asks about your dietary habits and physical health on top of your oral hygiene. They might even run a test for blood sugar or blood pressure reading. It is very different from the traditional practice.

What to Expect from Your Holistic Dentistry Appointment?

A holistic dentistry appointment will likely take about an hour. Your doctor might discuss any medications you currently take, do a physical exam of your teeth, take x-rays, and ask about your dietary habits and other lifestyle factors. Eventually, they offer holistic treatments for your oral health.

Does Insurance Cover It?

YES! Like any other dentist, your insurance can cover your holistic treatments. Remember that your insurance company doesn’t list holistic dentists as such. You should find their name listed under “dentists.” Holistic is their technique, not their title!

At your dentist appointment, confirm what services are covered by insurance. Your insurance might not cover some alternative treatments. It would be best if you got written proof first, too.

Are You Ready for Your First Appointment?

This article answers the question “What is holistic dentistry” and explains its benefits. Integrative holistic dentistry believes every part of your body is connected, and dental problems shouldn’t be treated isolated from other parts of your body.

Aria Dental is proud to have a certified holistic dentist in Orange County, Dr. Maryam Horiyat. We offer you a wide range of holistic dental solutions, ensuring your mouth’s and whole body’s well-being. So, if you want to treat your teeth in a safe, relaxed, and calm environment, Aria Dental will be your go-to practice in California!