by

Richard T. Hansen, D.M.D., FACAD

(Comprehensive Dental Center)

Patients today are increasingly taking more responsibility for their own health care. They tend to be well read, educated by previous health experiences, and much more discriminating in their choice of practitioners and treatment methods. As health practitioners struggling with the complex task of helping these patients achieve optimum wellness and longevity, we are constantly searching for the information that best answers their questions and offers solutions to their health concerns.
Our task is complicated by genetics, the environment, nutrition, emotional, and personal habits that compromise and influence our patients' health. These influences include the subtle but powerful adverse effects of dental materials, techniques, and dental treatment on the body. Many advanced health practitioners recognize that the dental interference fields created by present day dentistry may actually be one of the leading influencers preventing patients from achieving their goals in health and living the long, disease free life of which the body is capable. Much published research and lay press have implicated the mouth's importance as a potentially leading causative factor of many diseases in the body.

If we look at optimum wellness and longevity as a complex picture composed of many puzzle pieces, we find a multitude of influences on our health. Each of these pieces needs to be balanced with the specific needs of the individual in order to ensure as long a life as possible free of disease. We begin our journey in life with certain genetic weaknesses and predispositions toward the breakdown of one biologic system or another. But researchers are coming to appreciate that diseases once attributed to the inevitability of genetics and age can actually be avoided by proper care of the body and the mind. Our bodies have the ability to overcome their inherent system weaknesses if the entire system is maintained at its peak performance level, enabling it to repair itself upon injury and resist the countless negative influences that attack it daily. The brain devotes an enormous amount of it's sensory, data gathering ability to the mouth. This is necessary for our survival. So anything that we do as dentists greatly influences the body's functions and it's overall health.

In determining the patient's unique needs, it is becoming increasingly important for the dentist to work with other cutting-edge, integrative practitioners to fully assess the individual requirements of the patient before, during, and after dental care. We have been fortunate to have worked with many physicians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, nutritionists, ayurvedics and other advanced health care practitioners not only for this purpose but for investigating and developing better methods of delivering advanced dental care -- dental care that not only focuses on disease within the mouth but recognizes the integral role optimum oral health plays in the overall long-term health of the body.

In the past, dentists did not think about dental materials and treatments as they related to the whole body, and they were limited by the materials and techniques available. Today, much more is known about the subtle interactions between the teeth and the whole body system, and the negative effects of many materials, techniques and therapies dental professionals have used for decades without a second thought. We have learned about the systemic effects of localized foci of infection; the fact that placement of metal and alloy fillings can weaken the tooth so that future, more invasive dentistry becomes necessary; the leaking of mercury into body tissues from dental amalgam fillings (now known to occur at the alarming rate of 3 to 17 micrograms per day); the relation of the tooth and jaw position to the natural balance of the human system; and the electric current-generated, corrosive, effects of having mixed metals present in the oral environment. Health practitioners using advanced screening methods have concluded that even some tooth-colored composite materials containing petroleum products, metal oxides, aluminum, petrochemicals or bis-phenols may be worse for long-term health than the mercury alloys and other metals they are replacing.

The traditional style of dentistry has been to treat early, small cavities in children and adults with silver/mercury alloy fillings that necessitated drilling away large amounts of good tooth structure just to wedge the filling in the tooth and make it stay. These fillings profoundly weakened the tooth thereby setting it up for additional decay, fracture, corrosion, and breakage. This invariably leads to much larger fillings, crowns, and in many cases root canals. The new advanced style of dentistry is to preserve as much tooth structure as possible, fill the teeth early with biocompatible materials, and structurally reinforce teeth to prevent further problems. As every dentist has observed almost all adult dentistry is working on teeth that have been previously treated by a dentist. The good teeth that escape decay and the dentists drill in youth rarely need treatment in adult life. Since that is the case if we could restore a tooth early on, with non destructive laser treatment and fuse the tooth together as strong as nature built the tooth, we may be able to eliminate most invasive adult dentistry forever. Imagine having dentistry done once, without drills and needles and never needing dentistry on that tooth again! Dental Longevity.

Until now, most dentists have been reluctant to change materials and techniques because the alternatives to traditional dental therapy were not adequate. But research and development during the last five years have produced dental materials that are not only more biologically compatible than the traditional dental amalgam, but that are stronger and can actually reinforce the tooth internally thereby preventing further damage and need for future dentistry. There are now over one hundred different ceramic, glass-ceramic, and ceramic polymers that are superior to the older restorative materials in terms of both strength and function. In addition, we can now treat small decayed areas with a pin-point laser or air particle beam, inject in a tooth replacement, and fuse the material with a laser to the tooth. These techniques not only preserve the strength and beauty of the tooth, but may keep the tooth from needing future, more destructive dentistry. By using these techniques early on, we may be able to eliminate the need for most root canals and crowns; maybe even eliminate the need for most adult dentistry. After all the best dentistry would be to not need any dentistry at all.
Topics

1. Dental Influence on Health And Longevity
2. Restoring The Health Of The Mouth And The Body
3. Making Dentistry Last Forever
4. Detoxing The Toxic Mouth
5. Prevent the Need For Most Adult Dentistry

RETURN TO TOP