Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 07:34:00 -0500
From: Mike Pell
Subject: 1/2 Altern_dentistry
Alternative Dentistry - Herbs, Hypnosis And More
By Fran Kritz
MSNBC
1-10-99
Trying aromatherapy to help you relax? Taking echinacea to fight
the cold? These approaches may also work for you in a
place you might not have considered: the dentist's chair.
"We'd like to add practices that can get us away from medical
approaches such as Valium to calm our patients." - Joseph
Perno, New Jersey Dentist
Organized Dentistry has yet to focus attention on alternative
medicine anywhere near as much as, say, the American
Medical Association, which recently devoted a full issue
of its highly regarded Journal to studies on holistic
medicine as part of clinical practice. But a growing
number of dentists are currently testing and using
various alternative therapies in the mouth.
A toothpaste, for example, made up of echinacea, goldenseal,
calendula, aloe, bloodroot and grapefruit seed extract,
was found in a three-month study to be as effective as a
leading brand of toothpaste in reducing plaque and
staining. And a preliminary study found that a mouthwash
made up of the same herbs was more effective than
Listerine in fighting oral bacteria.
This was all to the surprise of Warren Scherer, a professor of
restorative dentistry at the New York University School
of Dentistry in New York City, who has completed clinical
studies on the two products. They are sold as The Natural
Dentist's Herbal Mouth and Gum Therapy in natural food
stores.
Scherer and several other researchers recently published their
findings on the toothpaste and mouthwash in the Journal
of Clinical Dentistry. "We were a bit surprised," says
Scherer. "Before the study, I couldn't even pronounce
echinacea. This may lead to more [dentists] learning
about the benefits of herbs."
Acupressure: This technique of applying gentle pressure to
various 'pressure points' on the body is used to relieve
jaw pain due to bite irregularities.
Acupuncture: Very thin needles are gently inserted into specific
points of the body to stimulate the flow of Qi, or
natural healing energy. This may encourage relaxation and
reduce pain during and after dental procedures.
Aromatherapy: Breathing in certain, pleasant scents may encourage
relaxation during dental procedures.
Deep breathing: Taking in slow, deep breaths is thought to help
ease anxiety.
Herbs: Echinacea, goldenseal and other herbs may help ease pain,
reduce inflammation or fight infection.
Hypnosis: Inducing a sleep-like state is to help combat anxiety
and pain.
Victor Zeines, a New York City dentist who developed the herbal
mouthwash and toothpaste, says he has been using herbs
and other alternative methods in his practice for years.
"It's not just a question of using alternative means on
teeth, but looking at the mouth as indicative of what's
going on in the body," he says. "In Chinese medicine,
they have 280 diseases that can be seen by looking at the
tongue."
And how you treat your whole body affects your teeth, says
Zeines. "A cavity doesn't just happen because you don't
brush your teeth. It happens because the mouth's acid
base balance is off," he says. "When the mouth is too
acidic, the acid-loving bacteria start breeding
prolifically, and if at the same time the minerals on
your teeth are eroding away, cavities will develop. We do
nutritional counseling with patients so that they take in
the minerals they need." Zeines also uses aromatherapy in
his office to relax his patients before they undergo
dental procedures.
[continued...]
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2/2
Interest Grows
As with other areas of medicine, interest in holistic practices
for the mouth appears to be on the rise. The Holistic
Dental Association, based in Durango, Colo., says it has
150 members and gets 100 calls a month for referrals to
dentists who practice holistic medicine. Mindful of the
public's demand for alternative therapies, many dentists
are reluctant to simply knock these practices. "I'm not
sure holistic medicine will interact with dentistry but I
see that both consumers and dentists need more
education," says NYU's Scherer. A spokesman for the
Academy of General Dentistry says that "although we do
not have a policy or position statement regarding
alternative dentistry, the academy does recognize and
credit a variety of continuing education courses that
help the members stay up to date on the latest procedures
and technology, including those on alternative
dentistry."
And while dentistry may seem to be behind other areas of medicine
in terms of alternative therapies, in some ways it may be
light years ahead, says Joseph Perno, a dentist in
Voorhees, N.J., and president of the AGD. Conventional
medicine embraces alternative approaches most often to
get patients to continue with a conventional regimen and
to reduce stress associated with pain, disease and
treatment; dentists have done that for centuries, Perno
says.
Anxiety Abounds
"There are patients who would rather go in for standard surgery
than visit the dentist's office, and over the years
dentists have developed coping techniques for their
patients, including music during treatment and deep
breathing," Perno says. "We'd like to add practices that
can get us away from medical approaches such as Valium to
calm our patients." Many dentists have learned
acupuncture and hypnosis to help patients through their
pain and anxiety, says Shapira. And at the AGD's last
annual meeting, dentists attended a session to teach them
how to show patients to self-administer acupressure, a
technique of applying pressure to various 'pressure
points' on the body, to relieve the pain of
temporomandibular disorders (known as TMD or TMJ). Pain
occurs when the joint where the jaw is connected to the
head is out of alignment or when the muscles surrounding
the jaw malfunction due to physical injury or stress
behaviors, such as jaw clenching and tooth grinding.
"Patients like acupressure because they can administer the
techniques themselves, wherever they are, whenever they
want. It gives them control over their pain," says Albert
Forgione, a Boston dentist who discovered the acupressure
points associated with the neck and jaw muscles. But
there are some concerns with alternative methods, herbs
in particular. Shapira became concerned when a nurse from
his office passed out from a stimulant tea, which caused
her heart to speed and skip beats. He says herbs can
interact with and enhance the effects of drugs dentists
use, such as epinephrine, a stimulant used to enhance the
effect of lidocaine, a local anesthetic. Shapira advises
letting your dentist know what herbs you are taking,
though he concedes that dental associations will have to
do much more to give dentists information about drug/herb
interactions. He also recommends that patients avoid
herbs when they are having dental work done.
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