What is holistic dentistry?
Holistic dentistry is a question I get a lot: “What is holistic dentistry? What’s all this about?” You will see a lot of it on social media and the internet. It’s a big term used now. Holistic dentistry is basically where we take into consideration the entire body. How do the teeth, gums, and the health of the oral cavity relate to your entire body? We know they’re all interconnected. Everything is interconnected from the mouth down to the stomach and the rest of the body. Holistic dentistry is where we’re doing dentistry with that in mind, taking into consideration the entire body.
What are the advantages of holistic dentistry?
One of the advantages of holistic dentistry is that we can take into account your treatment plan and how we want to focus on your oral health. The advantage is that we’re also taking into consideration your entire health, such as diabetes, pre-term births, and all types of ways in which the oral cavity affects the entire body. When we are looking at your mouth and oral health, we’re examining things like sleep apnea, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, which can affect the entire body. There’s so much research out there showing these connections. It’s really important to find a dentist who focuses not only on restoring one tooth or getting your mouth healthy, but also on how we can get the entire body healthy because it’s all connected together.
How does holistic dentistry differ from general or traditional dentistry?
A question that I sometimes get is how this differs from general dentistry. That really depends on who you ask and how it’s framed. To me, they go hand in hand. In my practice, we look at general dentistry and holistic dentistry as going together. Traditionally, general dentistry is more focused on just the mouth and getting the teeth and gums healthy, which is very important. When we start looking at holistic dentistry, it goes hand-in-hand with general dentistry because we know that it is related to everything else that goes into the body and mouth. We want to look at not just that, but your whole health and how that relates to the health of your oral cavity and vice versa, how the oral cavity is affecting your entire body.
How do the effectiveness or outcomes of holistic dentistry compare to those of non-holistic approaches?
We believe that the effects of holistic dentistry are much greater than those of non-holistic dentistry because of the connection to the entire body. Not only are we thinking about getting your mouth healthy, but we’re also aiming to get your whole body healthy. I’ve seen major improvements.
I’ll give you an example. A child came in experiencing issues in school, having problems with ADHD, difficulties concentrating, or discipline issues. We found a connection to the oral cavity. You might wonder how that can be connected to the oral cavity. In this specific example, the child was suffering from sleep apnea caused by inflamed adenoids and tonsils, obstructing the airway and affecting their sleep. This was showing up as ADHD, which was a false diagnosis. It was actually a problem with sleep apnea.
Once we got that child breathing well and able to sleep through the night, all those discipline issues and concentration problems during the day were resolved. That’s holistic dentistry, where we’re not just looking at a specific tooth but at the entire body and how it all relates together.
How can I schedule a holistic dental appointment?
If that sounds interesting to you and that’s what you’re looking for, then you’re at the right place. The best way to schedule is to reach out to us directly. You can do that by phone at (931) 363-1388. You can call us or even text if that’s easier!
You can also email us at [email protected]. There are ways to connect via email and messaging, and our phone numbers are available as well. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to reach out to us so that we can connect with you and become part of your health journey.
