When we embark on a journey to explore an uncharted are, it is a good idea to define exactly what we talk about.
Holistic Dentistry…
Dentistry – we probably don't have to invest too much time to look at what that means, but
Holistic? There could be different meanings to this word, so let's decide on one:
ho·lis·tic
/hōˈlistik/
adjective
PHILOSOPHY
characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.
MEDICINE
characterized by the treatment of the whole person, taking into account mental and social factors, rather than just the physical symptoms of a disease.
This looks like to concise and workable definition – let's go with it and look for some examples on what that actually means.
Imagine a young man of maybe 12 years is starting to have some tooth ache, finally goes to the denist with his parents and to the horror or all, at least half of his teeth have cavities, some so deep that a root canal treatment is called for.
Sure, the first step would be to repair the damage which would be done with material that are most compativle with the body's biology.
But then we must address the circumstances how it could be possible that such a bad situation developed to begin with. We might look into nutritional conditions, or even stress factors that are not, on first glance, considered to have anything to do with your teeth.
A very memorable statement to describe a holistic dentist would be "We look at you as a whole person, not as a set of teeth."
Holistic dentistry is often also called
- natural dentistry, or
- biological dentistry