Six Common Dental Procedures That can Harm Your Health

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Six Common Dental Procedures That can Harm Your Health, and How

Environmental Dentistry can Help

By Lina C. Garcia, D.D.S., D.M.D.

Conventional dentistry and conventional dental practices have certainly

helped a great number of people enjoy good dental function for many

years now. And if that's the case, why should anyone be interested in

seeing an environmental dentist rather than a conventional dentist? What

is an environmental dentist, anyhow?

Environmental dentistry, in a nutshell, respects the fact that the mouth

is an integrated part of the entire body, and that it should always be

viewed and treated in this respect. The primary aim of environmental

dentistry is to resolve a given patient's dental problems while

impacting the rest of the body as little as possible. Unfortunately,

even though many patients leave the office of a traditional dentist

chewing much better than before they went, a significant negative

medical impact on the rest of their body will result from what was done

in the dentist's office.

The negative medical impact of conventional dentistry can come from any

of a number of sources. The most common ones are:

-Mercury-Amalgam Fillings: Commonly known as silver fillings or just

amalgam fillings, these fillings should really be called mercury

fillings, since mercury has been and remains a full 50 percent of the

content of these fillings.

-Conventional dentistry long asserted that the amalgamation process

rendered the mercury non-toxic by the chemical reaction that was

supposed to be taking place. In our environmental practice we also take

precautions and follow a protocol to minimize patients' exposure to

mercury upon its removal.

Other Toxic Dental Materials: Unfortunately, conventional dentistry

continues to evaluate new dental materials primarily, and sometimes

exclusively, by their mechanical characteristics. Little thought is

given, even today, in trying to evaluate whether a given material will

have a long-term adverse toxic effect on the patient.

Environmental dentists use biocompatible materials that will not

adversely impact a patient's immune system. Stainless steel and other

metals continue to be used in the mouth even though they have been

well-established to have a cancer-causing effect when used elsewhere in

the body.

Root Canals: Root canal-treated teeth are proving to be almost always

infected, and the toxins that have been isolated from them are often

incredibly potent. Some researchers claim there is a strong relation

between the presence of root canals and the development of cancer and

heart disease. It appears that the longer root canal-treated teeth stay

in the body, the more the immune system becomes compromised.

Cavitations: Pockets of gangrene in the jawbone are often found at the

sites of previous extractions by conventional dentists. These toxins are

essentially the same as those found in root canals, being the product of

aerobic mouth bacteria being forced to live in an anaerobic environment.

Most traditional dentists still think cavitations do not exist, even

though they have been shown to be extremely common, especially at the

sites of wisdom teeth extractions.

Implants: Currently, implants continue to be done without

biocompatibility testing, and they are often started at extraction sites

where cavitations are already developing. Autoimmune diseases seem to be

often aggravated or even initiated by implants.

Periodontal Disease: Not enough emphasis is put on how severely the

infection in the gums of the periodontal-disease patient impacts that

patient's long-term health. Heart disease is clearly the result of such

disease in many patients. Repeated surgery and antibiotic courses are

not the first choices of environmental dentists in treating this condition.

We recognize that the mouth and its contents can have a huge impact on a

patient's health and the way in which it is approached can either

support our health or do the opposite. We have to understand that we

function as a whole and as doctors, we must pay attention to the whole

and work with other disciplines in order to create continuity for our

patients.

Traditional Osteopathy is one excellent medical discipline that works

well synergistically with environmental dentistry, as it is an approach

to the patient that is based on health rather than disease. This is not

a therapy, but rather a medical treatment.

The Traditional Osteopath is taught the art of medicine in addition to a

unique hands-on treatment that supports the whole patient on all levels

that include the body, the mind and the spirit. This is not

manipulation, massage therapy or craniosacral therapy. It is a simple

but detailed regimen that works individually with each patient using

very subtle approaches and requires a minimum of 10 to 12 years of

post-doctoral training to practice.

Here at The Optimal Wellness Center, we integrate these principles with

all of our patients and work diligently with a treatment plan that

includes nutrition, lifestyle changes, perceptual training, and a lot of

reading in addition to the above treatments.

Our commitment is to shift to a new medical and dental paradigm--one

that will integrate the human being as a whole and not as mechanical

parts. Our purpose of the Wellness Center and our Web site is to educate

our patients, physicians and dentists to make better and wiser choices

for themselves and their loved ones.

In subsequent issues of Dr. Mercola's newsletter we will explore these

issues and many others related to biological dentistry and your overall

health.

Yours in health,

Dr. Garcia

(http://www.mercola.com/forms/garcia_practice.htm)

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