A painful tooth, a broken crown, a replacement filling – all of these problems can be easily fixed by any dentist, but what is to stop the problem recurring? Taking a holistic approach to dentistry means probing the causes of your problem and advising you how to improve your overall health.
What happens in your mouth often reflects the health of your body. For example, bad breath (halitosis) can be indicative of gum disease or a medical condition such as tonsillitis or acid reflux. A dentist who takes a ‘whole body’ approach can not only prevent recurring dental problems but can also diagnose a serious underlying condition.
Holistic Diagnostics
For example, if your new crown breaks a few months after it was fitted, or if you wake up with painful jaws, you may be grinding your teeth at night or your jaw may be misaligned. Sometimes this can be associated with breathing problems at night and blocked sinuses, which may be caused by food allergies. Replacing the crown will provide a temporary fix, but a more holistic examination can get to the root of your problem and flag a bigger issue that you should take care of.
Sometimes a dentist will recognize a bigger problem that can affect your body’s resistance to disease, which can be critical with certain nasty viruses on the loose this winter. Acid reflux, for example, goes undiagnosed in 40% of patients who don’t have heartburn or other classic symptoms, but the acidity of your saliva may reveal that you have a reflux problem and indicate potentially serious stomach and throat conditions.
More Than Just A Filling
When patients present with a simple problem, like a filling, it is tempting to take a minimal approach to filling the tooth and pronouncing the problem resolved. However, that approach ignores the many possible causes of the hole in your teeth, such as acid reflux, jaw problems, blood pressure and even diabetes. It may also be a short-sighted approach to fixing your tooth.
Dr. Sarit explains: “If you need a filling in your tooth, there are bacteria in that tooth. Depending how long they have been there, they may also have infected the soft tissue and the roots of the tooth. Plugging the hole is not enough to assure the long-term health of your tooth! You may find that in a few years from now you will need extensive root canal treatment that could have been prevented at the time of your filling. We always clean deep inside the tooth and use anti-bacterial treatments to prevent the spread of bacteria into the roots of a damaged tooth, and to encourage the healing of all the tissues that have been affected.”
Deep Tissue Healing is a painless way of ensuring that what starts as a simple filling does not escalate into a more serious and painful problem later on. There’s a wise maxim that says “A stitch in time saves nine” and Dr. Sarit Avraham is a firm believer in taking preventative action. She has an MSc. in dental biomedical sciences from Hadassah Medical Center School of Dental Medicine, and she has studied integrative dental care with several leading international dental physicians. She and her team of Jerusalem dental experts take a holistic approach and carries out a comprehensive, systematic examination of each patient, in order to examine their oral health in the context of their overall physical wellbeing.
If you are looking for a dentist who takes a holistic and natural approach to dentistry, talk to Dr. Sarit Avraham, or book a free online consultation.
