No dentist? Oh, no!

By Gary F. Arnet, D.D.S.

Enjoying lunch while looking out over the gorgeous view from your backcountry home, you bite down hard on a nut, hear a loud crack, and immediately feel excruciating pain from a broken tooth. Rare? No, it occurs all the time.

Dental emergencies can occur at home or in the wilderness without warning and can incapacitate a person in an instant. “No problem, I’ll get right over to the dentist,” you think. Hopefully, that is possible, but not always. You may live some distance from a dentist, it may be a night or weekend when it is hard to find one, or there may not be any available.

One of the first things that stop during a disaster is dental care. Major natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, or floods, and human disasters, such as terrorism or riots, close dental offices in a second. Electrical shortages, as seen in California recently, or any disruption of the regional power grids and there is no help since dentists can’t operate without electricity. Hospitals rarely have any dental services, so you could be on your own for hours or days.

Since dental first aid is rarely taught in first aid classes, information presented here is intended to help you in an emergency situation when no professional dental help is available. It is not intended to be a substitute for proper dental care. Continue Reading >>

Stay Away from "Holistic"

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

A significant number of dentists have gone overboard in espousing pseudoscientific theories, particularly in the area of nutrition. Dentists who identify themselves as "holistic" or "biological" typically claim that disease can be prevented by maintaining "optimum" overall health or "wellness."

In their offices, this typically involves inappropriate diagnostic tests, recommendations for expensive dietary supplements and/or homeopathic products; a plastic bite appliance; unnecessary replacement of amalgam fillings; and/or removal of root-canal-treated teeth. John E. Dodes, D.D.S., an expert on dental quackery, has remarked that "wellness" is "something for which quacks can get paid when there is nothing wrong with the patient. Continue Reading >>

Improving Overall Health Through Dentistry

Since 1978, the Holistic Dental Association has been providing support and guidance to practitioners of wholistic and alternative dentistry, as well as informing the public of the benefits of holistic dentistry for their health and well-being. Our purpose is to provide information and guidance to those persons seeking to participate in their own health care and to help in the continuing education of practitioners who have a desire to expand their knowledge and awareness. Continue Reading >>