Tag Archive for: conventional dentistry

Why Conventional Dental Products Can be Bad for You

We Americans tend to take our high standards of hygiene and the available hygienic products for granted. Think about it. Compared to the rest of the world, we are pampered with so many different commercial concoctions to keep ourselves tidy and smelling fresh. It defines our culture. We are dirty and unrespectable if we don’t use these chemicals to de-grease, de-hair, de-plaque, or deodorize our bodies.

The toothbrush aisle is quite a sight nowadays. As a lover of simplicity, I often question these kinds of presentations. Do we really need 30 different types of floss? 100 different toothpastes? endless “new and improved” toothbrush designs? Why is there still a need (at least they give us the impression of “need”) for newer, better, stronger products?

It is true that different people have different needs, different wallet sizes, different preferences, etc. I understand there is no one-size-fits-all. But I think we are spoiled.

What also bothers me is that we are “spoiled” with these things that are not good for our health.

Conventional dentistry fixes you up just enough so that for a while your teeth seem to work fine, but eventually a new problem will crop up and you’ll eventually need to go back. You are still dependent. That’s what keeps us dentists in business.

The Philosoraptor can be clever sometimes.

I try to play it safe by supplying more natural dental hygiene products to my patients. We shouldn’t have to rely on foreign chemicals and substances when caring for basic hygiene. Those with poor dental health should take a look at the root of the problem — the health of the body and gut — instead of falling for the newest commercial product. For a truly lasting effect, your oral and dental health rely on your overall health, not tubes of minty who-knows-what.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com

Holistic Dental Practice

Modern medicine is bent on having us believe that unless something can be proven by science, it is not trustworthy as a remedy or cure for any disease. While this is a very good thing for our safety, its hand is a little too heavily suppressing the availability of alternative options. Most modern doctors, though their intentions may be perfectly upright, don’t put much faith in alternative medicine. Reasons for this vary. The point is that patients need to be aware that they have a choice in what kind of care they seek, and that it just might be better to go the holistic route even if a highly educated professional pooh-poohs the idea.

They might tell you the results of alternative medicine are inconsistent, unreliable, or dangerous. They’ll stress that there is so much more security going the “normal” way. They might say it’s fine to choose a holistic alternative if that’s what the patient is most comfortable with, but to not be surprised if it doesn’t work. “Alternative medicine is not clinically effective; is a waste of time; is this, that, or the other thing.”

Don’t buy into this. Approached with wisdom and skill, alternative medicine is the best route to take. Truly good health for a patient means permanent (maybe with occasional exceptions) independence from doctors and pharmaceuticals, which is a bad business model for them. So in spite of the major advances in knowledge and technology, they will not change their current methods that keep bringing patients back. Those methods keep us believing that our bodies are not capable of taking care of themselves; we need outside help and intervention. Thus, our focus stays on symptoms of disease — and suppressing them with drugs — instead of building disease-avoiding health altogether.

Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles

www.dentalwellnessarts.com