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In a Health-Centered Holistic Practice Orientation it is more important to look to the cause of the problem rather than just treat the effects or the symptoms. In so doing you prevent future problems. There are three reasons that people lose their teeth. They are: Tooth Decay, gum disease, and bad bite. Now tooth decay and gum disease are diseases of choice. You do not have to have these if you do not want them, but you do need to participate in removing the cause and know how effective you are at doing so to be successful. Working with a dental team who are health coaches will ensure through their proven structure that this will happen for you in eliminating those diseases that are not curable but are preventable. But bad bite-now that is a whole other story. This is not self- correctable.

Here is an example of many people that come into my Practice. Remember that Bad-Bite (Occlusal Disease) is the most undiagnosed disease in dentistry today next to gum disease. Bad-Bite does not mean that you do not have a nice smile. We have to think of our mouth as a chewing system composed of muscles, joints, and teeth. When things work correctly food is prepared properly for digestion. If the system is not working correctly, too much force is applied to the teeth and joints, and breakdown occurs.

The story begins when a patient goes to the dentist because he/she has a broken tooth or one that has a crack and is sensitive. The dentist tells the patient that they need to have a root canal to save the tooth. The patient has the root canal done and the pain temporarily goes away. The tooth has a crown put on to protect it from breaking. Then a few weeks goes by and the patient returns to the dentist complaining of pain in the tooth. The dentist tells the patient that the root canal looks fine, and is unsure why the tooth is still painful. So time goes on and the patient just try’s to adapt to the pain until they can’t tolerate it anymore. Now the dentist believes that either the root canal is bad or the patient has a fractured root of the tooth. By the way, the patient is also complaining about frequent headaches, and difficulty chewing, and maybe some ear pain. Either the root canal is done over and the pain still is present later or the tooth is extracted. Either way this is not favorable to anyone especially the patient. Why did all this happen? Because the dentist failed to look at the cause of the problem in the first place. The muscles, joints, and teeth were not working from the start.

In a healthy bite the back teeth have space between them when the jaw moves to the side or forward when eating. When swallowing 12-1400 times per day and when this happens the teeth touch, which is the only time they should. When you chew, the teeth approximate each other but the points on the teeth (cusps) push the food into the grooves and as the jaw moves back and forth a milling action occurs. The food is properly prepared for entering the stomach, mixing with enzymes in the saliva. If this does not happen, the teeth bump and when they do, they crack, break, or become mobile, due to excessive forces that are created from the muscle contraction. This increase in force also is placed on the joints causing inflammation, and creates popping, clicking joints, headaches, ear pain as well.

So you benefit from a dentist who looks at your mouth as a chewing system instead of just fixing teeth so that you don’t go down a path that is called the Disease Cycle which gets you nothing but more problems. By looking to the cause of the problems you can get beyond them and enjoy long term health with the least amount of dental issues.