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.
Price also performed poorly designed studies that led him to conclude that teeth treated with root canal therapy leaked bacteria or bacterial toxins into the body, causing arthritis and many other diseases. This "focal infection" theory led to needless extraction of millions of endodontically treated teeth until well-designed studies, conducted during the 1930s, demonstrated that the theory was not valid [1,2].
The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation of La Mesa, California, was founded in 1952 as the Santa Barbara Medical Research Foundation, became the Weston Price Memorial Foundation in 1965, and adopted its current name in 1969. It has about 1,000 members. Its Web site describes it as "the source for quality information on the origins of health through nutrition and lifestyle." Its newsletter, book catalog, and information service promote food faddism, megavitamin therapy, homeopathy, chelation therapy, and many other dubious practices. It is also the repository for many of Price's manuscripts and photographs. In January 2008, its online membership directory listed 28 dentists as professional members.
The Weston A. Price Foundation, of Washington, D.C., is another membership organization founded to promote Price's principles. Founded in 1999, it advocates holistic dentistry, organic farming, raw (unpasteurized) milk, and many questionable dietary strategies. It also opposes fluoridation.
The Holistic Dental Association was founded in 1978 to provide a forum for developing and sharing of "health-promoting therapies that were not taught in dental schools."Fourteen In March 2006, its online directory included 99 U.S. dentists.
The American Academy of Biological Dentistry (IABD) was formed in 1985 and was renamed the International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine (IABDM) in 2005. IABDM's founding mission statement says: "The IABDM supports dentists, physicians and allied practitioners committed to integrating body, mind, spirit and mouth, and caring for the whole person."  Its seminars have promoted "mercury-free dentistry," "detoxification, "cavitation surgery," electromagnetics, sound, light, acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal therapy, nutrition, and "an integrated approach to body, mind and spirit, with diagnosis and treatment of the whole person." In September 2005, its online directory included 55 dentists and 6 members from other professions .Fourteen of the dentists also belonged to the Holistic Dental Association.
"Holistic" and "biological" dentists use many approaches that are not only unsound but involve procedures and body areas that are outside of the legitimate scope of dentistry. Some practitioners use [hair.html hair analysis], computerized dietary analysis, a blood chemistry screening test, or muscle-testing, as a basis for recommending supplements to "balance the body chemistry" of their patients. Hair analysis is not a reliable tool for measuring the body's nutritional state . Computer analysis can be useful for determining the composition of a person's diet and can be a legitimate tool for dietary counseling. Dentists receive training in the nutritional aspects of dental health. However, few are qualified to perform general dietary counseling, and computerized "nutrient deficiency tests" are not legitimate. The blood chemistry tests, usually obtained from a reputable laboratory, are legitimate but misinterpreted. Instead of accepting the laboratory's range of "normal" values, "holistic dentists" use a much narrower range and tell patients that anything outside that range means they are out of balance and need treatment. Muscle-testing is a feature of [Tests/ak.html applied kinesiology], a pseudoscientific system of diagnosis and treatment based on the notion every health problem can be related to a weak muscle and nutritional imbalances . Variations used by dentists include behavioral kinesiology and autonomic response testing (ART). Some biological dentists also use neural therapy, a bizarre approach claimed to treat pain and disease by injecting local anesthetics into nerves, scars, glands, trigger poins, and other tissues.
Correction of a "bad bite" can involve irreversible treatments such as grinding down the teeth or building them up with dental restorations. The most widespread unscientific treatment involves placing a plastic appliance between the teeth. These devices, called mandibular orthopedic repositioning appliances (MORAs), typically cover only some of the teeth and are worn continuously for many months or even years. When worn too much, MORAs can cause the patient's teeth to move so far out of proper position that orthodontics or facial reconstructive surgery is needed to correct the deformity.
[/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html Homeopathy] is a pseudoscience based on 200-year-old notions that (a) substances that produce symptoms in healthy people can cure ill people with similar symptoms and (b) infinitesimal doses can be highly potent .
Some practitioners use procedures based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) theories that relate health and disease to alleged imbalances in the flow of "vital energy" ("chi") through imaginary channels called meridians. A few dentists use a quack "[electro.html electrodiagnostic device]" that supposedly detects these imbalances. These devices actually measure skin resistance to a low-voltage electric current, which the practitioners claim is related to "electromagnetic energy imbalance." The procedure is commonly referred to as electrodermal testing, galvanic testing, or electroacupuncture according to Voll (EAV). It typically leads to multiple false diagnoses, unnecessary tooth removal, and/or the sale of useless dietary supplements and/or homeopathic products .
The diagram below is from the Web site of a "holistic" dentist. I have also seen diagrams that relate each tooth to one or more of the body's internal organs .
A few hundred dentists claim that the mercury in amalgam fillings is toxic and causes a wide range of health problems, including multiple sclerosis, arthritis, headaches, Parkinson's disease, and emotional stress. They recommend that mercury fillings be replaced with either gold or plastic ones and that vitamin supplements be taken to prevent trouble during the process. However, scientific testing has shown that the amount of mercury absorbed from fillings is only a small fraction of the average daily intake from food and is insignificant. In 1992 an extensive review by the U.S. Public Health Service concluded that it was inappropriate to recommend restricting the use of dental amalgam . The American Dental Association Council on Ethics, Bylaws, and Judicial Affairs considers the unnecessary removal of silver-amalgam fillings "improper and unethical."
The most outspoken advocate of mercury-amalgam toxicity has been Hal A. Huggins, D.D.S., of Colorado Springs, Colorado, who describes himself as one of Page's students. Huggins promoted "balancing body chemistry" so vigorously that in 1975 the American Dental Association Council on Dental Research denounced the diet that he recommended. Another Price follower is George A. Meinig, D.D.S., whose book Root Canal Cover-up Exposed was published in 1994.
Huggins is among a small number of dentists who maintain that facial pain, heart disease, arthritis, and various other health problems are caused by "cavitations," within the jaw bones, that are not detectable on x-ray examination or treatable with antibiotics. Advocates now call this condition "[cavitation.html neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis (NICO]" and claim they can cure the patient by locating and scraping out the affected tissues. They may also remove all root-canal-treated teeth, most of the vital teeth close to the area where they say a problem exists, and even parts of the jawbone. Worse yet, the surgery may result in severe infections and a lifetime of pain .
My advice is simple. Steer clear of dentists who practice "holistic dentistry" or "biological dentistry" or who use or even recommend any of the dubious methods described in this article.
Barrett S. [/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/hair.html Commercial hair analysis: A cardinal sign of quackery]. Quackwatch, April 20, 2006.
Barrett S. [/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Tests/ak.html Applied kinesiology: Muscle-testing for "allergies" and "nutrient deficiencies."] Quackwatch, Sept 26, 2004.
Barrett S. [/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html Why craniosacral therapy is silly]. Quackwatch, Sept 21, 2004.
Barrett S. [/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html Homeopathy: The ultimate fake]. Quackwatch, Oct 4, 2007.
Barrett S. [/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/electro.html Quack "electrodiagnostic" devices]. Quackwatch, Sept 5, 2007.
[/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/huggins.html Administrative Law Judge's conclusions about Hal A. Huggins, D.D.S (1999)]., Quackwatch, Dec 23, 1999.
Barrett S, A [/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cavitation.html critical look at cavitational osteopathosis, NICO, and "biological dentistry."]Quackwatch, April 4, 2010.
This page was last modified on 9 February 2014, at 13:13.