Dental Insights

For more than twenty years, my practice has been focused on what I call Integrative Dentistry, which combines science-based, high-quality dentistry with biological principles. My integrative approach was a success from the beginning. I began by removing mercury from the mouths of patients. After finding conventional dentistry was often failing, I explored and began to practice complimen­tary care. Dr. Paul Keyes became one of my mentors and taught me to microscopically investigate the pathogens and microcrobes that plagued the mouths of all of my patients. Dr. Trevor Lyons, another pioneer in the microscopic unraveling of periodontal disease, was trained as both a periodontist and microbiologist. He broadened the concept that periodontal disease involves oral parasites such as amoebae, trichomonae and fungi. My review of his research verified its validity. The cause of periodontal disease is microorganisms ­germs - and conventional treatment does nothing to address the problem!

Periodontal disease is really periodontal infection (PI). PI is caused by microorganisms and, therefore, should be treated like any other infection in the body. The first step in treating PI is to identify the microorganism. Next, an appropriate program of disinfection and cleaning should be instituted, including the use of antimicrobials. Once the infection is under control, surgery might be indicated to repair and reshape damaged tissue. However, removing inflamed tissue without first treating the infection might provide only short-term results.

During my years of work, I realize that proper dental care is of significant benefit to my patients's health. It became clear to me that whatever occurs in the mouth is intimately-connected to what happens in the rest of the body. As I began learning more about the correlation between PI and major illnesses such as heart-disease, stroke, diabetes, ulcers, obesity, respiratory illness, osteoporosis, and complications in pregnancy, I intensified my efforts to establish patient-awareness regarding this serious health-risk.

Hippocrates now conducts microscopic testing of periodontal pathogens as part of its comprehensive patient-evaluation. This is a significant service, because very few dentists and no other institute, to my knowledge, provide this essential examination, the combina­tion of dark-field analysis and periodontal screening provides a more accurate assessment of a person's immune-challenge.

Vol 22 Issue 5 Page 4