Why Natural? Why Not?
Natural dentistry is not finely defined. In our vision it means trying to find the cause, the source for disease and not just giving a remedy for the symptoms. We call this functional integrative dentistry. Caries (tooth decay) and periodontitis (gum disease) are the most common diseases of this world! And it is a serious problem! And so easy to prevent. Teeth give billions of people grief, they cost millions of dollars on lost working hours, millions lost schooldays and now it becomes clear that it can lead to loss of health by inducing chronic diseases. This means dentistry must integrate with all healing sciences. But even more it should lead the way in showing that prevention by lifestyle choices, exercise, diet and supplementation is the modern functional way to heal and prevent disease. Several real good videos (How to heal cavities naturally, how to make disease disappear, scientific proof we can heal ourselves, the doctor who gave up drugs) show the way...
Toxic food and water, toxic fillings, toxic meds
Humans have found or made over 75 million different chemicals here on earth, the vast majority over the last few decades. A novel substance is either isolated or synthesized every 2.6 seconds on the average (source American Chemical Association). Most of these engineered substances find their way in our eco systems, our food and our pharmaceuticals. Many of them have had little or no testing and we are the guinea pigs. It is a miracle that we survive this chemical soup! Most of them are engineered by the big 3: big pharmaceutical, big food and big agri (pesticides and fertilizer). They use yeast and bacteria to create chemical copies of plants and food substances and are allowed to call it "natural" (distrust "natural flavors" in your food), while in essence they are (often genetically) engineered... Fluoride is a very dangerous substance. This waste product of the fertiliser industry should never end up in your drinking water, there is far too much conflicting evidence for it: see this opinion page.
Toothpaste is NOT a medicine. There are hardly any regulations about what can or should be in toothpaste. The result is that many commercially available toothpastes actually have troublesome or really dangerous chemicals or pesticides in it. Probably the worst one is TRICLOSAN. This pesticide is no longer in use as a pesticide because it releases one of the most NON biodegrable poisonous substances in the world: dioxin (read more here).
Apart from fluoride there are a few more poisons that can be in toothpaste: Sodium Lauryl sulphate (the carciniogenic foaming agent), tetra sodium pyrophosphate, hydrated silica, artificial colouring, See this link for more details. So one option is: Make Your Own. This is the basic recipe:
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Some essential oil for flavour if you like (e.g. peppermint)
A tiny bit of water and mix ingredients to form a paste. Add some Manuka honey when you want more sweetness. Easy!
The effect of toothpaste in preventing oral disease is minimal. It is mainly the brushing (preferably with a round head electric toothbrush and woodsticks see link) that reduces the bacterial film on the teeth and thus prevents gum infection. Since New Zealand is famous for its healing honeys,our Nelson colleague periodontologist (gum disease specialist) Helen English has done a pilot study on the effects of manuka honey on oral health. The results were promising. In 2010 an Indian group of researchers showed that Manuka honey was equal in reducing plaque levels as the "golden standard" chlorhexidine rinse.
More about the very toxic substance mercury in black amalgam fillings you can find here: http://dentalspa.nz/anti-aging/
Sugar Is The New Tobacco
We are convinced THE most important issue to prevent disease is FOOD. Why? Because the processed food industry is slowly poisoning us into disease. University of California–San Francisco researcher and dentist Cristin Kearns dropped a promising career at the Kaiser Foundation to dig through sugar industry archives for a smoking gun. With help from the man who brought down Big Tobacco, she’s now proving that Big Sugar steered scientists away from looking at the ingredient’s harmful effects. Read more on her website: https://sugarpolitics.com. Sugar IS the new tobacco!
Modern agriculture means that soils are getting depleted. When you study what nutrients food has now compared with 30 years and longer ago, a loss of vitamins and minerals in fruit and vegetables is evident. Recent studies show that organic vegetables had better nutritional values than non organic and even more important: no pesticide residues. Almost 85% of research on food is about shelf life. How to create a product that looks good when it is NOT fresh. That answers where the problem lies: the way in which our food is produced has no soul, no quality and low nutritional value. The nutrient losses between farm and kitchen for processed foods are massive. It is empty food, full of carbohydrates, pesticides and preservatives. And when it makes you sick, it is not cheap.
The relationship between bad diet and cavities is clear. Caries, like diabetes 2, is a pure dietary disease due to overexposure on carbohydrates. Especially soft drinks and energy drinks are the worst poison. The dental surgeon Weston Price observed already in the 1930's that as soon as native people became exposed to "Western" commerce (processed and sweetened food products), their overall and dental health seemed to decline.
The relationship between gum disease and lack of vitamin C is well-known as scurvy. These days it is not sailors who have this disease, but teenagers, alcoholics and elderly with bad diets. The relationships between low nutritional processed food and periodontal (=gum) disease, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer are surfacing in the recent literature.
Real Food And Quality Supplements
It is super easy to choose good food: it is the fresh department in your supermarket. Expensive? Nonsense: being ill is expensive. Water is the cheapest drink there is... But we need to invest time in preparing food. Cook at least one dinner every day. Away with convenience. Start a veggie garden. Catch your own fish. Or buy as much organic as possible (locally there is not much in Picton, but you can order it in Nelson: www.fresh2u.co.nz ). Visit the local farmers market. Skip the fast-food industry. Eat more unprocessed food like nuts, fruit and vegetables than anything else. Investing in good food is investing in yourself!!
It is difficult to find a diet that is perfectly balanced and has all the nutrients every day. This is very important when you are healing after illness, surgery or after periodontal therapy. Or when you are interested in anti-aging (see link). Very interesting is the TED talk "The surprisingly dramatic role of nutrition in mental health", where Julia from Christchurch tells us that diet and supplements are far better healing agents then medicine.
One of the best recent books about healing is "Medicine Beyond" by Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby. It is fascinating how he shows that quantum physics is essentially proving that everything is energy. And many "alternative" healing therapies are working with these energies and science is growing (see the video "Is there proof we can heal ourselves?"). But still there are many questions to be solved. That is why we do research in new technologies as LSTR micro invasive endontology, Digital Cone Beam CT scanning and Micro Current Therapy. Maybe there is a source energy that is everywhere and is in essence beautiful and healing. May we call it "Natural" and when you are open for it, it shows its beauty as it does in the cropcircle, which is in our practice logo...