When it comes to taking care of our health, one of the most overlooked yet critical aspects deems to be dental care.

Whether it is a fear of dentists or a general aversion of chemicals in dental care products, most of us often do not pay enough attention to this crucial part of physical health. As a result, we often end up affecting our overall health by increasing our risks for dental diseases and other worrisome conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

That’s where holistic dentistry comes in.

Also known as biological dentistry, this branch of dentistry uses alternative dental care methods that are not typically used by conventional dentists. It gets its name from how it focuses on your entire body’s health instead of just your dental or oral care.

How Does Holistic Dentistry Differ From Traditional Dentistry?

Traditional dentistry only focuses on the aspects of oral care, including the teeth, gums, and jaws.

Sometimes, these treatment areas extend to the head or neck in select procedures. This is most apparent in the remedy of solutions such as temporomandibular joints (TMJ) disorders, which cause consistent headaches. But traditional dentistry doesn’t go beyond that.

On the other hand, holistic dentistry goes the extra mile by practicing alternative approaches in areas that include but are not limited to dental products and overall health practices.

For example, instead of a regular toothbrush made from plastic, a holistic dental practitioner might urge you to use more environmentally-friendly bamboo bathroom products such as your toothbrush. Instead of an alcohol-heavy mouthwash, that same practitioner may encourage you to use an all-natural mouth rinse. And instead of investing in expensive dental procedures, your practitioner may introduce you to the world of aromatherapy.

While the effects of holistic dentistry aren’t as extensively studied as conventional dentistry, those who use it regularly swear by its benefits. This makes holistic dentistry a highly sought after healthcare segment by those who want alternative solutions to typical dentistry.

What Kind of Treatments are Used in Holistic Dentistry?

As explained above, holistic dentistry uses a variety of treatments to treat your overall physical health.

These approaches might sound out of the box when you think of them in a dentistry-exclusive setting. But when you understand their overall effects on your body and their subsequent benefits to oral health, it all falls into line.

Some of the treatment modalities used in holistic dentistry include:

• Alternative Dental Products. These include non-chemical and mostly-natural products to maintain your regular oral hygiene and visual appearance of your teeth.
• Herbology. This advocates for herbal medicine usage with minimal to no side effects to improve one’s body health.
• Dietary Changes. This encourages modifications in your diet instead of invasive procedures to relieve your oral disease symptoms.
• Aromatherapy. This includes the use of different scents and aromas to balance your body’s response to certain situations.

What Are the Benefits of Holistic Dentistry?

Holistic dentistry has presented many benefits for its users over the years. They are especially noteworthy if you want to focus on an all-natural remedy or an all-encompassing solution to oral health.

Usage of Natural Materials

Perhaps the most significant advantage of holistic dentistry is a broader use of natural materials that provide long-term benefits. For example, and as alluded to above, a holistic practitioner may advise you to use a bamboo charcoal toothbrush, which uses activated charcoal to help absorb germs causing bad breath and other issues.

Minimal Use of Invasive Procedures

Instead of using surgery as the first line of treatment for every other problem, holistic dentistry first considers using alternative therapies to alleviate your issue. Dietary changes can be presented as a solution for yellowing teeth instead of asking you to get dental veneers right off the bat.

Healthier Lifestyle Practices

Since holistic dentistry focuses on your whole body health through herbology and aromatherapy, you might discover a broad sense of well being as you practice this alternative healthcare model. This goes a long way if you want to improve your overall health and not just oral hygiene.

Overall, holistic dentistry advocates focusing on your complete physical health rather than just paying attention to the appearance of your teeth. As a result, you don’t only sport healthy pearly whites, but also benefit from the more substantial gains of a well-rounded healthcare practice.

You can start benefiting from holistic dentistry by reaching out to a professional who specializes in this modality. The service fee by such experts is also generally affordable, making it easy to try at least once.