{"id":305,"date":"2012-11-19T18:04:08","date_gmt":"2012-11-19T18:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/?p=305"},"modified":"2013-06-09T13:33:58","modified_gmt":"2013-06-09T13:33:58","slug":"alice-zizi-visit-dentist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/alice-zizi-visit-dentist\/","title":{"rendered":"Alice and Zizi: A visit to the Dentist Part 1 – Whose Teeth are the Healthiest?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We’ve learned that Alice and Zizi are similar, and different<\/a>. \u00a0Two friends, similar height and weight. \u00a0Alice gets more colds than Zizi<\/a>, and they last longer<\/a>. \u00a0Both get the flu every few years<\/a>. \u00a0Neither has any ‘medical’ problems.<\/p>\n

Who has the healthiest teeth, Alice or Zizi?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might talk to their dentists – not that it will help. Alice’s dentist tells her that her teeth are strong and healthy. \u00a0Zizi’s dentist reports the same. But whose teeth and gums are healthiest?<\/p>\n

You might check their medicine cabinets for toothbrush, toothpaste and floss – but you won’t find any useful information. Dentists, dental floss and brushing are all about ‘prevention’ of disease.<\/p>\n

They don’t create healthy teeth.<\/p>\n

Health grows from the inside to the outside. Teeth grow from the inside to the outside. Like your hair, your skin, your fingernails – they all come from the health inside of you. If a tooth dies, it stops growing and healing. If your skin is cut it grows healthier, if some of it is cut off, it dies.<\/p>\n

Dentists, like hairdressers, and manicurists treat the outside, after it has grown. \u00a0 They don’t treat the source of health in teeth, gums, skin, hair, or nails.<\/p>\n

We might ask, for example, if taking your dog to a dog groomer makes your dog healthier? \u00a0Does getting your hair washed, coloured, cut and permed regularly make it healthier?<\/p>\n

Health of your hair, and health of your teeth, comes from within, not from the outside. \u00a0Cleaning your teeth regularly may prevent cavities and gum disease. But it does nothing for the ‘health’ of your teeth.<\/p>\n

Brushing your teeth, flossing, and regular visits to your dentist are powerful actions to prevent and even stop illnesses in teeth and gums – but they don’t create healthiness. They don’t improve the ‘health’ of your teeth – unless your teeth are ‘sick’. \u00a0Alice and Zizi don’t have any dental illness at present – whose teeth are healthier? \u00a0We don’t know.<\/p>\n

If you ask your dentist how to improve the health of your teeth, you might be surprised to learn – he simply doesn’t know. \u00a0Improving the health of teeth and gums that are ‘not sick’ is not taught in dental college. \u00a0Courses named ‘health’ that are actually courses in illness prevention.<\/p>\n

Dentists spend their careers treating unhealthy or diseased teeth. \u00a0They advise patients on how to prevent disease – whether their teeth are healthy or unhealthy. \u00a0They advise patients on how to prevent gum disease – whether the gums are diseased or healthy. But they don’t make any recommendations for improving the ‘health’ of your teeth and gums.<\/p>\n

Teeth are living, growing, healing parts of your body. Teeth that are weak can become healthier. \u00a0Teeth that are healthy can become healthier. But if you ask the dental profession how to improve the health of your teeth, you might be surprised – and you will come away unsatisfied.<\/p>\n

The American Dental Association, for example, claims, on their web page to be “America’s Leading Advocate for Oral Health”.<\/p>\n

They suggest you visit: MouthHealthy.org<\/a> for more information. They have a page on nutrition, where you might search for information on foods and eating habits to build healthy teeth, but…. no, instead you find the first sentence:<\/p>\n

“Everyone knows that a balanced, nutritious diet is essential to healthy living. But did you know that eating patterns and food choices play an important role in preventing tooth decay and gum disease, too?\u00a0”<\/p>\n

That’s all they have to say. \u00a0A balanced nutritious diet is essential to healthy living. \u00a0Then they give a link to the “My Food Plate” site managed by the Department of Agriculture. Should we really surf to the Department of Agriculture to learn how to grow healthy teeth?<\/p>\n

And then MouthHealthy.org jumps to ‘tooth decay and gum disease’. \u00a0That’s what the Dental Association is all about. \u00a0That’s what they know about mouth health.<\/p>\n

If we check their ‘top ten’ topics at MouthHealthy.org – maybe we can learn how to grow healthy teeth? \u00a0But no. The top ten topics on the Dental Association’s page are: baby teeth, sensitive teeth, dentures, root canals, wisdom teeth (removal), thumbsucking, baby bottle tooth decay, gum disease, dental sealants, and finally –\u00a0Antibiotic Prophylaxis or Premedication.<\/p>\n

Not a word about growing healthy teeth and gums. If they do know anything about creating healthy teeth and gums they’re not telling us. It almost makes me think of a conspiracy theory. \u00a0I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but it is surprising that virtually all of the recommendations on the Dental Association page are associated with illness, not with healthiness of teeth.<\/p>\n

So, who has the healthier teeth – Alice or Zizi? \u00a0Who has the healthiest gums? \u00a0What can Alice and Zizi do to actually improve the healthiness of their teeth and gums.<\/p>\n

I suspect they have no idea. \u00a0If they both go to the same dentist, it might be possible for the dentist to judge who has ‘healthier teeth’, but more likely – they will get a cleaning, inspection, and be told “your teeth are in fine shape”, and sent home. \u00a0If one of them has a cavity – they will learn whose teeth have the most serious ‘sickness’, but that won’t say a word about tooth healthiness.<\/p>\n

The dentist doesn’t know and doesn’t care who has healthier teeth – as long as there is no indication of disease. \u00a0I suspect that many dentists do know – and do care who has healthy teeth, but that’s not their job. The dentist will be happy to recommend brushing and flossing ‘to prevent disease’, but will not, in most cases, make any recommendations to improve the ‘health’ of the teeth. \u00a0It’s as if health does not exist. \u00a0Dentists study tooth and gum illness, not tooth and gum healthiness. Dentists treat tooth and gum illness – and that keeps them very busy.<\/p>\n

But no one studies tooth and gum healthiness \u00a0(well, there are some people who do, but I challenge you to find one in your city).<\/p>\n

We don’t know if Alice, or Zizi has the healthiest teeth. \u00a0And we have no way to find out. We can measure their height and get a fairly exact number. We can measure their weight, although it changes throughout the day, and get a useful number. \u00a0 But there are no tests, there are no professionals, there is no science of healthy teeth.<\/p>\n

As it is with health – there are no\u00a0scientists\u00a0of heathicine. We need some.<\/p>\n

See Part 2 of Alice and Zizi and the dentist here.<\/a><\/p>\n

to your health, tracy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve learned that Alice and Zizi are similar, and different. \u00a0Two friends, similar height and weight. \u00a0Alice gets more colds than Zizi, and they last longer. \u00a0Both get the flu every few years. \u00a0Neither has any ‘medical’ problems. Who has … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions\/317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}