There are a lot of questions out there right now about
"alternative" dentistry.
I do not say alternative to be derogatory in any way.
I say alternative to simply denote that there is a more classical
view of dentistry and then there is an emerging view that holds
"alternate" views to that classical thought process.
Classic school of thought about teeth is that there
are bacteria that live inside your mouth.
These bacteria ingest sugar. Their byproducts are acids.
These acids eat away at the enamel of your teeth.
You keep your teeth brushed, flossed, and avoid ingesting
mass amounts of sugar and you shouldn't have a large
scale cavity issue on your hands.
And that school of thought, although very old, still
holds very true to this day.
But what about the newer schools of thought?
What about using oil pulling and re-growing teeth with stem cells?
Well, here's my opinion.
First, Oil Pulling.
If it works, for you, then great. I don't do it.
I don't tell people to do it.
The scientific studies are not yet what I would like
to see on the subject.
However, I see absolutely nothing negative about it,
and if it works for you in regards to making your
mouth feel cleaner and you notice a decrease in the
amount of decay that your dentist is finding, then
go ahead.
Second is re-growing teeth with stem cells.
This one is a little easier for me.
Would I love to get a bunch of stem cells that I could
simply put into a patients mouth and get a new tooth back?
Absolutely.
HOWEVER, if people understood what they would have to go
through to get to that point they wouldn't even think about it.
First off, your tooth has to go bad. It has to break, get infected, hurt,
or any other number of things that would be uncomfortable to go through.
Secondly, you then have to have the bad tooth removed.
Oral surgery.
Shots, forceps, blood, swelling, etc etc.
WHY NOT JUST TAKE CARE OF WHAT YOU'VE GOT?!
You are going to have to brush the newly grown teeth anyway.
Now, for trauma cases, congenitally missing teeth, etc. then
stem cells will be fantastic.
But for all of the other cases, that are far more numerous,
stem cells are not all that they are cracked up to be.
