There are ‘natural’ dentists around if you look for them. For those of us outside USA the choice is poor though: they are mainly ‘over there’!

Oh well, an excuse for a holiday maybe.

Here are a few resources I picked out which look worthy of investigation.

Ray Behm, Florida, USA

The Institute for Nutritional Dentistry
New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London

New Concept

Dr Marvin, San Diego

Mercury free dentistry – all over the USA

Dr Alan Green, Boulder, Colorado

Finally – one of the best is last: Tom Cornwell is a great source of knowledge on tooth matters. Check him out here.

Hope these resources provide you with a good starting point for improving your tooth health.

Some Natural Dentists is a post from: Living To 150

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My second trip to the dentist a couple of weeks later was to have the crowns fitted. I knew what to expect now so was not as apprehensive as the previous time.

The crowns had been made and they were sitting there fitted to a copy of my jaw.

Removing the temporary crowns from my teeth seem to require a huge amount of pressure to me. But it was not painful, and I suppose the glue used has to be quite strong so they don’t fall out before the patient returns.

Fitting each new one in place was a long job, longer than the job of fitting the temporary crown.

The fit is incredibly precise, and I was glad I was in the hands of a specialist in this area. I suppose the crowns are made slightly oversized, and then the trims them very slightly so that there is a perfect fit. She chopped off bits here and there, drilling off tiny pieces to make my bite absolutely perfect. She then checked it four or five times each side for each of the two crowns.

Eventually, she was happy, and I was happy. The necessary filling was done to a back tooth, and then it was just the extraction of the broken tooth to be done.

For the extraction, I was ready for quite a fight to pull out this broken tooth, only a small piece of which protruded above the gum line. In the event, I felt absolutely nothing.

I was stunned. The dentist fiddled about for about five minutes sticking something down into the gum, then out came the broken root. I felt nothing! I could have sworn that removing it would involve more discomfort than that. She assured me it should not.

Now I had to wait a few months for the bone to heal whether rooted come out. I would then have a visit to a surgeon who would assess how best to apply the titanium pin into the jawbone which would hold the implanted tooth to fit in the space. The ideal time to leave this was between three and six months, to heal up.

I emerged from dentist feeling a little bit number than the previous time, but still not too bad.

I still felt that I was in excellent hands, and did not regret my decision to proceed with this expensive treatment.

Follow Up – Crowns Fitted is a post from: Living To 150

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I approached my first proper treatment with a little apprehension. I knew it was going to be two or three hours long, and that there was work to be done on both sides of my jaw. I could see me walking out with no feeling at all in my mouth.

You will remember I was to have two crowns fitted, a filling, and the removal of a broken root.

One thing you get in Harley Street (at least in this surgery) is a flat-screen TV fitted to the roof above your dental chair, and the remote control in your hand. This was a first for me!

During this first treatment temporary crowns were to be fitted. This dentist is a specialist in this area.

The injections were fairly painless. The dentist worked on the teeth to be capped shaping them to receive the crowns. She would fit temporary crowns to the teeth once they had been shaped so that they were ready to receive the proper crowns once they had been made.

After 2 1/2 hours I emerged with all the shaping work done, and temporary crowns made in the surgery, and fitted. It was noticeable the great amount of care that went into creating the temporary crowns and ensuring that they did not interfere with my bite.

The anaesthetic was not quite as strong as I had feared, indeed it was nothing like as bad.

I headed for the train and the hour-long trip home.

Serious Dentist Treatment is a post from: Living To 150

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I have now had my treatment plan from the Harley Street dentist.

At the bottom left I have three teeth all with large fillings which are the ones she is most concerned about. She thinks these are ‘doomed’ to break down sooner rather than later without intervention. So this means three crowns.

Upper left I have a tooth which has crack at the root and fallen out. I knew this would need treatment. She plans to remove the remaining root, let it heal for three months, then have a titanium screw inserted. She has shown me on an xray that there is plenty of bone at this point to put the screw.

This part is no different from the treatment planned by my usual dentist.

Upper right, the back half of the back tooth has previously been mainly filling and a big chunk of this has fallen off. Another crown there.

Lower right a cusp has cracked off a tooth with a big filling. A crown for this – again, as proposed by by usual dentist.

The differences are – this dentist proposed taking much more action immediately as this is, as she calls it, ‘conservative’. I supposed you could say ‘conservational’. In other words, my teeth will last longer. And that is what I want.

I will go ahead with the plan.

Dental Treatment Plan is a post from: Living To 150

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Following on from my previous post on reviewing my dental arrangements, I was shocked by my Harley Street checkup.

The dentist I saw showed my pictures of all of my teeth on a TV screen as I lay in the chair. Still photos were taken which showed me great detail of my teeth. The image which sticks in my mind is of a large white filling which has brown patches all around the edges.

This, the dentist tells me, is decay. What! How can I have decay all around this filling and this has never been mentioned to me? Perhaps my current dentist has  not mentioned it to save me money. If this is so, I don’t appreciate it: I want to be involved in the decisions about my own health.

Another factor is the number of large fillings I have. I think this is because of the dental practices when I was a child, which was to ‘drill and fill’ at every opportunity. I find out from my Harley Street dentist that large fillings weaken the remaining ‘cusps’ of the tooth. The pressure of eating then forces them outwards, eventually cracking them off. This is more likely to happen with the white fillings I now prefer as they ‘glue’ the tooth together less effectively than mercury fillings.

Because of these large fillings, I have a number of teeth which will last longer if they are crowned. I did not realise that crowning teeth could be preventive in this way – the teeth will last longer.

The good news for me is: I thought crowning teeth invariably meant root canal work. I am pleased to learn that is not the case. That’s only necessasry with more severely damaged teeth.

I now wait for the proposed treatment plan.

Bad Teeth is a post from: Living To 150

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Do you take good care of your teeth?

I go to a local dentist who answers my questions and I think does a reasonable job. But how good is it? I will check – by visiting Harley Street.

Visiting a dentist is a bit like having your car mended – how do you judge it has been done well?

Well, I thought it might be interesting for my readers, to have a thorough review of my own tooth health so I could see if everything was as fine as I thought.

This is an anti-aging issue – because present or future infections in the tooth or worse, in the root canal, can spew out toxins into the body, seriously affecting it.

The Plan

I have been researching a very good dentist, and have found one who I think is extremely good as well as being a warm person. I will first go for a consultation to see what she says about my teeth in general. If I am happy, I will then proceed as a guinea pig, carrying out her recommendations, and keeping you informed about the progress and the results.

As I go along, I will tell you what I learn, so you can apply that to your own situation.

It is likely to cost quite a bit of money – but I think it is worth it. And I will find out whether my confidence in my current dental arrangements is well placed.

Teeth Review is a post from: Living To 150

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