By Simon Yu, MD
Two main American holistic biological dental groups, IAOMT (International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology) and IABDM (International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine) had their first joint meeting in Reno, NV in September 2016. These Holistic Dental Groups have been leaders in the Dental-Medical health care reform movement.
They are against using silver-mercury amalgams, conservative in the use of root canals and dental implants, careful in their use of dental materials, and address issues of TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint), jaw infection, sleep apnea, and other dental related medical issues that are not widely accepted by the main stream or academic medical communities.
I had the privilege to present to over 500 biological dentists on “Dental, Parasites and Energy Medicine: Missing Link for Incurables.” I discussed how medical professionals can detect problems before they manifest in blood tests or X-rays by using ancient subtle energy medicine, which I call Acupuncture Meridian Assessment (AMA).
One of my lecture slides covered medical related iatrogenic death, that is, death caused by physicians and medical care (225,000 people die every year from medical care, JAMA 2005). But I said it’s not fair for medical care to take all the blame for these deaths. Often the problems started in the dental chair with improper dental care, mercury amalgams, root canals, faulty tooth extractions, and other dental related problems.
Many books and articles have been written about “death by medical care.” I was raising the question, “How about murder by dentist?”. The audience was dead silent. They did not appreciate my sense of warped counter argument. At least, not until I said that maybe these patients can be saved by holistic dental groups like you.
The dental and medical professions are separate and independent of each other. We tend to ignore each other’s profession. We seldom communicate and work as a medical-dental team. There is too much “uncertainty” and too wide of a gap for reaching out to other professionals. I often tell my patients that I will do my part for medical care but the miracle will not happen if you have active hidden dental problems. Dental work must be done properly by a holistic dentist or oral surgeon.
Dealing with uncertainty in medical science is a familiar, but uncomfortable, territory for medicine and dentistry. In November 2016, the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) published an essay, Becoming a Physician; Tolerating Uncertainly-The Next Medical Revolution, By Arabella L. Simpkin, B.M., B.Ch., M.M.Sc, and Richard M. Schwartzstein, M.D.
The essay discussed that, although physicians are rationally aware when uncertainty exists, the culture of medicine is unwilling to acknowledge and embrace uncertainty. They continued that we demand a differential diagnosis after being presented with few facts and exhort our trainees to “put your money down” on a solution to the problem at hand despite the powerful effect of cognitive biases under these conditions.
Great tensions are created by the conflict between the quest for certainty and the reality of uncertainty. Our curricula should recognize diagnosis as dynamic and evolving. We can speak about “hypotheses” rather than “diagnosis,” thereby changing the expectations of both patients and physicians and facilitating the shift in culture.
Sir William Osler’s (Father of Modern Medicine, one of the founders and professor of Johns Hopkins Hospital) maxims states that medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability. Ironically, only uncertainty is a sure thing. Certainty is an illusion.
Therefore, we can, and should, teach physicians specifically about handling scientific uncertainty, which is essential if patients are to truly share in decision making.
The NEJM, a conservative medical journal from the Massachusetts Medical Society, is telling physicians to tolerate and teach young physicians to deal with uncertainty as a new reality in this binary black and white, yes and no, digital age.
The basic principle of uncertainty in quantum physics can be applied to all living systems including medical and dental related biological systems. Based on the acupuncture meridian assessment (AMA), I may tell my patients with asthma, heart arrhythmia, chest pain, chronic fatigue, rheumatism, Lyme disease, kidney problems, infertility, or hormonal problems to remove a tooth that may look normal according to X-rays and go through aggressive parasite cleansing. Some patients look at me as if I am too far gone, as if I am pretending to see from the dark side of the moon. For more information on AMA, look at the many articles on my website.
Even when a patient is willing to extract the tooth (with no promise that it will fix their problems), it is very difficult to convince a regular dentist, or even a holistic dentist, to remove the tooth without the hard evidence of an X-ray indicating an abscessed or damaged tooth. The pathological effects of bio-toxins from any infected tooth in the early stage of a tooth infection may not manifest on X-ray for many years or until there is over 30-50 % damage to the jaw bone. However, the abnormal disturbance signal can be picked up by acupuncture meridian assessment at a much earlier phase of the illness, even before showing physical evidence by X-ray.
Tolerating the uncertainty might be the next medical revolution according to the NEJM essay. Murder by dentist, saved by holistic dental groups, may not sound as crazy as murder by medical care. Sometimes, dealing with the dental related medical problems by medical professionals or dentists are like looking blindsided at the dark side of the moon.
Dr. Simon Yu, M.D. is a Board Certified Internist. He practices Internal Medicine with an emphasis on Alternative Medicine to use the best each has to offer. For more articles and information about alternative medicine as well as patient success stories, and Dr. Yu’s revolutionary health book Accidental Cure: Extraordinary Medicine for Extraordinary Patients, visit his web site at www.PreventionAndHealing.com or call Prevention and Healing, Inc., 314-432-7802. You can also attend a free monthly presentation and discussion by Dr. Yu on Alternative Medicine at his office on the second Tuesday each month at 6:30 pm. Call to verify the date. Seating is limited, arrive early.