Dental health important to overall health

Who wants to go to the dentist? Surely not me. I've canceled more dental appointments in the last 20 years than I've kept. They terrify me.

And that's a very good reason to do my best to take care of my teeth.

Studies are showing that failure to brush and floss can bring on all sorts of other problems - such as diabetes, kidney disease, pre-term labor, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, and even certain types of cancer.

Seems like the bacteria in your mouth can release toxins into your body that do pretty serious damage. Ditto for the infections in your mouth.

Until recently, doctors ignored the importance of dental health, and dentists behaved as if the mouth was separate from the rest of the body. Now they are finally beginning to realize that the mouth IS part of the body and that the two disciplines should work together.

I love what what Vincent J. Iancono, president of the American Academy of Periodontology said about the dangers of dental disease: "It is like setting up a garbage dump on the edge of a river. You wouldn't be surprised if the lake downstream ended up polluted with the garbage from the dump."

I doubt that anything could completely remove my fear of dentists - I spent too many terrifying hours in their chairs as a small child. So now, even though I know it doesn't hurt like it did then, and even though my own children laugh at me for being a sissy, I still don't want to go. Just thinking of the smell of a dental office kind of squeezes at my insides.

Another reason I used to have for my excessive fear was the headaches I'd have for a week after each visit. Finally one day I mentioned this to my acupuncture doctor and he tested me for allergies to the materials used in dental offices. Once he treated me for those allergies, post-dental headaches were eliminated.

If you suffer from post-dental headaches, find the nearest NAET practitioner and get your allergies eliminated. Then, if you have any dental problems, get yourself to the dentist and get them fixed before they poison your entire body.

Yours for good health,
Marte