What is Integrative Oral and Dental Medicine?
Integrative Oral and Dental Medicine is an approach to dental care which puts the patient at the center and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences that affect a person’s oral and dental health
Integrative Oral and Dental Medicine seeks to restore and maintain health and wellness by addressing the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences affecting one’s oral health. Through personalizing your dental care, integrative oral and dental medicine goes beyond the treatment of symptoms to address all the causes of your dental concern.
The defining principles of integrative medicine are:
The patient and practitioner are partners in the healing process.
All factors that influence health, wellness and disease are taken into consideration, including body, mind, spirit and community.
Providers use all healing sciences to facilitate the body’s innate healing response.
Effective interventions that are natural and less invasive are used whenever possible.
Good dentistry is based in good science. It is inquiry driven and open to new paradigms.
Alongside the concept of treatment, the broader concepts of health promotion and the prevention of illness are paramount.
The care is personalized to best address the individual’s unique conditions, needs and circumstances. Practitioners of integrative medicine exemplify its principles and commit themselves to self-exploration and self-development.
In addition to addressing and handling the immediate health problem(s) as well as the deeper causes of the disease or illness, integrative oral and dental medicine strategies also focus on prevention and foster the development of healthy behaviors and skills for effective self-care that patients can use throughout their lives.