Dental work can be painful. Even very painful

Dear friend of Centers for Healing,

Let’s face it. Dental work can be painful. Even very painful. And, in the case of dental revision, the pain can be brutal.

Healing Light

For this reason, within several days after the completion of revision work, we may suggest using the Anodyne machine. Anodyne treatment is a type of infra-red light therapy designed to stimulate increased circulation. And increased circulation means reduced pain.

In the case of the Anodyne machine, it specifically stimulates the body’s immune system to release nitric oxide. And, since it does this by means of infra-red light, it’s non-invasive.

Nitric, Not Nitrous

Don’t get confused here. I said “nitric,” not “nitrous.” Some dentists use nitrous oxide (i.e., “laughing gas”) for what we call “twilight zone” treatment. Nitric oxide, on the other hand, is a nitrogen-oxygen compound naturally produced by the body.

Essentially, nitric oxide makes it easier for red blood cells (remember last week’s post: each of us has anywhere from 12 to 25 trillion of these cells) to penetrate injured tissue and deliver the oxygen critical for healing.

Bruising

Dr. Huggins used to relate having seen post-surgical bruises undergo a 50 percent reduction within just 30 minutes of using the Anodyne machine. Normally, such bruising would take from 5 to 6 days to fully disappear.

Anodyne light therapy helps other blood cells besides red ones. It also helps stimulate the formation of white blood cells. And we’ve seen how important these are for a healthy immune system.

In our offices, much of this bruising is already alleviated by the use of intravenous vitamin C, acupressure, and the simple application of ice packs.

However, even with these precautions, bruising can still occur. So, we generally encourage using the Anodyne machine once or twice daily for several days following surgery.

Other Benefits

Anodyne light therapy helps other blood cells besides red ones. It also helps stimulate the formation of white blood cells. And we’ve seen how important these are for a healthy immune system.

Nearly There!

Next week, we’ll wrap-up our review of our Patient Protection Protocol. It’s been a long ride, but, like I said at the start, the journey to recovered health is too important to be taken lightly.

Always working for your best physical, dental, and emotional health,

Dr. Blanche

Phase Three of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – Last Week’s Meridian Story

Dear friend of Centers for Healing,

I hope you enjoyed reading last week’s blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it. It’s been years since I first read Bernard Lown’s remarkable book, yet I still get goose-bumps every time I re-read his account of having witnessed open heart surgery under acupuncture.

So, my thoughts? Well, I just gave you one of them. 

Sheer marvel over the image of such a simple, unpretentious meeting of Eastern and Western medicine. I can only imagine the look of stunned disbelief on the faces of the attending physicians, as just 2 carefully placed needles effectively replace the use of general anesthesia, with a patient’s life literally hanging on the expertise of his surgeon’s hands.

Admittedly, Lown continues by noting that the Chinese have since admitted that acupuncture is not an apt replacement for an anesthetic in all cases. However, this admission doesn’t detract in the least from the case reported.

Secondly, we see the need for continued integration of all medical wisdom into one, balanced approach to healing. This means taking the truth wherever we find it, as we find it. 

In the specific case of biological dentistry, it is based – like all genuine medical practice – upon hard science. However, science itself is based upon facts. So, whether proof comes from a test tube in a lab or from some verifiable experience of applied meridian theory, genuine science respects and welcomes it. Period.

Thirdly, and finally, I remain ever awed by the wonder of the human body. I mean, just think about it for a moment:

• Everybody is composed of at least nine major systems, all designed to work in non-stop, integrated harmony: skeletal, digestive, lymphatic, muscular, respiratory, endocrine, nervous, circulatory, and reproductive. Can you imagine if we had to think about each of these activities in order for them to function?

• That same body is further composed of anywhere from 50 to 100 trillion individual cells, at least a quarter of which are red blood cells. So, in addition to those 9 major body systems to be kept working in tandem, each one of us has (or, more accurately, is) literally trillions of cells that must all work in harmony for the good of the whole body. Again, this all works on autopilot. (Look at your hand: one square centimeter alone contains about100,000 skin cells.)

I could go on and on. But I trust you see my point. We are miracles of engineering, pure and simple. And both science and medicine must respect both the miracle and the engineering.

With that, I’ll leave you for now. Look next week for a continued discussion of the particular helps we employ in our Patient Protection Protocol’s final phase.

As ever, we welcome your visits to our Scranton, Pennsylvania office. Wherever your end-of-summer travels take you, take good care.

All the best,

Dr. Blanche

((UPDATE)) Phase Three of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – A True Meridian Story

Dear friend of Centers for Healing,

After writing last week’s post on our use of acupressure here at Centers for Healing, I was reminded of a true story about an even more dramatic application of Oriental meridian theory to contemporary medical practice.

A Distinguished Cardiologist

Dr. Bernard Lown, a world renowned cardiologist, tells the story in his book, “The Lost Art of Healing. Practicing Compassion in Medicine.” Lown has the distinction of being the inventor of the modern defibrillator, now a standard fixture in cardiac units around the globe.

Lown’s story so remarkable precisely because of his status as a classically-trained, Western physician. In other words, the bias against “alternative medicine” is nearly unavoidable.

West Meets East

However, in Chapter 9, “Extraordinary Healing Techniques,” Lown gives an eyewitness account of the use of acupuncture as a substitute for anesthesia in a heart surgery performed in the People’s Republic of China in 1973.

The story is so powerful that I have to quote it directly from the book. I want you to hear it in Lown’s own words, with my emphasis in bold type:

The patient, a young man in his early twenties with a ventricular septal defect, walked into the operating room of a leading Shanghai hospital. After shaking hands with each of the eight visiting Americans, he lay down on the operating table and surgery was performed. The room was bare except for an oxygen tank, a sphygomanometer, and a primitive-looking pump oxygenator. He was draped for the operation, an intravenous was started, and a thin rubber tubing to provide oxygen was inserted in a nostril. Several acupuncture needles were then inserted in his ear and in his left wrist. After about fifteen minutes he appeared to be dozing. He was then connected to the ancient bypass machine to provide external pumping of his blood.

The surgeon was masterfully skilled and extraordinarily quick. In no time at all he had opened the chest and electrically fibrillated the heart to stop its contractions. Ventricular fibrillation is an ultrarapid chaotic rhythm in which heart pumping ceases, enabling the surgeon to have a quiet field for his work. In the absence of an external assist pumping device, the patient would die within a few minutes.

Standing at the head of the operating table, I could intimately observe the patient’s face. The entire scene was eerie and totally unreal for those of us trained in Western medicine. Several times during the operation, the patient opened his eyes and talked, though he was without any cardiac contractions. A distinguished American surgeon standing close by kept nudging me in disbelief and repeating, ‘Are you seeing what I am seeing?’ He whispered that we were being subjected to some Chinese trick of mass hypnosis.

The patient moaned only twice, each time when the surgeon encountered excessive bleeding, which he had difficulty in clamping rapidly. As the patient was surgically draped and could not see what was going on in his own chest cavity, and as the surgeon remained silent, I was mystified as to the cues the patient was picking up. When the surgeon had the situation under control, the patient relaxed as well.

As the operation was coming to an end and they were closing the chest, I began to worry about how they would revert the fibrillating heart, for no cardiac defibrillator was in sight in the technologically empty operating theater. When the thoracic cage was closed, they rolled in a vintage defibrillator, indistinguishable from the one I had introduced more than a decade earlier (see Chapter 13). They placed the electrode paddles against the chest wall and delivered an electrical discharge, which instantly restored a normal rhythm. The doctors and nurses then lined up in front of me, bowed, and said, ‘Thank you for serving the people.’ The patient sat up, once again shook hands with everyone, seated himself in a wheelchair, and was rolled into the recovery room. (pp. 130-31)

The Tale Tells Itself

Wow! I don’t know about you, but this blows me away. In fact, I’m going to save my comments (you didn’t really think I wouldn’t have any, did you?) for next week’s post.

After all, Lown’s story speaks for itself.

Meridian theory, whether applied through acupressure or acupuncture, is powerful stuff, indeed.

Until next week,

Dr. Blanche

Phase Three of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – Acupressure

“Putting out the fire doesn’t rebuild the house.” These insightful words are from a short pamphlet called “The Assist Report.” Huggins Applied Healing published it in order to give an overview of our Patient Protection Protocol. And, the quoted sentence above goes right to the heart of its third phase.  

Inner Roadways

You’ll recall my road analogy from last week’s post. Well, the first post-operative treatment I want to discuss is all about roads. Only, they’re on the inside, so to speak.

I’m talking about what Oriental medicine calls “meridian lines.” Meridian lines are essentially the invisible pathways connecting the various key points in the body. It is thought that these key points are where a person’s vital energy is localized.

Puncture and Pressure

For thousands of years, Oriental medical practitioners have treated patients on the basis of these “vital energy points.” When thin needles are inserted into these points, the therapy is called acupuncture. On the other hand, when hand pressure is applied to these same points, the treatment is called acupressure. The general theory behind both modalities is the same. Only the practical applications differ.

Acupressure, thus, is a kind of Oriental massage.  Here at Centers for Healing, acupressure is usually made available to patients immediately following dental revision work. Dental procedures can interrupt, or “scramble,” the normalelectrical impulses that connect the body’s vital energy points. Bottom line: acupressure is able to “reintroduce” a person’s nervous system to his or her muscular system.

The Dental Meridian Chart

There’s more. If you’ve ever visited our Scranton office, you may have noticed a large chart on the wall of the waiting area. This dental meridian chart details the relationship between each tooth in a person’s mouth and a particular bodily organ. Kind of gives a whole new meaning to the phrase “We are all connected,” huh? The truth is that each one of us – before being connected with those around us – is an elaborate series of biological, chemical, and electrical interconnections. In the trillions!

I don’t know about you, but I find all of this absolutely fascinating. However, there’s way too much to say about it a single blog post, so I’ll surely be coming back to this topic in future posts. For now, you just need to know that acupressure is one of the many post-revision therapies we use at Centers for Healing.

Meanwhile, take good care, and enjoy the summer. As always, we’d love to hear from you! In other words: stay connected!

All the best,

Dr. Blanche

Phase Three of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – The Road Back to Health

Phase Three of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – The Road Back to Health

Last week, we completed our review of the second, or principal, phase of our Patient Protection Protocol. I say “principal” because that’s where the dental rubber meets the proverbial road. That is, where the main work of revision occurs.

The Road Continues

Getting the toxic materials out of your mouth, however, is just the beginning of your journey toward recovered health and wellness. After all, if we’ve tried to get anything clear in these posts it’s that there’s an awful lot more to good health than a healthy smile, much less a pretty one.

So, yes, getting you back to a state of good health is a journey. And, the length of that journey depends on several factors, varying in degree from one person to another. Some of those critical factors are

·      how sick/healthy were you before revision

·      how much revision actually took place

·      how serious are you about getting better

The Will To Heal

I can hear some of you as you read those last words. “Whoa! Are you kidding, Dr. Blanche? Of course I want to get better!” Do you? I mean, I know some of you were hurting pretty badly when you first came to our center. However, others among you were in relatively little to no pain at all. Regardless, now is when you really show how serious you are about being healthy. How serious, and how willing to work for it.

After all, my patients each have one major thing in common. Namely, each and every one of you was toxic. Poisoned. Unwell. Sound harsh? Trust me, the sound of the words is nothing compared to the reality of the toxicity.

Thankfully, you are now on the other side of that hurdle. But, we’ve got to get you walking (maybe even crawling first) before you can start running again. That’s precisely what Phase Three of the Protocol is all about.

Tools For Healing

So, over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be discussing some of the more important means we use to help you along the road to recovered health. Some may be a little surprising. Others may seem like such common sense that you wonder why we need to spell them out. Well, you know what they say about common sense, right?

Again, the success of many of these methods depends a lot upon the recovering patient. How badly he or she wants to get better. How much he or she is willing to do – and even sacrifice – in order to get there.

Rest assured, though: we’re here to help you every step of the way. Heck, some of us have even walked the road ourselves. Either way, if you’re serious about getting better, then we’ll gladly meet you more than half way. Sound good?

Let’s get moving then!

All the best,

Dr. Blanche

Phase Two of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – Negative Ion Generators (“Scrubbing the Air”)

Phase Two of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – Negative Ion Generators (“Scrubbing the Air”)

So, the rubber dam is an effective tool for protecting the inside of your mouth from spraying mercury during amalgam extraction. But, what about atmospheric mercury: those tiny particles released into the air during the revision process?

Air Scrubbing

Well, we’ve got you covered there, too! Negative ionization to the rescue!

Negative ionization is a powerful and very effective way of removing mercury vapor from the air in a dental office.  But, first of all, what’s negative ionization all about?

Electrically Charged Air Molecules

It is estimated that in every cubic centimeter of air, there are anywhere from 1,500 to 4,000 ions. Some of these are positively charged, and the rest are negatively charged. There’s no third option.

Since the Earth’s surface itself is negatively charged, it naturally repels negative air ions, which are very mobile. They’re also incredibly beneficial to human beings – to all living things, in fact.

If you want an image of how negative ions make us feel, picture yourself at the beach or seated next to a waterfall. Calming, right?

The amazing thing here is that “too much of a good thing” doesn’t apply to negative ionization. You just feel – and biologically are – better and better.

Feeling Groovy

One major benefit of an increase in negative ions is the increase of available serotonin in the body. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter, naturally produced by the body, that is responsible for mood balancing. Bottom line: the higher your serotonin levels are, the better you feel. Think of it like our natural “happy” chemical.

Increased healing of lung problems is another benefit of negative ionization. It also acts as a brain stimulant, so it’s ideal for maintaining attention, during study for example. Hence the popularity of small ionizers for desktop use. 

However, our point here is not what ionization does for the student, but what it does for the dental patient.

Back in the Chair

Remember that high-speed drill I spoke of in last week’s post?

Let’s say the average amalgam filling contains anywhere from 40 to 50 percent mercury. Well, when that high-speed drill comes into contact with such a filling, the resultant concentration of mercury vapor in the air in front of your nose can increase rapidly. In fact, the level can be higher than a normal mercury-measuring device can even register. As in off the scale!

That means that your lungs, those of your dentist, and those of any attending assistants are working at full power just to filter all of this toxic gas in the air. This is an overwhelming task, and it is hardly a healthy one.

Negative Ion Generators

Enter the negative ion generators. There are basically two types of these devices.

The first simply charges mercury in the air, causing it to fall to the floor. Of course, then the floor needs a thorough scrubbing! And, we’re not talking about ordinary pathogens, bad as they are.

The second kind of deionizer targets the whole dental activity area, capturing the airborne mercury in a filter on the opposite side of the room. This is more effective, since it virtually eliminates the vaporized mercury from the room.

Truth is Stranger than Fiction

All of this may seem a little sci-fi, but that’s only because the science behind the fiction is real! What’s not fictitious is how seriously we take both our patients’ and our own health, especially when it’s a question of heavy metal toxicity.

We’ll talk more about the benefits of negative ionization in future posts. For now, thanks for reading these posts. All of them are designed to give you a clearer idea of our Patient Protection Protocol.

Stay tuned for next week’s post, as we move into the Protocol’s third, and final, phase. Until then, take good care!

All the best,

Dr. Blanche

Phase Two of the Huggins-Grube Protocol – Part Two Rubber Dam (“The Tooth Raincoat”)

Hopefully, last week’s post on our use of intravenous Vitamin C here at Centers for Healing gave you a good idea of how much we do to protect the patients sitting in our dental chairs. Now, let’s have a look at yet another tool we use for the same purpose. 

Holding Back the Water

The rubber dam has been around for decades, long before the present “amalgam war” had begun. We called them “tooth raincoats,” a description children grasped intuitively. All dams have a single major function: to hold back water, right? Well, the dental rubber dam is no different.

Keeping the Workspace Clean and Dry

In all dentistry, biological and otherwise, the rubber dam is a valuable tool, since it keeps the part of the mouth where the dental team is working clean and dry. A thin piece of rubber with holes punched into it, the rubber dam is lubricated with vaseline. This permits it to slip over the teeth, creating an effective barrier against water.

Draining the Toxic Sludge

Water is not the only thing the rubber dam holds back, however. When amalgams are removed, a toxic mercury sludge is created. Now, if mercury is bad news for your teeth, imagine what a danger it presents to the much softer tissue in your mouth!

Mercury Spray

Think about it for a moment. That drill bit in the dentist’s hand is spinning at 150,000 revolutions per minute, spraying mercury – vapor and particulates – everywhere. High suction and rinsing aren’t enough to keep that mercury from covering both the insides of your cheeks – the most absorptive external body area – and the floor of the mouth, which is second only to the cheeks for absorption capacity. To protect these sensitive areas, we add to the dam a layer of sulphur cream, precisely to provide a second layer of protection while mercury is being blasted-out.

Why go to the trouble of extracting amalgam fillings – which have been leaching mercury all along – only to aggressively dump the remaining mercury and other toxins directly into your bloodstream?

Old Dog, New Trick

So, you can see how we use the rubber dam, which has been around a long time, in a new, very effective way. This is what we’re all about here at Centers for Healing: the safe and speedy restoration of health. And we’re always looking for ways to do this even more safely and quickly! Stop by and see us if your summer travels bring you through northeast Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, have a wonderful summer.

All the best,