Homeopathy in Dentistry by Dr. Bill Wolfe, D.D.S., N.M.D

The latter part of the 20th Century has brought along with its technical and synthetic advances a resurgence of the understanding of human beings as a total entity – body, mind, emotions, and soul – “holism”.  The use of homeopathy is helping today’s dentists give holistic care to their patients.

More dentists are recognizing that attached to the teeth is a human being, and that in treating a localized manifestation of disease in the mouth, it is imperative that due considerations be given to the general physical state of the patient.  Only when the dentist understands the relationship that oral disease has to the physical and mental reactions of the patient can he or she offer a fully therapeutic service.

Briefly, homeopathy is a system of healing that seeks to cure illness in accordance with certain principles of healing utilizing “remedies made from plants, minerals, or animal products”.  These remedies are prepared by a process of repeated dilution and shaking, which renders them capable of stimulating the healing process.  The treatment is not directed at removing symptoms or killing germs but, rather, toward strengthening the person so that his or her own healing capacities function better.

Homeopathy discovers the essence of disease through the symptom syndrome, or the totality of the mental, emotional, and physical symptoms expressed by the patient.  By means of the totality of symptoms, the homeopathic practitioner treats the patient as a whole rather than treating the disease in its localized expression.  Therefore, the cause rather than the effect is being treated.

All patients are unique.  Two different patients visit the dentist.  Both complain of a toothache with similar duration, location, and intensity of pain.  However, by talking with each patient, it can be observed that one of them is reluctant to take about his problems, wants no sympathy, and has only come to the office because his symptoms are of sufficient intensity to force him to as for help.  The other patient is easygoing, enjoys sympathy, and is clearly ready for help.  For the best treatment, constitutional homeopathy should be applied, along with pathological homeopathy.

Constitutional homeopathic prescribing involves analyzing a person’s body type, temperament, disposition, and behavioral tendencies.  Pathological prescribing is a treatment specifically for the disease or ailment.  Homeopathy in holistic dentistry offers a combination of both types of prescribing.  Thus, it is possible to prescribe one remedy to suit the general temperament or psychological state of a patient and another for the particular problem the patient is experiencing.

There are many homeopathic remedies that have been found effective in treating various dental conditions.   You can use the Synergy software system to access many dental conditions and their corresponding remedies.

 

Dental Conditions

ABSCESS
Belladonna: Best used for early dental abscess accompanied by redness and throbbing.
Bryonia: Use for acute inflammation or if pricking pain is relieved by firm pressure.
Hepar sulphuris: Use for abscess accompanied by pus formation.
Myristica: Use when swelling is accompanied by numbness of the area.
Pulsatilla: Use when the pain is accentuated by heat and relieved by cold water.
Pyrogenuium: Use when pus is present without drainage.
Silicea: Use to hasten the discharge when pus is draining.

APPREHENSION
Aconite: Use for panic, fright, and general mental and physical restlessness, or sudden violent attacks.
Calcarea carbonica: Use for the fearful, weary, and hopeless person who worries toward evening.
Coffea cruda (potentized coffee): Works well as a tranquilizer.
Chamomilla: Use as a tranquilizing action for restful sleep.  Also raises low pain threshold.
Nux vomica: Works well in many high strung, nervous, irritable people with stomach problems.
Pulsatilla: Use for states of anxiety.

BRUXISM
Belladonna: Use for grinding problem that causes painful teeth.
Podophyllum: Use for night grinding when experiencing a burning sensation of the tongue.
Tuberculinum: Use for children who grind their teeth.

GINGIVITIS, PERIODONTITIS AND ALVEOLITIS
Arsenicum album: Use for unhealthy, bleeding gums.
China: Use for gum tissue that is bleeding.
Ferrum phosphoricum: Use for poor gum tone or gums that bleed after brushing.
Hypericum: Use for tender gum tissue and to promote healing.
Kali chloricum: Use for acute ulcerative tissue.
Naturium muriaticum: Tissue integrity.
Hepar sulphuris: Tissue with suppuration, chronic abscesses.
Silicea: Periodontal abscess with swollen glands.
Staphysagria: Loose teeth, pain increased by pressure.
Symphytum: Injuries to periosteum.  Stimulates growth of epithelium on ulcerated surfaces.
Mercurius solubilis: Use for acute ulcerative tissue with a coated tongue and metallic taste in the mouth.
Nux vomica: Use for swollen painful gums when the back of the tongue has a whitish coating and when the patient consumes a lot of stimulants such as coffee and tea.
Phosphorous: Use on swollen gums that bleed easily, and when there’s an overproduction of saliva.
Ruta graveoalens (“dry socket”): Use for injured bone and alveolitis.

HEMORRHAGE
Arnica: Use for bleeding accompanied by bruised soreness.
Ferrum phosphoricum: Use when there is bright red bleeding.

NEURALGIA
Aconite: Trigeminal neuralgia.
Aranea diadema: Use for radiating pain in the right side of the face that is aggravated by cold.  Also use for sudden, severe pain in the teeth at night after lying down.
Cuprum metallicum: Use for cramping muscles.
Gelsemium sempervirens: Use to relieve headache and pain of the upper back and neck, which extends over the head and for dizziness and numbness.
Ignacia: Use for headaches as if a nail were driven through the side of the head.
Lachesis: Left-sided complaints.
Magnesia phosphorous: Use for spasmodic pains made worse by cold water and made better by heat and rubbing.
Sanguinaria: Right-sided neuralgia – facial migraine.
Spigelia: Use for pain involving the eye, cheek, and left temple areas.
Zincum phosphoricum: Sharp pains on the right side of head.
Zincum valerian: sharp pains on the left side of the head.

POSTOPERATIVE DISCOMFORT
Apis mellifica: Good for post injection soreness after dental work.
Chamomilla: Give one hour prior to dental appointment for patients with a low pain threshold.  It also expedites the wearing off of the numbness.
Hypericum: Use where there is an injured nerve.
Ledum: Use for puncture wounds and soreness resulting from a dental injection.
Magnesia phosphorica: Use for stiff, sore jaws following prolonged dental work when the muscles are cramped and feel better with warmth.
Staphysagria: Use for incision-type wounds after soft tissue surgery.
Symphytum: Use for trauma of bone and periosteum.

SALIVATION
Baryta carbonica: Use when there is excessive saliva during sleep.
Bryonia alba: Use for an extremely dry mouth, with dryness of mucous membranes and great thirst.
Phosphorous: Use for hyper salivation and when gums are swollen and bleed easily.
Pulsatilla: Use for diminished saliva with no thirst.

TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT (TMJ)
Arum triphyllum: Use for pain in joint on swallowing.
Calcarea flourica: Use for hypermobile joints.
Calcarea phosphorica: Use when mouth cannot be opened without pain.
Carbo vegetabillis: Use for vertigo with nausea and tinnitus.
Chamomilla: Use for low pain threshold.  Unbearable spasms of pain, radiating into the ear.
Cuprum metallicum: Use for trismus of muscles.
Granatum: Use for painful cracking of the joint.
Magnesia phosphorica: Use for muscle spasms.
Phyltolacca decanda: Use for earaches with pain extending into teeth, jaw, and throat. 
Rhus toxicodendron: Use for joint stiffness that improves with movement and for “popping” of TMJ.

TOOTHACHE
Antimonium crudum: Use for a toothache that is worse at night is aggravated by heat.
Aranea diadema: Use for sudden, severe pain in the teeth after lying down.
Belladonna: Use for throbbing tooth that’s worse when pressure is applied.
Calcarea carbonica: Use for a toothache that worsens when exposed to hot or cold air.
Chamomilla: Use for a toothache with intolerable pain that’s worse from warmth and not better with cold.
Coffea cruda: Use for toothache that worsens with heat and is relieved by ice.
Ferrum metallicum: Use for toothache that is relieved by ice water.
Magnesia carbonica: Use for a toothache that is worse at night.  Patient must get up and walk about for relief.
Plantago major: Use for a toothache that is better with pressure and worse without cold air.
Pulsatilla: Use for a toothache that is relieved by holding cold water in the mouth.
Staphysagria: Use for pain from major decay of a number of teeth.

TOOTH ERUPTION
Calcarea carbonica: Use for delayed eruption.
Chamomilla: Use for difficult teething.
Zincum metallicum: Use for teeth gritting during difficult dentition with loose teeth and bleeding gums.

ULCERATIONS
Natrum muriaticum: Use for cold sores and fever blisters.  Lips and corners of mouth dry and cracked lips.
Nitircum acidum: Use for ulcers with irregular edges and a raw appearance with a tendency to bleed easily.

 

Dosage Guidelines for Remedies D200 (200X) and Under

Choice of Potency
When the treatment is prescribed on the basis of local signs and symptoms, prescribe low potencies (Dxxx).

When the treatment is prescribed on the basis of a mixture of local, general, mental and emotional signs and symptoms, prescribe higher potencies (everything except Dxxx).

Times Remedies Should Be Taken
Low potency remedies

• first aid – every 5-30 minutes
• acute conditions – every 30 minutes to hourly, decreasing to 3-4 times a day

Medium potency remedies

• one to three times a day

High potency remedies

• REDUCE FREQUENCY WITH IMPROVEMENT

Potency vs. Duration of Action

• the lower the potency, the shorter its duration of action (acute conditions)
• the higher the potency, the longer its duration of action, provided the analogy was clear and correct (chronic conditions)

Constitutional Prescribing
As opposed to pathologic or specific symptom prescribing, constitutional prescribing does not treat the disease entity, but rather the symptom complex of the individual who has the disease.

The purpose of constitutional prescribing is not to seek to change a patient’s character, but by modifying its tone balances it, thereby giving systematic, systemic support to the self-healing effort of the organism.  By encompassing the sum total of the individual’s physical, emotional and mental picture, constitutional analysis and prescribing performs psychotherapy while also working on the physical level.

All the constitutional remedies and corresponding characteristics can be utilized in assessment and treatment using the Synergy software system.

 

Homeopathic Choices with I.O. Procedures

Bone cavitations
Jaw ostitis
Acute bac. ostitis
Chronic bac. ostitis
Osteomyelitis

Sensitive teeth
Acute pulpitis
Chronic pulpitis
Arnica
Hypericum

Focal teeth
Gangrenore pulpa
Tooth tx. at root

Diffuse pain in area
Nervoheel
Zeel
Traumeel

Drainage
Lymphomyosot

Immune System
Echinacea Compositum

Scars
Graphites – Homacord
Dental abscess:
Fistula dentalis

Inflammation
Cortisonum

Viruses
Engystol N
Herpes Simplex
Epstein Bar.
Cytomegalie
Coxsackie B

Bacteria
Streptococcinum
Staphlococcinum
Penicillin G
Tetracyclin

Anti-microbial
Homeopathic Sanum remedies

 

Homeopathics for Detox

In I.V. Vit. C
Traumeel
Merc. Sol.
Silver Amalgam
Lymphomyosot
Echinacea Compositum
Hepar Compositum
Zeel

Inject meridians/sublingual absorption
Lymphomyosot
Traumeel
Apis
Newoheel
Thyroidea Compositum

 

After Amalgam Removal

Metals
Merc. Corr.
Merc. Sol.
Sil. Amal.
Nickel, etc.
Zincum Met.
Cuprum Met.
Stannum Met.
Master Met.

Drainage
Lymphatic
Lymphomyosot
Recovery
Restorative
Liver
Intestine
Stomach
Kidney
Heart
Bladder

 

Example homeopathic constitutional remedies

Arsenicum:

• Hates to be ill, but loves doctors, delights in discussing symptoms in exquisite detail
• Seems to enjoy his illness
• Microbe-phobia, aversion to cold
• Excessive and reactive to the extreme
• Sensitivity to the environment, allergic

Clacarea Carbonica:

• Exertion fatigues/passive personality
• Lacks ability to overcome emotional shocks
• Sensitive to criticism/fear of succeeding
• Dislikes outside pressure (emotional and physical)
• Chronically late
• Limp handshake
• Poorly developed teeth and jaw/high narrow dental arch/chronic sniffles and runny nose caused partly by narrowness of nasal passages
• Poor calcium metabolism (milk allergy)
• Handicapped children

Ignatia:

• The “funeral remedy”
• Sorrow, shock, stress, disappointment
• Chronic grieving, sadness, loneliness
• Deep depression
• Claustrophobic fears
• Over-reactive mental state

Lachesis:

• From the poison of the Brazilian Bushmaster snake
• Erratic moods and behaviors
• Split psyche “Jekyll and Hyde”
• Highly emotional, switches moods and “lashes out”
• Tendency to alcoholism

Lycopodium:

• Resilient self-esteem
• Example of moderation and reasonableness
• Avoids arguments
• Feels detached
• Feels superior/authoritative
• Unwilling to admit error/always right
• Little confidence in physicians
• Illness offends self-esteem/ignores physical infirmities
• Impatient with poor health
• Above needing medical help/should overcome sickness by willpower
• Except for his main complaint, he has none
• Uncooperative patient (headstrong)

Natrum Muriaticum:

• Potentization of table salt
• As salt, absorbs and retains water and other body fluids
• Tendency to depression
• Inability to express
• Emotion/mourns the past/can’t let go
• Mucus retention with sinus problems
• Feeling of unworthiness excessive self-absorption
• Chronic guilt
• Retains physical pain especially unrelenting headaches
• Many mouth and lip symptoms (fever blisters, herpetic blood blisters, ulceration, geographic tongue, etc.)

Nux Vomica:

• Potentization of strychnine
• Irritable, impatient temperament (short fuse)
• Addiction-prone personality, overindulgence
• Nervous irritability and quick to take offense/erratic behavior
• Moody/mopey isolation
• Nervous stomach (associated with TMJ)
• Highly strung/insomnia (especially 3:00 am)
• “take charge” nature/intellectual
• Low pain threshold/fainting tendency
• Devoid of self-restraint/irate at not getting his own way
• Headaches are like a nail being driven in the side of the head

Phosphorous:

• Potentization of phosphorous (only non-radioactive element capable of producing its own light)
• Effervescent, outgoing, emotional excess
• Psychic, telepathic, sees auras, clairvoyant
• Uninhibited
• Spontaneity/expressive/never tires of performing
• Unreliable about keeping appointments
• Fears exaggerated by solitude
• Overflow of feelings/hemorrhage/saliva
• Ill effects from anesthesia

Psorinum:

• Skin problem, dry hair
• Offensive odor, especially perspiration
• Enlarged veins
• “never well since”
• Sensitivity to environment

Pulsatilla:

• Symptoms changeful, pains wander from one part of the body to another
• Sweetness, usually female remedy
• A need to be loved by many
• Strong desire to make life pleasant for her loved ones
• Requires support, fears loneliness -  of having no one to love or turn to for stability/protection
• Feeling of helplessness, inability to make up her mind, unable to say no
• Reliance on others can result in her clinging to her illness with hypochondria, with lengthy description of symptoms, cannot specify whether there has been an improvement
• Tendency to self-pity

Sepia:

• Predominantly female
• Classic picture-female seeking emancipation
• Career woman
• Liver spots, skin eczemas
• Emotional bouts without apparent cause
• Left-handed complaints
• Black moods/cold silence/indifferent/enjoys feeling martyred
• Tension headaches, nausea from smell of food, chronic sinus, rheumatism or arthritis in legs, allergic constitution, severe constipation
• Woman seeks to emancipate herself from passive, receptive female role into life of action
• Male wants to disengage from active world and lead a quieter more contemplative life/discontented with job/worn out emotionally, wants to be left alone

Silica:

• Potentization of silicon dioxide
• The “homeopathic surgeon”
• Hardness is key nature
• Tendency to form hard lumps/growths
• Teeth are hypocalcified, chip easily
• Cracks at corners of mouth
• Obstinate/stubborn
• Impervious to outside pressure of influence
• Difficulty adapting to change
• Fear of failure

Staphysagria:

• Righteous indignation
• Low self-esteem
• Possible history of emotion and/or physical attack, especially with an instrument
• Martyr
• Sexual obsessions

Sulphur:

• Selfishness, engrosses in his own world
• Materialistic
• Eruptive personality, with caustic aggression
• Uneven distribution of body temperature, likes cold air
• Feeling of sluggishness and fatigue, tendency to nap
• Erupts easily, argumentative
• Intellectualism, monopolizes conversation

Tuberculinium:

• Slender build, narrow or caved in chest, anemic and frail

As more dentists and health practitioners discover the effectiveness of using “holistic” treatment for individuals, homeopathic remedies should prove to be an increasingly important contribution to not only dental treatment and healing, but also to the overall well-being of the patient.

Bill Wolfe, D.D.S., N.M.D., graduated from Baylor University College of Dentistry in 1972 and currently practices in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  To be included on a mailing list for information about Dr. Wolfe’s seminars and dental products, you may write to:

Bill Wolfe, D.D.S., N.M.D.
1348 Boatright Dr. NE.
Albuquerque, NM 87112
Or
2725 Agua Fria
Santa Fe, NM 87507
(505)299-6950
(505)988-9868