Under the term holistic dentistry.
(Synonyms: holistic dentistry: complementary dentistry; complementary dentistry) can be used to summarize different diagnostic concepts and treatment procedures that see themselves as alternatives or supplements to so-called conventional medicine.
For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines complementary medicine (alternative medicine, holistic medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, CAM) as a broad spectrum of healing methods that do not correspond to the tradition of the respective country and are not integrated into the existing health care system.
Orthodox medical practitioners require complementary medicine practitioners to provide evidence of studies and meta-analyses* . Users of complementary medicine procedures refer to their own therapeutic experience when asked about effectiveness and refer to the effectiveness of their treatment method with the remark “He who heals is right”. Also not all classical medical procedures (so-called recognized orthodox medical methods), which the German health insurance companies pay, are proven in studies and meta-analysis! In the meantime, there are research projects on complementary medicine at some universities, which are mainly supported by foundation funds of the health insurance companies within the framework of model projects.
In the meantime, procedures have found their way into our culture, which are offered by a not inconsiderable number of practitioners and are gladly used by many patients. Due to the treatment successes of complementary medicine, there are, for example, further training regulations of the medical associations for acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy and naturopathic treatments. These services also represent a useful addition to therapy for dentistry, as the holistic therapy approach looks at and treats the functional system of the human being in a comprehensive context beyond the focus of dental health.
The following are the main services provided by holistic dentistry.
* Statistical procedure to combine the results from different but comparable studies. Meta-analyses are most often used as part of a Systematic Review to quantitatively analyze the identified studies.
