Lyle Hurd: Welcome Dr. Stay. Dr. Stay is a pioneer in Integrative Dentistry? Could you explain to us what Integrative Dentistry signifies?
Flora Stay: Sure. Medicine is more in the forefront as far as Integrative Medicine. There have been a lot of books written about it from Andrew Wild to Deepak Chopra to many, many others, Jacob Teitelbaum who have talked about alternative approaches to health but yet they combine the best of western traditional medicine to other forms of treatment that may no be mainstream. As a result of that some of these same practitioners have developed their own department of Integrative Medicine in a variety of different colleges now.
Dentistry hasn't done that yet. There is the holistic-so called holistic dentist and then the traditional dentist and there is this big rift between the two. And I totally understand the rift because with holistic dentistry a lot of the modalities that they practice or recommend to patients may not be able to be repeated on for treatment, and they really should not be allowed to be used. And most of them haven't even been approved by the FDA. But yet, for example, Academy of General Dentistry which is a very reputable organization, on their website, they list herbs, that are good in dental treatment, they list different approaches for health, dental health that are not mainstream
But all of this has not been put together so that we can all know yes these are accepted, these work, these aren't. So my hope is that in the future, we can develop a Department of Integrative Dental Health or Oral Medicine where we can come to a middle ground as to yes, let's experiment with these modalities, find out which one works, and combine them and teach them, offer them at universities, dental schools even as an option.
Lyle Hurd: This is imperative that you know and understand who is providing dental care and medical care to you on a regular basis, that you ask them questions that they may not have thought you, that you are probing and that you take great deal of charge for your own health care. Thank you very much.
Flora Stay: Thank you.
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