DENTISTRY is not an area that one associates with holistic approaches. The treatment of dental problems generally requires surgical intervention - most commonly filling or extraction. Nevertheless, the increasing interest in the interactions between body, mind and spirit have permeated even this most mechanical of procedures.
L.J. Cummins is a dentist who has used holistic approaches in his practice. "Such occasions are not common," he says, "but every so often you encounter a client where the usual dental approach does not seem to help. I something doesn't have an obvious physical cause it merits further investigation. As you cannot keep body and mind separate, that further investigation often leads you into mental or emotional causes.
The mouth is often a site of stress, Mr Cummins believes. "If somebody has a traumatic experience, a common way of dealing with it is to put it away, forget about it. But it's still there and it's using energy to hold it down. That manifests itself physically in the body. People hold stress in different parts of their body and it is not uncommon for it to be held in the mouth." Think teeth clenching, teeth grinding, pursed lips.
"Sometimes such stress can arise from a physical cause, from the way the teeth are positioned in the mouth or mechanically come together. But often the cause is an emotional/mental stress factor. If somebody has a nervous habit like teeth grinding I would ask them hoc they carry stress, to notice when they are doing it, to see how it relates to what's happening in their lives.
Occasionally, it is necessary to probe more deeply. To do this, Mr Cummins uses hypnosis. One such case presented itself when a woman who had a recurring problem with swollen submandibular glands and a pain in her ear came to him for treatment. She had several courses of antibiotics, had sinus and other examinations. Nothing had been found. He examined her for possible dental causes but again drew a blank.
"I then used hypnosis to ascertain whether the problems might have an emotional cause," he says. "Under regression, it emerged that when the patient was a young child she was warned by a very unloving father that she would be severely punished if she raised her voice in the presence of her mother, who suffered from sore ears. At subsequent visits she was shown how to deal with this and how to make up for the love and affection she had missed as a child. Her ears have not troubled her since."
The most common use of hypnosis is in the calming of patients who are fearful. A lot of people are apprehensive about dental treatment, some are even phobic. Dentistry, like all surgery, is invasive and the mouth is a sensitive space. The use of hypnotic suggestion can calm fears and relax the patient so that treatment can proceed.
"I had a bomb disposal expert who came to me with pain," recalls L.J. Cummins. "Considering his occupation, you would imagine he would have his nerves very much under control. But he was phobic about dentists. I felt it from him as soon as I put the mirror in his mouth. Once I realised that, I was able to use hypnosis to calm him.
Another patient was a garda detective, a man who had guns held to his head by the IRA. He was generally very sensitive and edgy, and found it difficult to relax with this teeth." Again hypnosis allowed treatment to proceed.
PAT GAMBLE, a Cork based dentist who was a founder member of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, believes that all good dentists use calming techniques, whether or not they are conscious of it. "Dentists generally see more fearful and anxious patients than doctors," he says. "They automatically develop a patter that works for them, that uses suggestions to calm the patient. And that's all hypnosis is.
"When we speak of a doctor or dentist with a good bedside manner, that's what we're referring to their ability to soothe their patients, to calm them in order to achieve betterment. Any dentist worth his salt is doing that."
The uses of hypnosis in dentistry extend beyond this, however. Mr Cummins has used it as an alternative to painkilling injections. "Over the years I have had subjects referred to me by the Dental Hospital because they are allergic to local anaesthesia," he says. "Once they are good subjects, there is no reason why hypnosis cannot be used instead." Hypnotic suggestion can also be useful for controlling haemorrhage.
L.J. Cummins believes the mind to be a most powerful tool. "I can't believe how we continue to think of the body and mind as separate," he says. His patients are testament to the benefits which can be wrought when both are brought together in the dentist's chair.