Smile, Naturally

A new style of dentistry focuses on making patients—and the planet—feel better.

By Andrea Kowalski

Not long ago, I lived in Asia for three years—and managed to see a dentist just once, thanks to a less-than-pleasant experience. I returned home with an aptitude for conversational Japanese, an ominous plaque buildup, and irritated gums that bled when I flossed. I dreaded finding a new dentist, but I was in desperate need of care.

Luckily, things had changed since I'd been away. There was a new breed of dentist in town—practitioners who call themselves "integrative." Instead of focusing only on your plaque or toothache or gums, an integrative dentist pays attention to the big picture: What other health issues might relate to the state of your mouth? What chemicals are you absorbing while your teeth are being repaired? How's your mental state while you're sitting in the dental chair?

To ease patients' pain and fear, these dentists use complementary techniques such as meditation and massage. And they prefer using materials and procedures that do as little harm as possible to the earth and their patients: by substituting digital imaging for x-rays (no toxic processing chemicals required), for example, or using composite fillings instead of mercury amalgam (no hazardous waste to dispose of).

My yogi friends raved about one practitioner in particular, who calls his business the Transcendentist. When I phoned his Berkeley, California, office, the receptionist told me that every visit included a foot massage. Sold!

On the day of my appointment, I was pleasantly surprised to walk into a warm, inviting living-room-like atmosphere. The bamboo shades, peaceful-looking Ganesha statue, and teak furnishings immediately put me at ease. I sipped organic chamomile tea from a ceramic mug while I finished my paperwork.

When I was called in, I settled into the dental chair with a pair of noise-canceling headphones that transmitted a progression of ethereal-sounding, slow-moving instrumental chords. Then the hygienist handed me a pair of rose-colored glasses (color therapy glasses, she said) to bring "stability" and help ground me.

Once she started the cleaning, it was indeed painful—no surprise, given my three years of neglect—but the pain was entirely manageable thanks to the music, which the hygienist had called a "brain-balancing meditation." I began to forgive myself for avoiding the dentist for so long. The foot massage wasn't bad, either.

A meditator, yogi, and tai chi teacher, Transcendentist founder Fred Pockrass, D.D.S., lived in the Indian Himalayas for 11 years, serving as the personal dentist to his teacher and guru, Swami Shyam. Pockrass considers his dental work to be his sadhana, or spiritual practice. His challenge? To transform an experience that many people find scary.

"I invite my clients to use the chair as a meditation cushion—I call it a samadhi chair," he says. "You're lying there for an hour—you might as well have a deep, restful meditation experience."

Was this really a dentist talking?

Fresh Beginnings

Integrative dentistry is a new phenomenon; so new, in fact, that professional and regulatory agencies governing the field have yet to be established. Lynne Martz-Marshall, an integrative family dentist in Walnut Creek, California, estimates that fewer than 9 percent of all U.S. dentists use integrative techniques.

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