Jeanne Grunert

I used to be a very black and white thinker. I thought there was only one solution to a problem. When you needed an answer, you consulted an expert and did whatever he or she said to do.

The problem with such thinking is that life is full of shades of gray. Almost nothing in life has black and white certainty.  To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."


    Yet when it comes to our dental options, most people give you a blank stare when you try to talk to them about their options.  Some things are certain. You will get cavities and sometime later, need a root canal or crown (cap). Eventually, teeth need extraction. Old people always have dentures. It's just the way things are.

    What if we told you that it doesn't have to be like this?


    You have options that extend beyond drilling, filling and pulling. You have the option of learning how to care for your teeth so that they can last a lifetime!

    Sounds impossible?  Many things were once thought impossible. Turn the clock back 100 years, and space flight was thought only a fancy of imagination. Turn the clock back 200 years, and the concept of affordable airplane travel, electricity, movies, mass produced clothing, woman's right to vote and many other concepts would have been demanded "impossible to do."

    My dad was born in the early 1920's, at a time when polio was the scourge of his youth. He remembers pictures of children in iron lungs, condemned to a lifetime trapped in those breathing machines, when polio epidemics swept New York City.

    What were the options? If medical science had given up seeking a cure for polio, we'd accept as the norm that every so often, a terrible disease sweeps through the population, condemning our children to a living hell. We'd accept doctors carrying around portable respirators and iron lungs and think, well, that's just the way thing are.

    But it's not how things have to be, and Drs. Salk and Sabin worked tirelessly until they discovered the root cause of polio and created a vaccine to prevent it.

    You see, society didn't accept the "inevitable outcome" of lives ruined or ended.  Researchers believed in an outcome other than paralyzed children and adults. It took decades, but a cure was found.

    You have options beyond drill, fill, root canal and extraction. Dental disease can be stopped or reversed at almost any stage of the process. We know what causes many of the typical problems! Poor diet, poor hygiene, and unbalanced biological factors contribute to many common oral problems. But when you know what causes something, you also know what steps to take to prevent or fix it.

    You have options. You can take charge of your oral health. It takes a bit of practice, but it's not impossible. Start today, take a few steps, and take more.  Soon, you'll wonder why you ever believed it to be impossible.

This article originally appears in the June 4, 2010 OraMedia Newsletter .

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  The preceding information and/or products are for educational purposes only and are not meant to diagnose, treat or prescribe for an illness. Please consult your doctor before making any changes or before starting ANY exercise or nutritional supplement program or before using this information or any product during pregnancy or if you have a serious medical condition.

Copyright 2010 by Jeanne Grunert