Welcome to another OraMedia Newsletter, the Summer of '98, and Happy Father's Day to you fathers...
The OraMedia project of bringing Dr. Nara's work to the internet began about a year-and-a-half ago. At the beginning I was anxious to make all of the information provided by Dr. Nara available but I ran into snags when it came to certain supplies and services mentioned by Dr. Nara. In many cases I was able to track down suppliers and make items available at our site. In other cases I have not been as successful.
The thing that always bothered me was that I could not provide the 'Saliva Test' that Dr. Nara, his staff and 'Fellows' in Oramedics were using to test levels of strep and bacteria present in the mouth in order to help gauge and predict the severity of decay in individuals. Last summer I felt I was close in bringing this to our readers on the 'net; I had the lab set up to do the tests, but since I did not have the distinction of being a licensed dental practitioner, I could not legally order the tests.
A recent turn of events may change all of that. I've been contacted by a clinic in Ohio very strongly interested in incorporating the OraMedia/Oramedics materials in their wellness programs, and in particular, bringing the Saliva Test back. I will meet with a representative of the clinic tomorrow to discuss a preliminary program of joining forces... this could lead to a full-time effort of bringing OraMedia materials to the public, a far more frequent newletter, a revised and more frequently updated web site, new and swifter fulfillment of products and perhaps even a place to go for services and treatment as well - which leads me to the next issue...
I would say that 85% - 90% of all of the mail I receive is of the following nature: "Here is my situation, what do I do?" or "Please send me a list of Oramedics practitioners in my area..." The best I could offer was to reply that I could not offer that kind of help or medical advice. This may be changing very shortly. Not only do we anticipate having a place to go, we anticipate training current professional practitioners in the U.S. and abroad. More on this as it becomes available.
-Tom Cornwell
The book you sent me, How To Become Dentally Self-Sufficient is more valuable to me than if you had sent gold. I was so suprised to recieve such a treasure, and without a charge. I am extremely grateful!! I can't thank you enough for empowering myself and so many others with the necessary info to begin caring for ourselves. I have already starting reading it, every single word, slowly. Thank you so much. -K
The article on "do I need a root canal" was very on target. I agree that
some procedures are totally unnecessary, however when they are needed,
it can be a relief.
I hope all oral surgeons and regular surgeons will realise that
surgery is not the magic panacea that they sometimes think.
Several years ago I was having tremendous pain. I was in my early
30's then and had to get braces on my teeth. I had one oral surgeon tell
me that I needed to have my whole face redone, including my chin ! He
wanted to reposition my entire jaw, split the roof of my mouth, splint
that area, bring my lower jaw forward and all sort of other things.
After he told me this I asked him if he had a surgical manual that would
explain this to me.....he was very hesitant about "lending" out this
book, as he told me it was very graphic...but he did.
I read through the parts of the book that were pertinent and the
next day I brought the book back to him and told him that I wanted no
part of the surgery. He tried to reassure me that "it's not that
bad"...this is easy to say when you aren't under the saw !
While I was waiting in his office in the back, I saw him tell
another person that they too needed to have their entire face
reconfigured.The guy had an elongated chin,but not as bad as Jay
Leno...and he told him that he could take care of that too.
No doubt this man is making lots of money,but I doubt his methods.
It took me a while to realise that my jaw pain mainly resulted from my
own stress level..and I eventually got off the braces and wore a
retainer at night and also a splint.
Keep on educating the naive...they will believe any doctor..even
the bad ones ! I'm so glad that I never underwent any surgery and I have heard horror stories from people who did under go that type of procedure...sometimes resulting in much worse pain than they had to start with. -C.A., Nurse, O.T.
At this point, we also explain to the patient how to "spit in a bottle" to provide a saliva sample to be sent to a lab for diagnosis. He's to do this at home, before eating anything in the morning, to give us an accurate reading of the bacteria in his mouth. What we're looking for is the lactobacillus count...the number of lactobacilli in the patient's mouth. Now, we could count any number of different bacteria. Strep species, for example, are always present in anyone's mouth. But a practical means of measuring lactobacillus has existed for quite some time, which is one good reason for determining the lacto count at the lab. Still another reason is that a direct relationship has been established between the number of lactobacillus bacteria, and the numbers of other bacterial species. For instance, for every single lactobacillus, there are some 1,000 trep mutans; and similar relationships have been established between lacto and other bacterial species. So the lab counts the lactobacilli in the saliva sample, sends us a report, and we make our deductions as to the effects of bacteria on the patient's oral health.
Remember, the patient must be instructed as to how to get the saliva sample ready for the lab. In fact, he's to mail it to them himself, in most instances, in a container we supply him with; and we further recommend that, if the timing is right, the patient prepares the sample and mails it on a Saturday morning. That way, it'll usually arrive at the lab first thing Monday, reasonably fresh and capable of providing an accurate analysis of the patient's oral bacterial count. The results of the saliva tests come back to us from the lab, usually within a few days and by that time we're ready to help the patient embark on a full-scale home care program. Caries Testing and Research Center offers faster-than-usual service on lactobacillus counts, but any number of qualified laboratories around the country could provide a similar service. At any rate, the lactobacillus count in a properly cared for mouth should read below 8,000. If the figure gets much higher than this, the chances of successfully combating tooth decay and gum disease are greatly reduced.
But even a very high lactobacillus count at the outset shouldn't be discouraging. After all, most people don't really know how to clean their teeth properly--we have to teach them how! In fact, we seldom find an acceptable lactobacillus count in a new patient's mouth, nor do we expect to. However, as time progresses, we'll take other saliva samples, send them off to the lab, and take a look at the results. After treatment of all active decay through restorative procedures, plus thorough cleaning and follow-up home care, the patient should be able to get that count well down into the acceptable range -- below 8,000. And if he can't we naturally suspect that he isn't doing his part in the program, he isn't cleaning properly, including brushing or cleaning between his teeth with dental tape, floss or better yet a new product called "Clean Between". Perhaps he's trying, going through all of the steps; but he may not be doing it quite right. That's our problem, of course, as well as his. We must provide additional training, further instruction as to how to go about maintaining the proper oral ecology. This is no "big deal"; the ones we have real trouble with are the people who simply don't try -- those who feel they don't have to do anything, since that's what they're paying us to do!
All right, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves again. For now, let's just sum this section up by saying that one of the first tests we perform for our patients is the lactobacillus count, and we enlist the aid of a good laboratory for this purpose. Then, as the Oramedics plan for that patient progresses, we can run additional lactobacillus counts to see how the patient is progressing... what kind of job he's doing toward maintaining that proper oral ecology once we've established it for him.
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