Choosing The Right Dentist

While you might visit your dentist a limited number of times per year, having a good relationship with your dentist can dictate the direction of your oral health. After all, your dentist can play a very important role in preserving the health of your entire mouth including your teeth and gums.

Because of the importance of oral health and the impact it can have on your general health, it is even more important to pay attention to. After all, many studies have showed that your mouth is the gateway to everything from heart health to the health of your entire body. It is so integral to your overall health that mouth disease or problems with your oral health can be a major precursor to major health ailments. Thus, you want to select the right dentist to care for your health.

Below, we will be going over some of the top tips to find the best one.

Tips To Ensure Your Find The Right Dentist:

Get Referrals

One of the best ways to find reputable dentists that you can choose from is by asking your friends and family. Getting personal recommendations from people that you know and trust is key. If you happen to be moving to a new area, you can even ask your current dentist for potential recommendations that they might know of in the area where you are moving. You can always ask around your social circle to find personal recommendations from people that you know and trust. If you aren’t fully satisfied with the complete list of recommendations, you could always opt to complete a Google search of the different dentists in the area. This will allow you to go through the reviews that you find to identify a reputable option. You can also check dental associations in order to find suitable dentists in your area.

Consider The Logistics

When you are seeking a brand new clinic, you want to consider the level of accessibility it offers. Figuring out how far the clinic is from either your home or office will dictate the kind of accessibility it provides. Consider whether or not it will be easy to travel to and from. Along with this, consider whether or not there is readily available parking nearby. You also want to factor in what the office hours are and whether or not it offers added convenience to your family. After all, if you work full-time, you might have special requirements such as having a dentist that takes patients on the weekends. Likewise, if you are a parent, you might want to find one that caters to your entire family. You could always do a comprehensive search on Google Maps in order to get a good idea of the available dentists in your immediate area.

Services

There are all kinds of different dental services that each practice is likely to offer. Because of this, you want to consider the kind of services that you will need in order to find a respective dentist that is willing and able to offer them. It is typically a good idea to find one that offers even more services in addition to the services that you currently require. After all, dental health is in constant flux. Thus, if your dental needs change, you will be able to continue seeing the dentist you have built and established a relationship with rather than having to find a new one.

Call The Practice

When you think that you might have identified the right dentist, you should make a call to the practice to ensure that they are accepting new patients at the time. During this call, you should ask any questions that you have. You should note down how the receptionist treats you and whether or not they are interested in providing you with assistance and good service. This will likely dictate the tone of customer service that you experience as a patient.

Visit

If you liked what you heard from the call, you should schedule an in-person appointment to visit the office. This will allow you to see whether or not the practice is well organized and whether or not they have state of the art equipment. You also will be able to tell whether or not you feel comfortable at the practice.

Speak With The Dentist

When you go into the meeting with the dentist, you want to ask for a complete report on the current state of your oral health. You will want to ask any questions that you have for them directly and see whether or not they have preventative health care procedures. You also want to see whether or not you are able to get along with the dentist and if you feel comfortable speaking to them.

Chiropractic Care for the Relief of Chronic Pain

Pain Relief and Chiropractic Care.

woman with head ache

Many people make the mistaken assumption that chiropractors are only useful in dealing with back or neck pain. They certainly do quite a bit of treatment for those, but there’s honestly a lot more than they do. Chiropractic medicine emphasizes nervous and musculoskeletal system disorders and how they impact the rest of the human physical body. The chiropractic system is a modality of therapy that focuses on the body’s structure, especially the spine. Chiropractors work to manipulate the alignment of the body in order to improve functionality and relieve pain to the body gets help in healing itself.

Spinal manipulation is absolutely a mainstay in chiropractic work, but it can also incorporate numerous other treatments, such as manipulative or manual therapies, education about exercise and posture, and even ergonomic training involving how a person should sit, walk, and stand so they can avoid back strain. Chiropractors in today’s field often work hand in hand with pain experts, primary care doctors, and even surgeons in order to treat patients who have pain.

womans-spine

Fortunately for sufferers of chronic pain, there is a lot of available care. Chiropractic care is a form of conservative care that helps with alleviating both chronic and acute symptoms, as well as helping correct any underlying mechanical dysfunctions. There are even recommendations about exercises that can keep the body moving right. Of all the research into chiropractic therapy, the most positive area has been about how well spinal manipulation works for low back pain. The American College of Physicians offers a number of guidelines for low back pain for those who want alternatives other than pain-relieving drugs; they are acupuncture, massage, heat, and spinal manipulation.

Chiropractic treatment also seems to help a number of individuals that suffer from other pains related to musculoskeletal issues. Having said this, there are rare yet confirmed reports of severe complications, including stroke, after the neck undergoes spinal manipulation.

The term ‘spinal manipulation’ is a rather generic phrase that gets used to describe any sort of therapeutic movement in the spine. Most frequently, it will incorporate applications of fast yet strong pressure on joints that are between a pair of vertebrae at points along the spine.

man in pain on the floor

On top of doing spinal manipulation, chiropractic professionals might talk to you about altering your posture and bio-mechanics along with making suggestions for other techniques and treatments.

The primary objective of chiropractic care is helping to relieve pain so that patients can manage their conditions better at home.

Benefits of Acupuncture for Stress Relief and Pain

Acupuncture has been around for many years. Many people turn to acupuncture for both pain and stress relief among many other health issues. With many people having to put on numerous hours at work or taking more than one day job, stress is almost inevitable. Even the person that has to sit at a desk all day long suffers stress and back pains as well, one of the reasons many seek help with acupuncture. As a certified acupuncturist, here are some of the advantages and benefits of acupuncture you should know about.

acupuncture points in head and chest area
Acupuncture points in head and chest area
  1. It Helps Lower Stress Levels
    Almost everyone gets stressed at some point in life. This can be either from personal issues or pressures at work. Work is however one of the most significant contributors to stress today with at least 77% of humans suffering from work-related stress. Acupuncture comes in handy in relieving stress by regulating hormone production. Hormones responsible for heightened stress and anxiety are suppressed while promoting the release of happy hormones.
  2. Neck Tension, Joint Pain, And Back Pain Management
    The lifestyles we lead today are the reason many people suffer from various types of pains ranging from back pains, neck tension, and joint pains. Cell phones, heavy backpacks, working on a computer all day long are some of the leading causes of poor posture and suffering for many people. Acupuncture however helps manage these types of pain by reducing inflammation and swelling. You don’t have to depend on pain killers for pain relief since acupuncture takes care of it all.
  3. Headache Relief
    As mentioned earlier, acupuncture has been around for years and mainly used to treat migraines and headaches. Many people looking for a drug-free and less invasive treatment for migraines often choose acupuncture. This is because acupuncture brings a sense of calmness and euphoria helping the pain fade away.
  4. Treat Eye Strain
    Acupuncture works by soothing nerve endings thus relieving pain and strain. Eye strain is often linked to neck tension hence can be treating through acupuncture. If you have to work on a computer all day long, you then understand what it means to have eye strain. Acupuncture is the perfect remedy for this.

How Acupuncture Influences the Body

For thousands of years, acupuncture has been used to treat various conditions in the human body. The practice involves manipulating the bioenergetic pathways in the body to restore qi. It is by restoring the chemical balance that we find relief through acupuncture. Acupuncture can also be used to treat various chronic health conditions and especially if one has been and is already in pain.

By stimulating the bioelectromagnetic fields also known as meridians, the body gets to release pain-killing chemicals through its immune response system. The natural opioid system releases chemicals that help fight inflammations and pain hence pain relief. Acupuncture is also believed to stimulate neurohormones and neurotransmitters positively thus influencing relief.