I believe it is no exaggeration to say that dentistry, as you now know it, is coming to an end. We are at a cross-roads, and as dentists you are going to have to chose one way or the other. And which path you chose will determine the destiny of your practice – will your position in the healthcare community continue to grow in significance and respect, or will you further regress into the usual-and-customary “molar mechanic” status quo?
As dentists we have always arched our backs a bit at being referred to as “just dentists”, as opposed to “real doctors”. No matter that the knowledge and skills required to master all the surgical and artistic aspects of comprehensive dental rehabilitation rival those of any brain, cardiac, or plastic surgeon. That’s probably partly due to our American educational path (separate from medicine), and partly due to dentistry’s perceived minor relevance to matters of life-and-death. Well guess what, the latter has changed!
The Shift
This change, or shift, in both attitude and focus is perhaps best described in Dr. Whit Wilkerson’s landmark book by the same name – The Shift. Here’s how he summarizes the shift.
Integrative Dental Medicine seeks to restore and maintain health and wellness across a person’s life span by addressing the full range of influences that affect oral and systemic health. This goes beyond the treatment of oral symptoms to address all the causes of illness and disease. In doing so, the patient’s immediate health needs as well as the effects of the long-term and complex interplay between oral and systemic influences are taken into account.
Drs. Bale and Doneen, authors of Beat the Hart Attack Gene, have literally drug dentistry onto the whole-health scene by highlighting current evidence regarding how integral eradication of oral pathogens is to the control of inflammation, total health, and longevity. That, combined with airway management, has forever placed dentists at the heart of preventive medicine. Treating periodontitis and making oral appliances, those are skills that have long been in our wheelhouse, and we welcome the opportunity to partner with our medical colleagues in promoting the health of our mutual patients.
The Missing Link
There is however one critical element to health and longevity, oral and systemic, actually the most critical, that we are still largely only giving lip service to – and that is lifestyle. You can expand the airway and eliminate all the oral pathogens and still have inflammation, still have airway constriction, still have too much lipoprotein (a), have your TC/HDL ratio out of whack, or your blood swimming in sugar. Every credible authority on preventive healthcare recognizes that lifestyle – diet, exercise, stress management, and interpersonal relationships – is the undisputed number one most important factor. Yet we barely give these things more than a passing mention in our practices. Partly because we haven’t figured out how to monetize lifestyle intervention, partly because to do so effectively requires time and skills not commonly available in a typical dental practice, and partly because there is so much confusion and so many half-baked theories out there as to what constitutes a “healthy lifestyle”.
There is certainly no lack of diet plans and theories. But from Paleo to Adkins, and Mediterranean to Keto (there is even a Dental diet now!), few go beyond mere theory to stand up to the rigorous scientific scrutiny required for evidence-based practice. And those that do – Cleveland Clinic, Pritikin Center, Ornish – cost too much in both money and time for the majority of our patients that need them most. There is a however a little-known solution that does.
The Solution
Recently Dr. Michael Gregor, author of the best-selling book How Not To Die, did a four part video review of the Lifestyle Medicine Institute’s CHIP – Complete Health Improvement Program. CHIP was developed by Dr. Hans Diehl, former director of research at the Pritikin Center, to make effective lifestyle intervention, like that in the most well-respected residential programs, available and affordable in local communities. Dr. Gregor’s conclusions?
- CHIP works – across the total spectrum of chronic disease markers
- Multiple independent studies prove it
- It sticks – health improvements and lifestyle habits continue years after
Though I had my own curriculum, when I saw CHIP’s quality and effectiveness, I switched and have never looked back. Dr. John Kelly, Founding President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
Originally titled the Coronary Health Improvement Program, it soon became evident that its benefits extended well beyond coronary health to the whole spectrum of major chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and even mental health. So, the name was upgraded from Coronary to COMPLETE health improvement.
Integration
Becoming a certified CHIP facilitator is not difficult and is open to anyone with an interest in becoming a lifestyle health coach. It does however require a significant commitment of time and resources to manage a successful local chapter. And is not particularly financially rewarding on a smaller scale. For these reasons we have chosen to offer CHIP on an online platform to dentists and physicians nationwide who are interested in adding a proven lifestyle intervention program to their practices.
The advantages of this online platform include –
- Practitioners may start prescribing lifestyle medicine immediately
- Patients may start the program immediately with no delay waiting for a quorum
- Practitioners avoid the headaches of implementing and managing one more program – after hours!
- As a service of Liberty Dental Co-op, 100% of any profit is donated to charity – The Smile Miracles Project which provides sliding-fee-scale comprehensive integrative dental health care to deserving patients including wounded veterans and battered women.
To learn more about CHIP and how you can start prescribing Lifestyle Medicine to your patients as well as those of your local referral network (offering CHIP to your professional partners can be a tremendous practice promoter!), please visit CHIPonline.net then contact me – [email protected].
