Holistic Dental Association, 47th Annual Symposium
Keynote: Fundamentals of Traditional East Asian Medicine for Dentists
Friday, April 12, 2024
Most people have heard about acupuncture, but they are unaware of the foundational caveats of Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM), going back for thousands of years. While there are many ways of approaching the diagnosis and treatment of disease in TEAM, Five Element Theory is one of the most accessible for conventional practitioners. In this presentation, attendees will learn about the basics of FET in contradistinction and in complement to conventional medical thinking. Attendees will also become versed in the scientific basis of modern acupuncture and related techniques and the way that TEAM can be used to augment a dentist’s holistic practice.
At the end of this presentation, attendees will be able to:
- Compare and contrast TEAM’s Five Element Theory and conventional western medicine
- Describe each Element, the organs associated with it, and where they reflect on the tongue
- Evaluate medical and dental literature describing the scientific validity of acupuncture and related techniques
- Characterize ways in which TEAM might support holistic dental practice
Half-Day Workshop: “What’s with that Tongue? Traditional East Asian Medicine Tongue Diagnosis and Treatment for Dentists”
Thursday, April 11, 2024, 8:00 AM – 12:000 PM Eastern, in person only
Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) has a 2,500-year history of diagnosis and treatment of physical, mental, and emotional health problems. Pulse and tongue diagnosis are foundational to this form of medicine. Dentists are exposed to tongues with each patient, providing an opportunity for a holistic dentist trained in tongue diagnosis to support the needs of whole patient.
In this workshop we will cover the fundamentals of tongue diagnosis in the context of TEAM, discuss food and lifestyle choices that can be used to address these problems, and learn to use basic auricular acupuncture in the treatment of common issues. Attendees will leave this pragmatic workshop with reference handouts, diagnostic skills, and treatment recommendations and techniques that they can take back to clinic Monday morning and use immediately.
Objectives:
At the completion of this workshop, attendees will be able to:
- Identify the TEAM primary organ reflection sites on the tongue
- Use key tongue findings to formulate a rudimentary TEAM diagnosis
- Apply food and lifestyle choices in the counseling of patients with those key tongue findings
- Distinguish the location and function of basic auricular acupuncture sites
- Select appropriate auricular acupuncture sites that can be used to treat patients with key tongue findings