Your Guide To Functional Dentistry: Strategy + Treatments & Care

There are a lot of terms and descriptions about dentists out there that can get confusing and are often overused: holistic, biological, natural, and integrative. But all of these terms can be packed neatly underneath one umbrella: functional dentistry. By now, you may be familiar with functional medicine and functional nutrition, and perhaps you've even worked with a practitioner or chosen to follow a few on social media.

Currently, there is no official certification necessary to become a skilled functional dentist (working on that!); rather, there are many individual courses, seminars, trainings, and workshops that a dentist can piece together to create a more diverse and inclusive practice. 

Traditionally, going to the dentist consists of diagnosing and addressing end-stage disease and how we fix the issue—not why the issue is there to begin with and how to prevent it from happening again.

Generally, at a more traditional office, you will receive a cleaning, a few X-rays, and a quick visit by the dentist. From there, you'll likely be reminded to keep up dental hygiene practices and told if you need further treatment.

A functional dentist treats the body as a whole and focuses on preventive and biomimetic restorative care for your smile. We focus on determining and understanding root causes so we can work together as a team to prevent future issues from occurring again. 

In my experience, I've found almost all oral disease is preventable; it is the role of a functional dentist to take the additional time necessary to fully educate their patients on what is causing an issue. From there, they'll guide and support patients toward adopting new lifestyle strategies, to avoid further issues and to establish true prevention.

A functional dentist generally avoids treatments and products such as systemic or topical fluoride, mercury fillings, and tries to avoid root canals whenever possible. They are interested in working with you as a teammate, to bypass unnecessary dental procedures through implementing whole-body wellness and lifestyle changes and supporting the body's innate ability to be in homeostasis. In my experience, almost all dental disease is preventable, even when there is a genetic predisposition.

For example, a functional dentist may recommend using hydroxyapatite1 toothpaste instead of fluoride, as the practice considers it safer and just as effective. This intervention may also to help remineralize, strengthen, and naturally whiten teeth.

And if you do have a need for treatment, there are many alternatives to invasive and expensive dental treatments that a functional dentist might advise, such as remineralization techniques plus minimally invasive and biologically supportive dentistry.