Many people have probably ended a conversation asking themselves “what was that about?”

Recently, I was one of those.


During an “interesting chat” with a western woman I met at a social function, we sought to understand each other better, starting off with the topic of our jobs.


“I am a dentist, but not like dentists you know. I am a holistic dentist,” she told me, as I tried to bring on facial expressions reflecting amazement.


I went back home and the conversation came to my mind — “Holistic dentist”!  What does this mean? “I should have asked her,” I told myself. Was she trying to pull a fast one on me? Or did she not elaborate simply because she thought I know it all.


Well, journalists know it all — at least this is what we like to believe!


I know what the word “holistic” means. I have read it hundreds of times in different contexts. But how can a dentist be  a holistic one?  


Until today, I wish I could meet her again to clarify my doubt.


I called experts in language and sciences, including medicine, asking about holistic dentists. Interestingly enough, none gave me a well-established scientific answer.
“Holistic means looking at the whole picture… you don’t just look at only the symptoms… you look at the whole picture of a person’s health,” explained Kathleen Hewett-Smith, head of the English Department at the American University of Sharjah.


She noted that holistic dentist might mean that if someone goes to a dentist with a problem, then the doctor might look for other issues, and “might say do you grind your teeth when you sleep, or do you eat tonnes of sweets, and what is your diet? So holistic simply means looking at everything besides what is just in front of you,” she added before suggesting that I ask a scientist, too.


“Google it,” said the scientist, noting that if he has not heard of the expression, this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Thanks to Google, now I know there is a Holistic Dental Association that was founded in 1978, and there is a founding father for that medical branch, named Weston Price (1870-1948). He was a dentist and maintained that sugar causes not only tooth decay but physical, mental, moral and social decay too! (Please note the exclamation mark.)


I also found interesting lines. “The Holistic Dental Network defines the field as: “an approach to Dentistry that promotes health and wellness instead of the treatment of disease. This approach to Dentistry encompasses both modern science and knowledge drawn from the worlds great traditions on natural healing... Holistic Dentistry acknowledges and deals with the mind, body, and spirit of the patient, not just his or her “Teeth””!


I have not tried to call my dentist to share with him the fact that I met a holistic dentist. I think I can imagine the look he would give me, or the facial expression, or even his silence, I might encounter.
Grudging recognition
Already, there are doctors who don’t recognise other doctors or don’t agree with their practices not because they graduated from unaccredited universities, or they committed myriad mistakes, but because they present two different fields of medicine; allopathic medicine and homoeopathic medicine.   And there is a third field; ayurveda.


If you tell your doctor you see a homoeopath, your words will fall on deaf ears. Try it. There will be no reaction, as if you utter nothing!


If you tell your homoeopath that your doctor prescribed x or y medicine or a surgery, surely, you will be given the impression that “don’t listen”, or “no need. Doctors just like to exaggerate”.


Definitely, each of the paths is science by itself. We shouldn’t underestimate any one of them.


However, what bothers me is that the word holistic can’t be used in journalism. According to linguists, the word holistic is about the approach where different factors are taken into consideration.


But we do treat issues as a whole! We dig for information and try to piece it all together. We cover funerals and celebrations. We write about life and death. We cover wars and concerts. We write about food and famines. We write about people, their lives, their issues, their problems and great moments. We write about everything and we should have knowledge, even if it is little, on everything.
So, why can’t we be holistic?