acupuncture

Acupuncture for dental anxiety

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An interesting article titled “Acupuncture for anxiety in dental patients: Systematic review and meta-analysis,” by Allan et al. appears in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine (vol. 20, pp. 22-35, 2018). The article sets to look at previous trials done to explore acupuncture and it’s potential effect on dental anxiety. Some dental patients experience anxiety which is estimated to be between 4% and 30% of the population in the world. Reasons for dental anxiety include fear of pain, fear of needles, fear of anesthesia, and the fear of losing control. In the past several articles on this site have explored dental anxiety including: 1.) How To Manage Dental Anxiety in Elderly Patients, 2.) Can Providing Audiovisual Information Help Relieve Anxiety in Patients Having Wisdom Teeth Removed?, 3.) Anxiety in Dental Patients Before and After Tooth Extraction, 4.) Dental Phobia – Therapy Treatments … Read more

Needles and Their Effects on Headaches

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Two separate systematic reviews by Cochrane Researchers show  acupuncture is  for prevention of headaches and migraines. However the reviews show  faked procedures, where needles are incorrectly inserted, may be as effective. “Much of the clinical benefit of acupuncture might be due to non-specific needling effects and powerful placebo effects, meaning selection of specific needle points may be less important than many practitioners have traditionally argued,” says lead researcher of both studies, Klaus Linde. Two seperate studies were done one with migraine and the other with tension type headaches. Patients treated with acupuncture over an 8 week time course, suffered fewer headaches compared to those who were given only pain killers. In the migraine study, acupuncture was superior to proven prophylactic drug treatments, but faked treatments were no less effective. In the tension headache study, true acupuncture was actually slightly more … Read more