Neural Therapy

Dear Colleagues:

Some North Americans who learned neural therapy from Dietrich Klinghardt in the mid-1990s will remember Louisa Williams. She is a gifted naturopath-chiropractor who (with Dr. Klinghardt) discovered that Applied Kinesiology (AK) could be used to detect interference fields. They developed a system based on AK that they calledAutonomic Response Testing or ART. To this day, most North American neural therapists use ART in diagnosis of interference fields and we can thank Louisa Williams and Dietrich Klinghardt for this discovery.

William's creativity did not end with ART. In 2007, she published an important textbook called "Radical Medicine". This 1139 page-long work was a massive undertaking bringing together homeopathy, heavy metal and other toxicology, nutrition, food allergies, dysbiosis, neural therapy, homeopathy (and vaccinations) and dental and other musculoskeletal dysfunction. This is an impressive tome for both its depth and breadth of knowledge. And it is a truly radical challenge to many of the too-little-examined beliefs of conventional medicine.

Louisa Williams has now published another book: "The 5 Post Cavitation Surgery Days". It is a much smaller one (only 80 pages) and is written for patients (and their dentists and/or physicians) who are facing the problem of what to do with problem teeth. No-one wants to part with a tooth unnecessarily, yet the risks of retaining a sick tooth may be high. And it is important that removing a toxic tooth be done in such a way that the patient is left healthier than before the procedure. This is a difficult subject requiring not only good clinical judgement, but also the patient's participation in decision-making. The patient needs to understand this (if only for medico-legal reasons) before any treatment is undertaken.

The first half of the book is about dental foci: their importance systemically, how to diagnose them, and the place of conservative vs. surgical treatment. Despite the somewhat misleading title of Chapter 2, ("Dental Focal Infections"), foci may include non-infectious, (e.g. dental galvanism and traumatic malocclusion), as well as infectious (impacted teeth, failed root canals, etc.) foci. This concept is an important one for patients to understand as the idea that a silent, yet troublesome tooth may be causing remote symptoms is a difficult one for many to grasp.

The next section about diagnosis is primarily for the physician and/or dentist. However the importance of patient involvement in the diagnostic process is again stressed. Symptom patterns, dental X-rays, ultrasound, energetic testing and therapeutic trials are all discussed.

Dr. Williams' list of non‐surgical treatments of dental foci leans heavily on homeopathics (both acute and constitutional) and isopathics (Sanum remedies). She acknowledges the value of neural therapy, but avoids caine anaesthetic injections because of their potential carcinogenicity. Instead she relies on a laser in conjunction with homeopathic drops. Her favourite laser is the "Canadian" laser made by Jarek Manufacturing (100mw infra red).

The second half of the book is about surgical treatment: preparation, technique, and after-care. One chapter is about choosing a surgeon and the pros and cons of ancillary techniques, such as bone grafting, collagen plugs, platelet rich fibrin, and the use of low-dose epinephrine.

The section on pre‐ and post‐ cavitation surgery has many practical tips on supporting the patient undergoing surgery. Dr. Williams feels that the 5 Post Cavitation Surgery Days are the critical ones, hence the title of the book. Much of the patient support is from homeopathics, detoxification products and diet. Of interest to neural therapists will be the attention paid to the autonomic ganglia involved in regulating the periodontal, face and neck tissues. Neural therapy certainly can play a role in optimizing healing, whether classical techniques with caine anaesthetics or energetic devices are used.

This book will be of value to two classes of readers:

for patients who want to understand how remote symptoms can be caused by dental problems and how teeth should subsequently be treated.
for physician/dentists who want a concise description of dental foci, their implications and their treatment.

This book is written very much from a naturopathic-homeopathic perspective and the recommended treatments may be intimidating to some. Nevertheless it has much to offer neural therapists who sooner of later must deal with dental problems and all the decisions that come with them.

The book can be obtained in electronic form from http://www.radicalmedicine.com. For a paper version, Dr. Williams suggests downloading and taking the file to Office Depot or Staples for printing and binding.

Sincerely,

Robert F. Kidd, MD, CM