A survey on the uses of acupuncture by a group of UK dentists

doi:doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.4812039

British Dental Journal 198, 139 - 143 (2005)
Published online: 12 February 2005 | doi:10.1038/sj.bdj.4812039

A survey on the uses of acupuncture by a group of UK dentists

P Rosted¹ & S Warnakulasuriya²

The audit revealed that after attending short training courses dentists are able to provide acupuncture therapy as part of managing patients in primary care.
Use of this facility may allow anxious patients refusing dental care to obtain dental treatment without resorting to sedation.
No traumatic complications were reported.
Provision of training in acupuncture may be included as part of continuing professional development.

A small number of fully trained Chinese doctors practise Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in western cities. Use of these services by British citizens is extremely limited, mostly due to lack of any knowledge on the effectiveness of acupuncture or exposure to complementary medicine in this country. Common situations where British patients seek the help of TCM are when medical therapy has failed; in relapsing chronic diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis; and in pain management (mostly headache, migraine and back pain). Patients often appreciate that only limited interventions are available for treatment of these conditions in western medicine. At least one in 10 UK specialist physicians are actively involved in complementary and alternative medicine treatments.¹ A large number of westerners offer acupuncture therapy but lack basic medical training. It is likely that people are reluctant to use these services largely because of hygiene and safety reasons. Moreover, it has been demonstrated that the serious side effects reported are five times more frequent when treatments are provided by non-medically trained therapists compared with professionally registered health care providers.²

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Pain clinic, Western Park Hospital and Department of Oncology, University of Sheffield, Whitham Road, Sheffield, S10 SJ
Department of Oral Medicine & Pathology, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Dentistry, King's College London, Denmark Hill, Caldecot Rd, London SE5 9RW.

Correspondence to: P Rosted¹ e-mail: prosted@aol.com