Acupuncturist on hand - and on feet - for dental work.

Byline: THE HEALTH FILES By Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Facing a potentially excruciating bout in the dental chair, Jody Hoag didn't want the usual local anesthetic to deaden the pain. She wanted needles. Lots of them.

She got them - in her ears, her hands, her feet and her face - when, with her dentist's assent, her acupuncturist showed up for her dental appointment.

While her dentist, Dr. George McCully, filled six cavities, acupuncturist Tom Williams stood by, occasionally twirling the needles to stimulate the release of endorphins, the body's own painkillers.

"I was so relaxed," said Hoag, a 54-year-old Eugene woman. "I didn't feel a thing."

Using acupuncture with dentistry is not unprecedented, but neither is it common practice. But for some patients and some procedures, it's an acceptable alternative to conventional methods of managing pain, said Dr. Joel Weaver, director of dental anesthesiology at Ohio State University and a spokesman for the American Dental Association.

"It's certainly an alternative for patients who wish to have it," he said. "It doesn't work for everybody, and it doesn't work for every dental procedure."

Weaver experimented with dental acupuncture in the 1970s, and had mixed results, he said.

"We found acupuncture was not the panacea that everyone initially hoped it was back then," he said.

Acupuncture originated in China about 3,000 years ago. Traditional Chinese medicine theorizes that the body has more than 2,000 acupuncture points, each connecting with 20 pathways called meridians that conduct energy, or qi (pronounced chee).

Acupuncture is believed to keep the normal flow of energy unblocked and maintain or restore health to the body and mind, according to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

In China, it's common for acupuncture to be used as an anesthetic for all kinds of surgeries, Williams said.

McCully said he had no problem with Hoag bringing her acupuncturist into his office.

"My own feeling is that using auxiliary personnel to help us do the kind of procedures we do, there's nothing wrong with that," he said.

"Jody is very sensitive to many medications. The only thing we had at our disposal, that she really wanted to try to use, was acupuncture."

It was the first time McCully had used acupuncture in his 20-year career, but he was not entirely unfamiliar with the practice. When he was starting his career in Eugene in the mid-1970s, he practiced in the same building with a dentist named Dr. Norman Lee.

Lee was willing to try different things and used acupuncture on his patients, McCully said.

Lee was "maybe the best-read dentist I've been around," McCully said.

Acupuncture worked well with Hoag's treatment, McCully said, but it was important that the acupuncturist was there so he could stimulate the needles when she started to feel pain.

"It was a good experience for me," he said.

Hoag wanted an alternative to the usual local anesthetic - lidocaine is the most popular in dentist offices - because she said her liver couldn't take the toxicity. She tried gas - nitrous oxide - but it just made her panicky.

But she'd had positive experiences with acupuncture. She first tried it about 20 years ago. She called up Tom Williams and asked if he'd be willing to give it a try.

"It's not something I normally do," Williams said. "It worked out fine. It was a really interesting experience."

He got there about 20 minutes before Hoag's appointment, to give the needles time to work. He put needles in each ear, in each hand, and in her lower leg. He placed tiny needles, attached to adhesive tape, on her upper lip and above her chin.

With other patients, he would stimulate the needles with electrical current, but

Hoag had not reacted well to that technique in previous treatments, he said.

"That's why I wasn't entirely confident going in," he said.

The needles worked, though, stimulating Hoag's body to release endorphins, chemicals in the body that reduce pain and promote a sense of well-being, Williamson said.

It helped, too, that McCully was open-minded about acupuncture, Williams said.

"I felt like he really took seriously the patients' concern about her potential reaction to the drugs," he said

When Hoag signaled her discomfort, Williams would twirl the needles to stimulate the release of endorphins.

For Hoag, it was a revelation.

"I was so relaxed and there was no pain," she said.

Tim Christie can be reached at 338-2572 or tchristie@guard net.com.