Alan R. Weinstein DDS, FACD, FICD

Mind Over Mouth

Tuesday, June 08, 1999
Dentist sees holistic understanding as key to patients' health
BY SUE MacDONALD

The Cincinnati Enquirer

Plop down in Dr. Alan Weinstein's dental chair and all the usual trappings are in place: pastel paintings on the walls, helpful co-workers, relaxing background music and the predictable “how are your teeth?” questions.

But the Montgomery dentist is likely to ask about other topics, too.

What's going on at home? Read any good books lately? Do you get along with your boss? Your wife? Your kids? Are you happy? Are you under a lot of stress? How do you handle it? Are your personal relationships satisfying? Is your spiritual life intact? And most importantly, do you know your personality type?

As Dr. Weinstein's 27-year dental practice has evolved, so has his discovery that holistic health melds well with dentistry. Personality factors and emotional tendencies that govern how people think, act, react, behave, age, heal, live and love do can affect many aspects of their health, including their teeth.

“He is far beyond a dentist and more like a friend,” says patient Bertha Helmick of Hyde Park. “There has not ever been a time when I had an appointment that I didn't need to see him mentally as well. He is holistic not only in a physical health sense but also in a spiritual and mental sense, which isn't something you expect of your dentist.”

It may seem a far stretch to link human psychology and dentistry, but not to a man who sees the results of poor physical and emotional health in people's mouths everyday.

After he's made a corrective bite plate for a patient who grinds his teeth all night, for example, it begs the question: What's stressing you so much that you're constantly clenching your jaws, even in your sleep?

“The whole concept of mind-body-health begins with the mind,” Dr. Weinstein says. “You can't take a pill for everything. How people perceive stress, and the timing of stressful events, has a lot to do with how stress affects them.”

As he and others in the health professions have found, stress has been linked to everything from heart disease to diabetes to dental decay and gum problems. Chronic stress can deplete the body's immune system and make people vulnerable to disease. Ill health, depression, emotional and mental health have profound impacts on well being, physical health and recovery.

“If anybody would talk to him at a party or a bar, it wouldn't be about teeth,” says Nancy Simpson of Kenwood, a patient since 1997 and a licensed psychotherapist. “It may seem a little unique or fascinating, maybe even hilarious, but it was my dentist who really gave me my direction as a therapist.

“If I get stuck with a hard problem or a decision, he's the person I turn to to process it and say, "Hey, what should I do about this?' ”

It's Dr. Weinstein's hope that once people understand why they do the things they do — based on their personality types, emotions and behaviors — they'll be able to channel their emotions, take control of stress and begin living better, healthier lives.

“I can change people's smiles with cosmetic dentistry,” says Dr. Weinstein, a 54-year-old father of two, “but where I differ is that I talk about emotions and emotional intelligence.”

Understanding is key

Some dentists send people home with free toothbrushes and tubes of paste.

Dr. Weinstein is just as likely to send patients home with handouts, 300-page books and self-quizzes like the Meyers-Briggs Type indicator, a personality assessment commonly used in business and the corporate world to screen candidates and promote teamwork.

He is a member of the Association for Psychological Type, qualified to give and interpret the Meyers-Briggs assessment.

He's also a fan of psychologist David Keirsey, whose 1978 and 1998 books Please Understand Me and Please Understand Me II offer a temperament test that further explains the behaviors, tendencies and preferences of different personality types.

“These things aren't taught in dental schools,” says Dr. Robert Kroeger, a Sharonville dentist who specializes in treating patients with dental phobias. “You've got to learn them on your own.

“Psychology is a science, there's no question about that. And this is a scientific approach where Alan blends in some chair-side manner with this psychological approach,” he says. “You've got to be careful, because you can't play psychologist, and he's aware of that, but everybody likes to have someone listen to their problems.”

Dr. Weinstein sees his role as listener and educator — someone to help people take responsibility and control of their mental and physical health.

“Wisdom involves a profound inner understanding, and I think it's really important to know yourself,” the dentist says. “Genes are a tendency, they're not an obligation.”

And once people understand themselves, he says, they're much better able to understand others. If they understand others, they're better able to deal with the stress caused by relationships at home and work, and when stress levels drop, health improves.

“How we are different from one another — different in how we gather information and make decisions — can lead to great miscommunication and misunderstanding among people,” he explains. “But how we are different can be understood by learning about psychological type and quantifying these differences.”

Combining skills

Figuring out who his patients are — and why they live and make the choices they do — is just as fun, challenging and satisfying as repairing and rebuilding discolored teeth, restoring smiles and fitting crowns, Dr. Weinstein says.

That fits his own personality type — a quiet people-oriented innovator, someone interested in promoting the common good, a helper.

“I also like to play with mechanical things,” he says. “That's the craftsman in me. Dentistry is like a hobby to me. I have so much fun doing it.”

Perhaps it goes back to dental school at the University of North Carolina in 1966, when the young history major wrote on his “why I want to be a dentist” application that he had good hand-eye coordination — and a desire to serve humanity.
Dental school honed the technical skills. The holistic approaches fell into place 15 years ago when Dr. Weinstein read Mr. Keirsey's first book about personality types.

“That's when flash bulbs went off and I thought, "Holy cow! Now I know why I am whom I am.' ”

He asks patients — if they're willing to explore — about personal lives, emotional health, spirituality and feelings. He reads New Age magazine and technical dental journals with equal fascination.

“My brother reads computer programs,” he says. “I read people. I tend to look at the big picture. I don't ask, "What type of illness does this patient have?' I ask "What type of patient has this illness?' ”

That kind of thinking opens all kind of opportunities for him and his patients to discuss stress, diet, exercising, smoking habits, relationships, faith and lingering problems that cause worry, illness, fear, unhappiness, tentative living.

It also lets him plant the seeds of change to foster fulfilling, satisfied lives with patients who learn to take charge of their health and well being.

Ms. Helmick, a former opera singer and now a divorce lawyer, sensed from the start that something was different about her dentist.

“Maybe (dentists) don't realize that while the patient's mouth is busy, they have a very good opportunity to put something into the ears,” she says.

Ideally, Dr. Weinstein would like to take his holistic approach to dentistry to dental schools and dentist conventions.

“When you talk about mind-body-health medicine, it's the mind that's key,” he says. “It's not like I'm divulging anything. It's just that is so profound.”

Ms. Helmick agrees.

“As a dentist — where you would least expect it — Alan is able to bring this insight, comfort and kind of a spiritual extension of himself,” Ms. Helmick says. “He has an ability to sense what 95 percent of the population would never even ask about.”