J. Gleditsch
Honorary President DAeGfA, Germany

Oral acupuncture is a form of microsystem acupuncture, based on a reflexology of acupoints situated within the mouth. The microsystems, or somatotopies, comprise holographic punctural representations of the whole organism and its functions. They are situated on defined parts of the body, e.g. the auricle, the skull, the feet, and others. The oral microsystem is characterized by an obvious allusion to the meridian couples of Traditional Acupuncture, i.e. the five functional circuits of the organism.

The effects of both traditional and of microsystem acupuncture have been verified by their neurophysiological, anatomic, and biocybernetic implications. In oral acupuncture, two kinds of acupoints are to be differentiated: 1 ) the vestibular points, situated in the mucous membrane of the oral vestibule, opposite the teeth, sharing the well-defined correlations of the respective teeth with particular organs and functions. In this way, there is a wide range of therapeutic indications, such as digestive, respiratory, urogenital and other troubles. The five groups of oral acupoints (incisor, canine, molar, premolar, and wisdom teeth) obviously correspond with the five functional organ groupings known as “five elements”; 2) the retromolar points, clustered in the retromolar areas beyond the wisdom teeth. They seem to be superior, as their therapy may extinguish an irritation of corresponding vestibular points. The therapy indications of retromolar points includes also various kinds of pain conditions, headaches, vertigo, etc.. Also malfunctions and pains of joints and of the spine respond very well. Oral acupuncture points both of the vestibular and retromolar mucous membrane can be located easily, as in most cases they are painful on pressure. After a short digital pre-orientation, the therapy points in question are detected by a soft dabbing, and subsequent insertion, of the needle itself (very point technique). Oral acupuncture is performed best by means of injections, as it is impracticable to have acupuncture needles sticking in the mouth. For injections, preferably a dilution of local anesthetics (but without vasoconstricting agent, and very low percentage), or of natural saline solution, is used.