Translational Effectiveness in Ayurvedic Medicine: Implications for Oral Biology and Medicine

This chapter introduces oral health as the absence of disease in the oral cavity and examines how that conceptualization was forged in the modern and postmodern Western health care tradition of scientific determinism and reductionism. We then discuss the fundamental principles of the research synthesis process in the context of the intertwining of oral diseases and systemic diseases. We conclude our remarks with an examination of the commonalities and distinctive features between the current emphasis on translational effectiveness that pervades contemporary Western health care modalities and the Ayurvedic tradition, specifically in the context of oral diseases.