Born in New Jersey just two years after the Second World War ended, Richard (“Rich”) Fischer had a happy childhood growing up in that bustling State with its post-war enthusiasm and exuberance. It seemed to be the center of the Universe and there was little reason to leave it, until college elsewhere beckoned. So, in 1965, Rich left New Jersey and headed off to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Ocean
Rich had majored in biology at Georgetown University’s College of Arts and Sciences with the intention of studying marine biology. However, during his junior year Rich’s physiology professor, Dr. Weber, convinced him to reconsider his choice of marine biology and instead apply to the dental school a stone’s throw across campus. Rich had never considered dentistry, but he knew that he did not want to enter the general medical field. Out of respect for Dr. Weber, he agreed to drop off an application and wound up getting early acceptance. “Let’s give it one year and see if I like it,” he thought.
Rich began his dental training in 1969 at Georgetown University’s School of Dentistry. The Dental School had then, and still has today, an excellent reputation as both a school and a research institution. After he graduated in 1973, Rich remained at Georgetown as a clinical instructor in the Department of Dental Materials, where he taught part-time for the next five years.
During those years after dental school, Rich spent the remainder of his professional time practicing as an associate dentist first in Southern, Maryland and then in Annandale, Virginia. He describes those years as “busy and exhausting,” having two jobs that saw Rich switching between practical and scholastic dentistry like a fast-paced metronome.
Altogether there was something satisfying missing from his work routine and Rich could not quite put his finger on what that was until one fateful day he attended a three-day continuing-education course that changed his world. Actually considering looking for another career at that point, Rich found both this course on alternative medicine and its instructor fascinating, and that led to his decision to stick with dentistry.
Dr. Harold Gelb, D.D.S.
The course instructor’s name was Dr. Harold Gelb, who had his dentistry practice on Madison Avenue in New York City. Specializing in chronic pain and the treatment of temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), he had a thriving practice with patients who loved him; but he loved to teach too. And in his course, he revealed to Rich and his fellow students a side to dentistry that they had never seen before. Dr. Gelb spoke about the importance of clinical nutrition, chiropractic adjustments, cranial-osteopathic medicine, homeopathy, and acupuncture. In the early 1970s, this was all heady stuff, which Rich studied voraciously and implemented into his clinical practice enthusiastically with remarkable success. Dentistry had now become an exciting field that presented unimagined opportunities to help his fellow man.
Besides a healthy appetite for alternative and holistic dentistry, Rich also took away two useful, over-arching principles from Dr. Gelb:
- If you listen to a patient long enough, they will not only tell you what is wrong with them, but they will also tell you how to fix it!
- The better you get at treating patients’ problems, the more challenging the clinical needs of those patients seeking your help will be. Therefore, it is vitally important to be humble about your knowledge and skills and remain a perpetual student!
This influence by his mentor sent Rich on a decades-long journey logging over five thousand hours of postgraduate training in various fields on complementary and conventional health practices. Dr. Gelb was one of those rare individuals who combined intelligence and kindness with strength of character, and when he died in 2022 at the age of 97, he left a legacy of successfully treated patients and an array of former students who carry on his work to this day. Rich considers himself blessed to number himself among them.
Considered to be the “grandfather of TMJ,” Dr. Gelb forged our current understanding of the relationship between the jaw and the rest of the body. He helped patients in pain whom other doctors could not help. As one patient put it in paying homage to Dr. Gelb, “I credit Dr. Gelb for ‘saving my life’ from months of TMD pain and misery. He was truly a miracle [worker]. I arrived at my first appointment sobbing, and by the end of the visit he had me actually dancing with him around the office, promising me an end to my pain. He made good on his promise. God bless a great man.” This is the doctor who inspired Rich as a young man, just starting out professionally in dentistry.
The Gelb Center in New York City still operates to this day, now under the oversight of Dr. Gelb’s son Michael, also a dentist.
Holistic Dentistry
A few years after first meeting Dr. Gelb, Rich attended a Holistic Dental Association and Holistic Medical Association joint conference outside of Chicago. At the time, Rich was successfully helping patients with chronic headaches and TMJ dysfunction, but at the conference the famous Dr. Hal Huggins, D.D.S. convinced him of the dangers posed by amalgam (mercury) fillings. By 1982, then, Rich had stopped using amalgam fillings in his practice. This led to awkward situations though, where, as an associate dentist in a large practice, he would be advising his patient to avoid mercury fillings while in the adjacent chair the owner dentist and another associate dentist would be putting them in! So, until he established his own practice, Rich had to walk a fine line in taking care of his patients during those early years as an associate.
Not one to laze around in the grass, Rich developed a strategy for treating chronic TMJ pain patients who also were referred to him by physicians to have their mercury fillings removed. He discovered that the TMJ appliances would no longer fit over the teeth if the appliance were made before replacing the amalgam fillings with fillings made of safer materials. If, on the other hand, he reversed the process, then the appliances would still fit well. What was not expected was that in 80% of these cases, the TMJ symptoms resolved by themselves without the need for any TMJ appliance at all! This was an epiphany! Rich met only one other practitioner over the next couple of years who was treating similar cases, and when Rich queried him on the subject, he reported similar results.
A Practice of His Own
In December 1984, and after accumulating many years of experience in dentistry, Rich started his own solo practice in Virginia at a location that he occupies to this very day. His office has specialized in TMJ, chronic pain, and sleep apnea, with a strong emphasis on holistic and biological approaches to dentistry. Interestingly enough, TMJ and sleep apnea are treated similarly: bring the jaw forward.
At the same time, Rich has continued using homeopathy in his practice for 45 years and is a member of the American Institute of Homeopathy. His own experiences as a patient suffering from allergic rhinitis convinced him of its efficacy. Rich’s homeopathic physician, Dr. David Wember, another important mentor in his evolution, resolved his condition where so many others had failed.
IAOMT
The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT) is a nonprofit organization that accurately describes itself as a “global network of dentists, health professionals, and scientists who research the biocompatibility of dental products, including the risks of mercury fillings, fluoride, root canals, and jawbone osteonecrosis.”
An early member of the IAOMT, Rich first became aware of the organization after hearing Dr. Hal Huggins, D.D.S. speak. A lot of Dr. Huggins’ students went to Colorado Springs, Colorado to take his courses and learn more. While Dr. Huggins was not yet an IAOMT member, another Huggins student, Dr. Murray Vimy, became the founder of IAOMT. The organization sprang from a need to have solid science backing Dr. Huggins’ claims, and its founding meeting took place in Banff, Alberta in 1984.
The relationship dynamics between Drs. Huggins and Vimy resulted in a rift that at first left Huggins out of IAOMT. But, our intrepid peacemaking dentist Rich Fischer was able to help heal that rift and brought Dr Huggins to finally join forces with IAOMT before his untimely death.
Recognizing his considerable talents, the IAOMT Board of Directors very quickly asked Rich to be on the Board. His first task was to promote credentialling for dentists, which he did wholeheartedly. He himself was later awarded IAOMT’s Mastership Honors, its highest level of achievement.
From 1994 to 1996, Rich was the President of IAOMT and still serves as a board member and chairman of the Programs Committee, which selects scientific and clinical presenters for the organization’s twice-yearly in-person meetings. The latest IAOMT three-day event held in Orlando, Florida in early September 2023 with numerous speakers and attendees, along with two other holistic dentist organizations, was the 69th such event that Rich organized for IAOMT.
Finally, Rich also serves on the IAOMT Scientific Advisory Council (https://iaomt.org/about-iaomt/scientific-advisory-council/). This Council is composed of many of the best scientific minds and Rich is the liaison between it and the Board of Directors.
Dr. Fischer is recognized as the first dentist invited to serve as an expert witness before Congress in 2002, 2004, and 2008, where he testified on potential health and environmental risks associated with the use of mercury in dental fillings. Aside from testifying before Congress on multiple occasions, Rich has also been called to testify for numerous other governmental organizations, including:
- The National Institute of Health
- The Food and Drug Administration
- The Environmental Protection Agency
- The National Academies of Science
- The U.S. State Department
As if that were not enough, Rich is also a member of numerous professional associations and societies, including but not limited to the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) and the American Dental Association (ADA) of which he is an Emeritus member. As a well-respected and recognized member of the national and international dental community, Rich has been awarded fellowship degrees by: The Academy of General Dentistry (1983); The Academy of Stress and Chronic Disease (1992); The International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology (1992); The American Academy of Ozonotherapy (2013); and International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine (Charter member). He was also awarded Diplomate status by the American Board of Dental Sleep medicine.
The National Health Federation
In January 2022, the NHF membership elected Rich to the Federation’s Board of Governors. And in February 2023, the Board elected him as Vice President of the organization. Throughout this time, he has been an active and valued member of the NHF Board.
And, yet, long before that, Rich was helping the NHF in many ways, especially by promoting NHF through my speaking slots at numerous IAOMT events starting in March 2016. NHF and its principles of health freedom have been advanced to dentists all across the country thanks to Dr. Fischer. The NHF counts itself fortunate to have someone as considerably talented and experienced as Dr. Richard Fischer on its Board of Governors and an integral part of the organization.
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