Preventing and healing tooth decay
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Having multiple cavities, crooked teeth or having to rely on dentists to remove teeth that take up too much space is not the natural state of being.
How could this be? Are we the only species on earth that needs specialists to keep our teeth in order? How did we do it before dentists, we suffered endlessly perhaps. I don’t think so!
After all, mammals in nature seem to have no problems with their teeth. It has been studied in 1922 by Drs. Mellanby, husband and wife, that teeth not only have a way to stay strong and cavity-free with the correct diet, but can also heal, and this, no matter how the teeth is damaged to start with.
As pointed by Stephan Guyenet, inuits as well as some other cultures eating a traditional diet could damage their teeth with certain practices and rituals and yet stay cavity-free.
The Weston A. Price contribution
Research by Dr. Weston A. Price laid down in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration shows that diet not only has an effect on already formed teeth, but even more so for jaw and mouth arch bones in a growing child.
He observed tribes and communities eating a natural diet as well as groups in the process of changing their diet for a Westernized one including grains, high levels of carbohydrates and lower levels of saturated fat and fat soluble vitamins like vitamin D, A and K.
He was able to conclude, with multiple observations and photos to prove it, that bones and especially bones forming the jaw line and arch of the mouth would be weaker and smaller on the new diet. There is also a correlation between the diet of the mother and mouth and teeth development of her children. We therefore really assist in a physical degeneration from one generation to the next and if we continue this way teeth problems can only get worse.
Its sad that cavity-free and well-formed, straight teeth is an exception nowadays.
Sugar, carbohydrates and teeth health
Of course, a lot of people will think tooth decay’s only logical cure is cutting sweets and sodas as well as brushing and flossing consistently. I think people ought to be disappointed when they adopt those changes and have yet to see any positive change.
After all, our ancestors didn’t really floss or brush as thoroughly as we do today, but were just fine. In fact, conventional toothpaste might be contributing to the problem.
Despite that, it goes without saying that excess sugar and carbohydrate won’t help. Constant sugar consumption will feed the opportunistic bacteria, which will damage the enamel in the long term and end up causing tooth decay that won’t get repaired because of nutritional deficiencies.
Simply reducing sugar and carbohydrates, though, is often not enough to heal or completely prevent cavities from ever happening.
Structure of the tooth and healing
The outermost structure of a tooth is the enamel and the innermost structure is the pulp, where you find blood vessels and nerves. Between the enamel and the pulp is the dentin. Dentin has this weird ability to regenerate, and this, no matter the amount of damage done to it.
How, then, do we promote dentin regeneration? Easy, it needs lots of minerals like calcium, magnesium and phosphorus available with fat soluble vitamins for their active participation in the mineralization process. It’s not so much about consuming large amounts of dairy to get more calcium, but more about making sure the calcium we consume is well absorbed and utilized.
The best way to make calcium, phosphorus and other minerals completely useless for your body is to consume grains. They are full of phytates, which effectively binds to minerals and render them unavailable for your body.
Next comes fat soluble vitamins. For bone mineralization and tooth repair, vitamin D and vitamin K2 are the most interesting ones. Without enough of those vitamins, the bones and dentin will not remineralize easily. Being fat soluble vitamins, they need the presence of fat in the diet to be absorbed, so good quantities of saturated fat are in order.
You’ll get the most of your vitamin D from sun exposure or fatty fish consumption. It’s also a good idea to consider supplementing if you spend a lot of time indoors.
Vitamin K2 is naturally produced by a healthy gut flora and is only available in a few foods like pastured, grass-fed butter and duck foie gras. Pastured butter is also a great source of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid), one of the most potent anti-cancer compound. It has been demonstrated that vitamin K2 works as an activator for vitamin D and A. It was called Activator X by Dr. Weston A. Price. For this reason, if you’re trying to heal tooth decay, the usual vitamin D supplementation might not be enough and vitamin K2 becomes very important. K2 supplementation might be in order.
By eating a lot of meat protein, you will automatically improve your absorption of calcium. Finally, bone broths and stocks will provide you with good quantities of the minerals your body needs to repair bones and teeth.
Final words and recommendations
You were able to realize that healing tooth decay is more than possible when adopting the right dietary guidelines, and this, no matter how damaged the teeth are in the beginning. I feel that a lot of suffering and pain can be prevented or corrected without dentistry most of the time.
To heal tooth decay once and for all you should therefore cut all grains from your diet, eat few carbohydrates (including fruits), get adequate vitamin D (sun or supplement), vitamin K2 (butter and/or supplement) and vitamin A (liver once in a while or cod liver oil) and eat generous amounts of meat, bone broths and cooked vegetables. Also consider eating organs like liver from pastured, grass-fed animals from time to time. They are full of minerals and fat soluble vitamins that your body needs for proper repair and functioning.
So here it was, your solution to tooth decay in only a few hundred words. Now go on and take care of those teeth!
P.S. Be sure to check out the Paleo Recipe Book. It’s a cookbook I’ve created to help you cook the best food for your health. It contains over 370 recipes and covers absolutely everything you need.
