annehart

On another note, you may also wish to check out my book, Diet Fads, Careers, and Controversies in Nutrition Journalism: How to Organize Term papers, News, or Debates. It's listed at this date at Amazon.com.

How many adults and children in the USA are immune to tooth decay based on what they eat--or on not eating sweets or drinking too much milk?

In the early 1930s anthropologists, dentists, and physicians visited the Maya of Yucatan and found they were almost totally immune to tooth decay on their diet of beans, corn, with some vegetables and fruit. These isolated peoples had not eaten a western diet or sugar. Anthropologists such as Morris Steggerda and others visited the Maya. 

At the other end of the planet, the Arctic peoples studied had almost no contact with vegetables and fruits, eating fermented or raw seafood and seal meat, fat, and liver. If you look at the USA before the Gold Rush era, the Native Americans living here did not have much tooth decay. See, Guts and Grease: The Diet of Native Americans.

Parents today are concerned about baby bottle tooth decay in infants. See, Baby Bottle Tooth Decay Not Prevented by Fluoride. Modern peoples use mouthwash, toothbrushes, toothpaste, fluoride, and six-month cleanings at the dentist's. But why do numerous children and adults have a specific tooth decay rate? See, An Epidemic Of Tooth Decay Threatens Low-Income Children.

Could it be something they are eating? Why have tribal peoples remained immune to tooth decay for thousands of years when they didn't brush their teeth (just rinsed with water) but as soon as they changed to standard Western diets, lost most of their teeth due to decay and infections followed by degenerative diseases?

According to scientists, neither the Maya nor the Arctic peoples ever brushed their teeth. None had used toothpaste, according to the book, Your Body is Your Best Doctor, page 192, by Melvin E. Page, D.D.S, and H. Leon Abrams, Jr. What do you think were the reasons why isolated peoples such as the Maya or the Arctic tribal peoples, before they had contact with Western diets, had almost no tooth decay (about 90 percent were immune to tooth decay)?

And if you look at the Norsemen and Irish in Iceland, they had no grain, few vegetables, and yet had no cavities living on a diet of seafood, some meat, and actually making puddings out of the blood of lambs, until they adopted modern Western diets. They had raw milk cheeses and shellfish, including seaweed.

The Arctic peoples of Asia were immune to tooth decay until they started eating a Western diet of cookies, candy, sugary foods, and lots of white flour instead of their fermented fish and seal meat and fat. So on one hand you have the Maya, immune to tooth decay on a beans, corn, and vegetables diet, and the Inuit or Chukchi, and similar Arctic peoples eating few or no vegetables other than some seaweed, but they, too, with their trace minerals, were immune to tooth decay and many degenerative diseases linked to mouth inflammations. Why?

For vegans, would a Paleo-vegan diet work as well as a no-grain diet?

Or do you you need the B vitamins and other nutrients in grains for your brain? On the other hand, what happens when some people, especially children have adverse reactions to cereal grains, including early rotting of the teeth? Your diet also is about your body's response to certain foods, and different people respond in various ways according to their metabolic, chemical, and genetic inheritance. 

U.S. Public Health Service reports that 98 out of every 100 men, women, and children in the United States suffer from some form of dental disease. And American Dental Association figures indicate that the average American has 14 teeth decayed, filled, or missing by the time he or she reaches 20 years of age. Where can you find in a directory of your area's local preventive dentistry?

Did you ever take your family to a local holistic dentist who is trained in nutritional endocrinology? If so, you'll probably get a diet to follow after your calcium-to-phosphorus ratio has been measured with a blood test. Check out the various directories online of holistic dentists in Sacramento. But generally, dentists don't give people blood tests to see whether they have an imbalance in their body chemistry as far as the calcium to phosphorous ratio, which is important in whether your teeth are relatively immune to tooth decay or not.

Simply eating a quarter pound of candy (chocolates made with sugar) may make your child's (or your) phosphorous levels shoot up after less than two hours and out of balance with your calcium levels, possibly putting you in harm's way of tooth decay. You see, tooth decay probably isn't going to happen when your diet keeps your phosphorous to calcium ratio in balance. But first you have to be aware of what that ratio is.

It has been found that a constant ratio of calcium and phosphorous (10-4) in your blood plasma is the optimum requirement for adults. There's a higher and varying level of phosphorous requirement for growing children. And there's a lower (but still proportional levels) of calcium to phosphorous being required when you're in your older years. Whether you get tooth decay or not depends upon a certain proportion of calcium and phosphorous in your blood.

Scientists still don't know what the ratio might be for manufacturing bone, but as far as tooth decay prevention, if you have a certain ratio of calcium to phosphorous in your blood, you may become immune to tooth decay, probably, according to Dr.Page's book, which was inspired by the books written by Weston A. Price, DDS, in the 1930s.

Also decalcification of your teeth happens when there's a mineral imbalance in your saliva. 

And repeated tests have long proven that a mineral imbalance in your saliva is a reflection of your calcium-to-phosphorous ratio. When the calicum-phosphorous ratio is imbalanced in your blood, your salivary secretions are no longer acid, and erosion of your teeth stops happening.

Some holistic dentists follow the teachings of Dr. Melvin E. Page, who is co-author of the book, Your Body is Your Best Doctor. If your holistic dentist is using the teachings found by numerous holistic dentists in the field of nutritional endocrinology, then your holistic dentist will probably tell you that it's the ratio of calcium to phosphorous in your body that probably determines whether or not you'll get tooth decay.

Dr. Westin Price, DDS inspired Dr. Page, as Dr. Price believed that an unbalanced ratio of calcium to phosphorous in your body led to a variety of degenerative diseases including some of the chronic diseases and also tooth decay, tooth infection, and inflammation. Basically, Dr. Page found that the ideal ratio of calcium to phosphorus in your body for ideal health should be around 2 1/2/:1.

This ratio was then used by Dr. Page to determine the correct nutritional diet and/or supplements dosages in order to balance the chemistry of your body. That's how nutrition and endocrinology becomes linked, by using nutrition to help balance the chemistry of your body.

Also body measurement was used. For example the length and circumference of your lower leg and lower arm

The lower limbs were measured to determine inherited glandular patterns in your body. This happened many years before the concept of tailoring your diet to your genes became popular. In those days the balancing focused on your body chemistry and endocrinology.

The idea was that slight glandular imbalances may lead to degenerative diseases. And nutrition can help to bring back balance in the chemistry in your body. For example, too much calcium in your blood may lead to too much tartar or plaque accumulating on your teeth.

Too much acid in your mouth, and you have tooth decay. Too much alkaline in your mouth, and you have gum disease. To rebalance your body chemistry in various parts of your body from your calcified pineal gland to your constant tooth decay required changing your diet. Sometimes the culprit was drinking too much milk. Or perhaps your teeth have been ruined by too much sugar.

Dr. Page made these discoveries more than 40 years ago. Why hasn't your local dentist handed you a diet sheet about nutrition and endocrinology today? Could it be because of lack of training as a holistic dentist schooled in nutritional endocrinology? Concepts such as inflammation in a tooth joint, known as pyorrhea is related to inflammation in a joint known as arthritis. It is about these parallels that holistic dentistry researches.

The goal is to correct body chemistry through nutrition. For further information, see the book Your Body is Your Best Doctor, by Melvin E. Page, DDS and H. Leon Abrams, Jr. (Pages 194-200 are especially important as far as explaining how nutrition helps to prevent tooth decay.)

The reason consumers may want to take a look at holistic dentistry in relation to nutrition is to gain clarity about what to eat to preserve a healthy mouth or remineralize teeth that may be starting to go brittle or to decay due to too much sugar and unfermented grains in the diet.

The key issue to having a healthy mouth is nutrition. Holistic dentistry can become the first line of defense for preventive medicine by looking at changes in nutrition. When was the last time you went to the dentist and were told you had gum disease or even a milder form, gingivitis, and your dentist looked under the microscope in his/her office to see whether you have 'red' periodontal bacteria that may impact the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer?

Have you ever spoken with a holistic dental hygienist? Did you ever have a periodontal diagnosis and systemic diagnosis at the same time? Did you know a dental hygienist sometimes spends four times as much quality time with you than your personal physician? But what do you talk about? Nutrition?

Or is the conversation not related to remineralizing your teeth with specific nutrition? With your mouth open, you can't talk, but how many dental hygienists talk to you about nutrition or natural solutions to getting rid of gum disease?

Does your dentist even test the periodontal bacteria in your mouth if you have gum disease to see whether it's the type of 'red' periodontal bacteria that increases your risk of heart disease or stroke--and if so, how to get rid of it simply at home? And were you ever told to stop eating processed sugar and flour foods?

If if you had or have 'red' periodontal bacteria, were you told how to get rid of it using medicine, baking soda, or a water dental irrigator and some hydrogen peroxide or other basic, natural form of keeping your gums clean? Or did your dentist just do a deep cleaning and send you home without instructions as to what to eat, how to keep your gums clean with baking soda between your teeth and using water to irrigate your gumline gently--or any other method that helps reduce the bacteria on your gums? Were you ever told what type of bacteria on your gums affects your body in certain ways?

Everybody's mouth is full of bacteria at all times. Did anyone tell you to chew some cranberries or use herbal toothpastes you can make at home from simple food products? Did your dentist warn you about not eating sugar and white flour food products or processed foods?

Eating processed foods, especially sugar and flour products is one way that processed food may have led to tooth decay throughout history and the present. You'll find several holistic dentists listed in your own area if you use key words in your computer's search engine "Your city, holistic dentists." Also check out the websites Mercury Free Dentists, Mercury Safe Dentists, Mercury Free Dentistry. See the Directory of Holistic Dentists in your area.

How this nutrition connection works is when you eat sugar and flour your blood glucose levels spike. This causes insulin to pour into your bloodstream, more insulin that you'd have going into your blood than if you didn't eat sugar and flour-based foods. As the insulin spikes go up and down during each day, what happens is your hormone levels start to change. The hormones that control tooth remineralization, developing healthy tooth structure, also change for the worse.

Then your body loses its ability to repair your teeth by building back the secondary dentin and other minerals. Your teeth become brittle or decay and your gums may develop gum disease. The sugar and flour in your foods upset the hormones your body uses to repair/remineralize teeth. Then your body becomes overly acidic. In this environment, bacteria increases, and gum disease starts.

Try not eating sugar or flour in foods for a week. Then taste a fruit. It will seem to taste like candy. If you have soft teeth and a lot of decay, stay off even the fruit for a few weeks. You have a good chance of losing sugar cravings that way. If you crave sweets, substitute other solid foods instead such as home-made egg drop soup.

You boil two cups of low sodium organic, free range chicken broth and when it starts to boil, drop in two beat eggs by the table spoon, creating egg flower soup. As the eggs finish cooking/solidifying in the soup, turn off the heat. Then sip the warm egg flower soup, with a few finely chopped green vegetables such as parsley, cilantro, or green onions on top. Try that snack to cut sugar cravings.

How holistic dentists use nutrition to relate and connect the rest of the body to your teeth starts with looking at how the bioelectric pathways (sometimes also called meridians) in the teeth are connected to the rest of your body. Holistic dentists show you how your body is connected to your mouth, including the teeth.

The meridians, energy channels or bioelectric pathways also called nerves, veins, and arteries run through your entire body, connecting every part. That's why sometimes when you have one tooth extracted, a few days or weeks later, suddenly the nerves may begin to hurt or throb in a different part of your mouth, in other teeth, sometimes in teeth not located next to the tooth extracted.

Check out the book, Cure Tooth Decay: remineralize cavities & repair your teeth naturally with good food, by Ramiel Nagel. In particular, read the foreword on what holistic dentistry emphasizes, especially pertaining to nutrition. The foreword of that book is written by Timothy Gallagher, D.D.S. who (at the time of that book's publication) is noted on the book's cover as the President of the Holistic Dental Association.

That foreword mentions the importance of nutrition, the meridians, and avoiding specific types of toxic metals in your mouth if you're having adverse or allergic reactions to certain types of metals. Check out the book. Also see, Mercury Free Dentists, Holistic Dentists, Biological Dentists.

Basically, holistic dentistry often uses nutrition to focus on preservative dentistry, including minimally invasive dentistry. The whole idea is to use nutrition to remineralize teeth before the teeth have too much trauma or work done on them in the first place.

In holistic dentistry that focuses on nutrition, a dentist may examine the effects of dental materials on the entire body.

You'd want the dentist to look at you chemically and electromagnetically to see what's happening, such as whether your body is being irritated by an old root canal that has the seal leaking out below the root tip and whether your body is trying to pull away from that inflammatory point perhaps causing you a lot of irritation in say, a root canal you had a decade ago that suddenly starts to feel sore.

Or maybe the dentist will want to know if you're allergic to that nickel plating in one of your crowns, or whether that titanium screw in your implant is causing you autoimmune issues leading to your fibromyalgia, and might you be better off if you had a zirconium screw instead of a titanium one on your implant, should you be thinking about having an implant in those old extractions. Is there anything you're allergic to that's already in your mouth? Those are some questions you might want to ask a holistic dentist.

Such a dentist might look at the effects of dental materials on your entire body. What the dentist looks at is the end point of a meridian (bioelectrical pathway) in your tooth to check the stability of the meridian and the glands and organs associated with that meridian/pathway throughout your body.

That's why it's called holistic and minimally invasive. The idea behind this is how is what's in your mouth/tooth affecting the stability of your organs and glands in the rest of your body along that same meridian?

One example would be that if you have an infected tooth, it can create inflammation in other parts of your body, such as in your organs and glands, even if the organ or gland is in a different area of your body. If you have an infection in your mouth, it can develop into a whole body infection or a chronic low-level inflammation, possibly causing pain elsewhere.

The whole body inflammation needs to be cleaned up by addressing the infection in the mouth or teeth. That's why some autoimmune issues can interact with changes in hormones and various minerals. And also hormonal changes can influence immunity to gum disease.

Also, some types of gum disease may be genetic, whereas other types may be due to changes in hormones. That's why so many people develop gum disease as they move through menopause. Sometimes older adults also develop gum disease after a vaccination containing mercury as a preservative.

So holistic dentists look at how your entire body is affected by what's in your teeth/mouth. You'd go to a holistic dentist to learn practices to preserve your teeth, starting with nutritional changes.

One example would be cutting out sugar and white flour from your diet or fermenting grains, such as rice, quinoa, or whole oat groats in a jar of water in your refrigerator or eating sourdough bread. Another might be using salt in warm water as a mouthwash or brushing with baking soda and water or other natural or home-made tooth pastes and powders.

A holistic dentist uses nutrition also to create an anabolic way to rebuild your teeth by balancing your hormone levels. For example, are you burning sugar or burning fat? If you crave sugary sweets, most likely you may be burning sugar. Do you need to remineralize your teeth with just the right balance of fat-soluble vitamins such as E, K-2, A, and D3 as you take your other multi-vitamins? Do you have enough of your B vitamins, including B12?

You can search for a holistic dentist who combines nutrition, non-toxic toothpaste, and dental care with holistic practices that help you remineralize your teeth or treat certain types of infections in ways that don't always end up with crowns, root canals, or trauma to your teeth. There's a great Dental Self-Sufficiency website with recipes on how to make your own toothpaste. Check it out. When making your own toothpaste, glycerin, which you can get at most pharmacies (food grade, pharmaceutical grade) is antimicrobial.

Instead of filling cavities, how many dentists give you a nutrition plan that may help remineralize your teeth and reverse your cavities--if your teeth already are not too traumatized by past treatments? The question is what will work for you?

Can you find a holistic or minimally-invasive dentist in your area? You could read some of the books on tooth remineralization, making your own tooth paste or powder, or checking out the various organizations for holistic dentistry. You might check out the book, "The Key to Ultimate Health." Fullterton: Advanced Health, Research Publishing:1998:105. Authors are Brown, E.H. & Hansen, R.T.

See, The Key to Ultimate Health, Ellen H., JD Brown, Richard T., DMD. The book also is offered on Amazon.com. The whole idea of keeping a tooth from having to be filled is to remineralize teeth and to find a holistic dentist also willing to work with nutrition/diet. Interestingly, an alternative to root canals is to find a dentist who is trained to use a precision laser to vaporize infections in teeth without damaging your tooth's nerve. It all depends on how bad the trauma is that has already happened to your teeth.

So if you have teeth that have not yet been filled or crowned again and again, there's a better chance. But until you try nutritional approaches, you won't know whether your tooth is being remineralized or degenerating. An important question to ask your dentist is how is your tooth's ligament doing? The ligament holds the tooth tightly in place.

Should you find a holistic dentist who can try to reverse infection with a precise laser treatment instead of a root canal, crown, or filling? This laser treatment is supposed to prevent you from needing a root canal or a crown. Does it work? You'd have to find a holistic dentist and see whether patients had their tooth problems healed in place without further trauma such as a root canal or crown, due to tooth infections (rather than a broken tooth.)

The question is whether tooth infections can be healed by homeopathic or natural means, including a change of nutrition. If you're tooth isn't infected to the point where it needs to be 'sterilized' with laser treatments, perhaps all you need to remineralize your tooth is a change of nutrition.

According to books on holistic dentistry, a majority of root canals are not necessary. You can find books on how to heal tooth inflammation or infection with various tooth infection diets or formulas. Some books recommend two teaspoons of fermented cod liver oil. Some books tell you to avoid all grains while your tooth is healing, and to avoid all sweets, including fruit during the time of healing. And some books recommend the Japanese-style food called 'natto.'

It's because in holistic dentistry, natto's enzyme, nattokinase is supposed to increase circulation and help reduce infections. But although these suggestions were made for adults, you need to ask a pediatric dentist what may work on your child, assuming the pediatric dentist is holistic and minimally invasive, but as you know, there are fewer preventive dentists who use minimally invasive techniques than there are conventional dentists. Ideally, you'd find a fully-credentialed, degreed, and experienced dentist who specializes in preventive holistic dentistry for children.

You can make your own herbal toothpaste, toothpowder, and mouthwash from scratch. Basically, the primary ingredients in a toothpowder or paste are baking soda first, then salt, and if you want a paste instead of a powder, glycerin. Next, you add a flavor such as peppermint or cinnamon or an herb such as sage. Or you can swish extra virgin coconut oil in your mouth as a rinse after you've brushed your teeth with baking soda.

Should You Change Your Toothpaste or Make Your Own?

In most health food stores, you can buy various types of natural toothpaste. You can make a safe mouthwash for your child. For adults, you can find theVita Myr brand of herbal mouthwash and/or toothpaste. The Vita-Myr herbal mouthwash is made from zinc, folic acid, clove oil, and myrrh, in a base of distilled water. See the website, Healing Bleeding Gums, Periodontal Disease, Gum Disease Vita-Myr. But this is for adults. You need a mouthwash for kids that is safe if they swallowed it. And this mouthwash must not be swallowed. In various countries, oil swishing is used as a mouthwash.

The child swishes a teaspoon of coconut oil, olive oil, or sesame seed oil in his or her mouth and spits it out in a bag or on the lawn after flossing and brushing. If the child swallows a teaspoon of coconut oil, or olive oil, or sesame seed oil, it's not going to be as harmful as if a non-food mouthwash meant for adults was swallowed. So don't let your young child use mouthwash meant for adults. You can read more on oil swishing online. Basically, it's just swishing oil in your mouth for a few minutes and spitting it out not in the sink.

Don't let young children swallow clove oil or myrrh. For adults, the clove oil and myrrh ingredients are anti-microbial, and the zinc and folic acid are part of the minerals and vitamins your gums need to help fight off gum diseases that loosen your teeth. Buy these products in health food stores, order them online, or make your own from similar ingredients.

For example, you can buy a 16 ounce bottle of herbal mouthwash in most health food stores or make your own mouthwash and toothpaste with similar ingredients or a wide variety of herbs, salt, baking soda, and glycerin. See the article, Healing Bleeding Gums, Periodontal Disease, Gum Disease Vita-Myr. But what do you do if you want to make your own mouthwash and toothpaste from scratch with ingredients you can tailor to your own needs?

It gets rid of bacteria, for example, in your mouth--at least for a while. The basics of toothpaste are baking soda and salt or baking soda and herbs, such as sage. Or you can use baking soda alone. It's slightly abrasive. Salt is less abrasive but has less power than baking soda to kill microbes in your mouth, especially bacteria of the kind you don't want forming pockets in your gums.

According to this site, baking soda is anti-microbial. It kills bacteria. Salt and baking soda also work together the keep your teeth and gums clean. Glycerin also is anti-microbial. But it leaves a glycerin film on your teeth.You add glycerin to baking soda and/or salt to make a paste. Then you add flavoring such as peppermint oil.

Make your own natural toothpaste from a wide variety of antimicrobial herbs and spices or oils. Try a pinch of sage and a dab of clove oil. Or mix ¼ teaspoon of peppermint oil with ½ teaspoon baking soda. Add ¼ teaspoon of powdered cloves and ¼ cup of sesame seed oil. Stir and use like toothpaste on a brush. You can use these ingredients and water alone or as a paste.

In India home-made toothpaste sometimes is made from sesame seed oil or clove oil. You massage the oil on your teeth and gums with your clean finger or use a soft tooth brush. Some Asian countries such as Japan, use black sesame seeds, crushed and mixed with salt as a tooth powder. You can see a uTube video titled, Homemade Toothpaste.

Also see the uTube video, How to make Natural Chemical Free Toothpaste. Overnight, keep your mouth alkaline. Here's one recipe for making your own toothpaste from baking soda, salt, crushed black sesame seeds, coriander, sage, and cinnamon.

For adults and teenage kids, mix ¼ teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon, baking soda, crushed black sesame seeds, coriander and sage. Keep dry spices and salts in jars. Sprinkle in a cup just before dipping in your damp brush. Optional: moisten with a few drops of glycerin when brushing. Mouthwash also can be made from ¼ teaspoon each of turmeric, myrrh, clove oil and a cup of water.

Combine equal parts of baking soda, salt, and crushed sage in a glass jar and shake. Store the dry mixture in the covered jar. To make a paste, mix three teaspoons of glycerin to ¼ cup of dry ingredients consisting of three parts of baking soda to one part of sea salt. Add enough water to make a paste. Use the paste as it is, Or add two drops of peppermint oil to your homemade toothpaste.

Open two calcium carbonate capsules and mix with a small amount of water, ¼ teaspoon of glycerin, a ¼ teaspoon of Xylitol, (which is a sugar substitute you buy in health foods stores that is supposed to prevent cavities and is added to some toothpastes), a zinc capsule, a drop of peppermint oil, and a ¼ teaspoon of baking soda. Mix in cups to a paste consistency. Brush and rinse.

Use 1/8th of a teaspoon of Xylitol.Read information at the Xylitol information Web site that describes the side effects as well as the benefits. Since Xylitol is toxic to dogs and other pets, don't brush your pet's teeth with it. Consider also that natural toothpaste can be made from a variety of spices, salt and baking soda, and certain anti-microbial oils and herbs such as clove oil and sage as a powdered or crushed dried herb.

You may wish to research a pinch of sage and a dab of clove oil. Or mix ¼ teaspoon of peppermint oil with ½ teaspoon baking soda. Add ¼ teaspoon of powdered cloves and ¼ cup of sesame seed oil. Stir and use like toothpaste on a brush. You can use these ingredients and water alone or as a paste.

In India home-made toothpaste sometimes is made from sesame seed oil or clove oil. You massage the oil on your teeth and gums with your finger or use a soft tooth brush. See the Home Remedies Web site at: the Ayurveda Home Remedies site. Some Asian countries such as Japan, use black sesame seeds, crushed and mixed with salt as a tooth powder. You can see a video titled, How to Make Organic Toothpaste online on the Web site called Videojug. Overnight, keep your mouth alkaline.

Mix ¼ teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon, baking soda, crushed black sesame seeds, coriander and sage. Keep dry spices and salts in jars. Sprinkle in a cup just before dipping in your damp brush. Optional: moisten with a few drops of glycerin when brushing. Mouthwash also can be made from ¼ teaspoon each of turmeric, myrrh, clove oil and a cup of water. Combine equal parts of baking soda, salt, and crushed sage in a glass jar and shake.

Store the dry mixture in the covered jar. To make a paste, mix three teaspoons of glycerin to ¼ cup of dry ingredients consisting of three parts of baking soda to one part of sea salt. Add enough water to make a paste. Use the paste as it is, Or add two drops of peppermint oil to your homemade toothpaste.

Open two calcium carbonate capsules and mix with a small amount of water, ¼ teaspoon of glycerin, a ¼ teaspoon of Xylitol, (which is a sugar substitute you buy in health foods stores that is supposed to prevent cavities and is added to some toothpastes), a zinc capsule, a drop of peppermint oil, and a ¼ teaspoon of baking soda. Mix in cups to a paste consistency. Brush and rinse.

Some dentists usually refer people to periodontists when they get gum disease. Some offer holistic help with non-surgical problems. Other Sacramento dentists recommend special toothbrushes to get rid of plaque. But how many dentists will tell you about the new hormone that restored certain types of decayed teeth back to their healthy state? You could look up holistic dentists. Check out what's in your area. For example, to see what's in one area, you may wish to check out the sites, Mercury Free Dentists, Mercury Safe Dentists, Mercury Free Dentistry, or Holistic Dentists in Sacramento CA California.

New Gel Encourages Regeneration of Teeth

Did you and your dentist know that melanoctye-stimulating hormone (MSH) restores decayed teeth back to their healthy state? According to a July 29, 2010 news article, New Gel Encourages Regeneration Of Teeth, Study Says and a similar article published in London on July 27, 2010, New gel that can help decayed teeth grow, French scientists have developed a gel that can help decayed teeth re-grow in just weeks, which could in turn mean an end to fillings. This news story on the gel also appeared today on a Sacramento radio station.

The gel works by prompting cells in teeth to start multiplying, quickly forming healthy new tooth tissue that gradually replaces what has been lost to decay. It only takes four weeks to restore teeth (tooth cells) back to their original healthy state, according to laboratory research. What's more the new tooth cells are thought by scientists to be stronger, permanent solution.

How it works is that the French medical team mixed MSH with a chemical called poly-L-glutamic acid. Also see, Nano sized advance toward next big treatment era in dentistry, and the July 27, 2010 article in Science News, New Gel That Can Help Decayed Teeth Grow.

When the mixture was turned into a gel like toothpaste and rubbed on to tooth cells, called dental pulp fibroblasts, taken from extracted human teeth, the researchers found that the gel triggered the growth of new cells and also helped with adhesion - the process by which new dental cells '˜lock' together, according to the news article, New gel that can help decayed teeth grow. Ask your dentist how soon this gel might take to get to dental offices that specialize in preventive dentistry.

The first experiment began with mice teeth. In a mice-related experiment, scientists applied the gel to the teeth of mice with dental cavities. In just one month, the cavities had gone away, and and the teeth were back to normal. The gel is still undergoing testing but could be available for use within three to five years.

Scientists think that the gel won't be able to fix teeth that have been extensively damaged by decay. But what about the teeth of children when they are just starting to rot from inadequate cleaning? There's hope there, even if your teeth already have had extensive work.

The next steps are the clinical trials. This gel is to be restricted to treating small areas of dental decay. In addition, there's also a '˜tongue' gel for treating bad breath and preventing tooth decay. If you want to read more about the findings, check out the American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano. (ANI).

On the other hand, if tooth decay is preventable, then think of all the money that will be lost in dental treatments and products that are based on people having dental problems. It makes you think.

On the natural side, thinking of nutrition and its relationship to dental prevention issues, try cranberry juice. At the present it presents some hope to prevent problems caused by bacteria.

Cranberry Juice May Fight Tooth Decay

Can cranberry juice fight tooth decay? A small amount of cranberry juice might appeal to kids. Nutritionists tell dentists it can help. Cranberry juice fights tooth decay and gum disease. You'll find it in dental floss. Baking soda put in between your teeth at the gum line also fights tooth decay and gum disease. So does salt, baking soda and sage as a paste made with water.

Look for the clues in the general disconnect in medicine, starting with your mouth. Do you need all those full-mouth X-rays so frequently? Why does your dentist insist on taking them before cleaning your teeth? Is it all about you, the patient, or your doctor or dentist having all those bills to pay?

Why is your dentist not using digital X-rays that give off up to 70 percent less radiation? Is he or she still telling you the cheaper machine of choice is because the dentist can't see the film clearly on the digital X-ray image and has to use the older machine, giving off more radiation to the patient, in order to see a better image? Have you researched whether that answer is actually correct?

How many times when you visited your dentist and he or she found gum disease, did the dentist refer you for further evaluation to a specialist? Why isn't there more emphasis on natural preventive medicine that has been scientifically proven to work?

Why are so many people referred for surgery when more natural and less invasive ways to close up those deep pockets of gum disease after a deep cleaning can be of help? Why is it that after gum surgery, the gum disease so often returns within two years? Gum surgery had supposedly gone out in the 1950s, but it's back with laser cutting instruments.

As diets improve, there has to be some way for the dental industry to make sure people keep coming back. Fluoride treatments are still touted above brushing with natural toothpastes containing Xylitol and peppermint oil. Where is the disconnect in medicine?

Is there a more natural way to treat these problems? Sure, you can't fix a cavity with food, but you can prevent one if you know what to clean your teeth with and your immune system is working better because you've removed inflammation from your body with foods and similar natural means.

What Are the Oral Cardiotoxins?

Mercury in your mouth isn't the only oral cardiotoxin. Now some doctors say that those acrylic glues and dental adhesives in people's false teeth or bridges and in other tooth-repair materials that go onto your own teeth may have caused heart attacks.

Your dentist might still tell you the adhesives don't leach out. Porcelain crowns contain cadmium. Some crowns contain nickel. Root canals contain several heavy metals.

Tooth-colored fillings contain plasticizers that leach out. So you hand your dentist some literature. Will it be read? The dentist is running up against the clock, and the waiting room is full. Only research can present more evidence, if funding is available.

Then you go to your acupuncturist to talk about oral toxins. You tell your acupuncturist that the mercury in your amalgam fillings are leaching out from the inside and rolling backwards into your bloodstream, not leaching out forwards into your mouth where you think you're swallowing the chemical with your saliva. Your repaired tooth is sealed to moisture from the outside. It's the backward motion of the metal from tooth to bloodstream that concerns you.

The acupuncturist tells you that all your toxic teeth are connected to the acupuncture meridians in your body. The worse news is that those meridians of acupuncture are the very same meridians that allow all those toxic metals access to every organ in your body.

Your acupuncturist might show you on a chart just which body parts are inflamed or poisoned by each of your toxic teeth so you can follow along on the acupuncture meridian chart or map. Maybe you'll find a way to get rid of your angina by ousting an amalgam filling and clearing up the inflammation from an infected root canal.

What if you have a tooth with a cavity in it and that tooth is right in the middle of your heart meridian on the acupuncture chart?

Will getting rid of your mercury-based old amalgam fillings and also filling the cavity in that other tooth clear up your angina or other heart problems? Or maybe you don't have angina now, but you might develop it as your teeth continue on the same course for the next two decades. That's if your doctor connects any oral cardiotoxins to the condition of your organs.

You might read about testimonies of people feeling better when oral cardiotoxins were removed. A holistic dentist would have the time to discuss choices. What can you sort out as evidence? We know mercury can create heart disease by releasing free radicals that raise your lipid peroxides. We know that mercury oxidizes LDL cholesterol, which in turn starts gluing itself inside arteries.

Mercury helps platelets to stick together and form blood clots as it damages the linings of your blood vessels. So mercury now becomes the culprit because it makes your blood vessels spasm shut. But never forget all the other oral cardiotoxins. And then there's the flu vaccines with mercury used as a preservative--a special type of mercury-like chemical called thiomerosol.

Did you ever think to associate the possibility of getting a flu shot containing thiomerosol with coming down with gum disease within a few months of the shot? The next year, when you get your flu shot, ask for one without thiomerosal, and see whether your gum disease mysteriously doesn't come back every three months like it used to.

Research the possibility that thiomerosol affects immunity, especially in older adults. Thiomerosol has been taken out of most children's vaccines for the past few years. There's plenty of news articles studying the immune-suppressing ability of thiomerosol on senior citizens. Older persons usually get thiomerosol in vaccines when they line up for flu shots--unless they ask for a thiomerosol-free vaccination.

Is mercury building up in your body? First you get thiomerosal from your flu shot, unless you ask for a vaccine free of thiomerosal. You don't want thiomerosal, a preservative, which contains mercury, in your vaccines, if you can help it.

So you go back to your dentist and tell him or her that your high mercury levels are speeding up the hardening of your arteries and increasing inflammation levels, especially in your carotid arteries. And now the mercury has reached your brain, exacerbating your memory loss, insomina, reduced coordination, depression, and joint stiffness while increasing your tremors. It's not old age; it's heavy metals.

What can you do for these endless symptoms? What can you eat? Then someone tells you, it's not just the mercury, it's also all the aluminum in your body, including several types of heavy metal deposits in your brain. Then you're told the magnesium supplement you're taking contains an excess amount of lead. And the lead toxicity has stopped your pain medications from working.

So now you're overwhelmed. Maybe it's time to change your diet. But the labs testing your supplements find that what's on the label doesn't agree with what's inside the bottle.

What's the solution? Back to natural foods, perhaps a raw vegan diet for a trial. Maybe cleaner air or a pure air filter that doesn't give off ozone when you plug it in. You repeat the mantra: food is medicine.

Nutritionists tell you that you have too many free radicals in your blood, but raw, living vegetables and fruits can lasso those free radicals, but only if you add more powerful supplements. Then you're told by your fitness trainer that nothing is more powerful than nature. So stick to whole foods, not pills, and use food as medicine.

There are the detox cocktails available, but your doctor may tell you to beware of the word 'detox' as it signifies something that your body does naturally. You could turn to whole food vitamin C and other supplements. Or just go back to eating the way people ate at the turn of the century, if you can find that type of food. Or grow your own vegetables in small spaces.

What's the answer? Diet is major. Maybe you really can accomplish with food what no medication could do. Why? Wholesome plant-based food, living food not killed off by heat, might be able to bring about regression or switching off the bad tags on genes and switching on the good tags (epigenetics). But first you have to find out whether the mercury in your fillings is causing your symptoms.

When you go to the scientific literature, you find out everything you thought worked might be a placebo response. Then you start looking for more evidence that what you feel is real.

You need to find out to what you're allergic and in what are you deficient. Books tell you that there's an amino acid called glycine, that when chelated with magnesium might help to wash out of your body various toxic environmental chemicals.

Glycine is a neurotransmitter that helps to calm your brain. Then you're told by other health-conscious practitioners that chelated manganese in tiny amounts might help your kidneys hang on to magnesium if your kidneys keep leaking magnesium. You ask why would they do that? And you're told it's because heavy metals in your body are damaging your kidneys.

Then you're told you need DHA and EPA found in omega 3 fatty acids from purified fish oils to cut down the inflammation in your organs and arteries, power your brain, lower your triglycerides, and slow down the progression of age-related vision loss. But first you must eat blueberries for your brain. Only they should be frozen because fresh blueberries prevent some of the calcium in your diet from being absorbed by your cells.

There are so many options. What facts, evidence, and studies can you believe? You read the testimonials and even long for a placebo effect. Will any one formula work for you without becoming toxic in the long run?

That's where your research begins by exploring the differences between holistic and conventional dental and nutritional approaches to creating a healthy mouth. Be aware that by eating lots of processed foods containing sugar and flour, your hormones can change.

This usually starts as excess insulin is released into your blood stream in response to sugar spikes--suddenly higher blood glucose levels. Nutrition is the first defense. Cleaning is next. But the main reason why kids who never get cavities and live in places of the world where there are no dentists often have strong teeth is due to what they eat, which in turn balances the calcium and phosphorus levels in their bones and teeth. Teeth decay from the inside out. The idea is to find out what foods best balance the body chemistry of your child and yourself.