The topic is: teeth!
Most of you know me, so you know that my teeth look bad. And not only they look bad, they also act like a teenager when parents leave the house for the weekend.
I had problems with them for pretty much as long as I remember, but the strange thing is, it took me almost 22 years to look up how should I take care of them.
I think I should write a whole short article about this, but what I did is incredibly stupid. It took me so long to finally realize that whatever I'm doing is not working, and all the things being done to my teeth are not solving the real issue.
Idiot!
Anyway, I finally did the research, and I ask you to do the same. Meanwhile, I want to give you the short version of everything I've learned. Hoping that at you will at least consider changing your relationship with your mouth.
First I want you to reconsider two views you may have:
1. Your teeth are not meant to decay!
2. Your teeth can regenerate and heal themselves!
Just yesterday my sister, who also has problems with teeth, told me that teeth are basically dying since we got them and that they are not being regenerated. Which would mean that you can slow the decay, but you can't stop it, not to mention that they simply can't get better.
For me, this seems silly! There are a few parts of the body that are not being replaced. But only a few! And teeth are not one of them. Bones are being fully replaced about every 10 years, and teeth never? Doesn't seem right.
I'm not going to post any links or research for this because if you don't believe this, then there's no point even reading further. If you think that your teeth are just dying and you can't do anything about it, then why bother?
Let's assume (even though it simply is true) that teeth can heal themselves. The question is then: how?
Enamel is the surface of the tooth and it's made mostly from hydroxylapatite (Ca5(PO4)3(OH)). As you can see it is made of Calcium and Phosphor. Enamel is the part of the tooth that causes most of the problems by being deremineralized. As the name suggests, it means that the enamel is losing its minerals (=hydroxylapatite, which is again made of Calcium and Phosphor).
Teeth loses minerals all the time and this is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is when the rate of decay is faster than the rate of replacement.
Now you should start to see why brushing is not solving the problems with teeth. It simply can't!
It is important, but brushing helps with killing the bacteria and getting rid of small pieces of food. They both add to the decay, and they are not something you want in your mouth. But! If they're the only cause (as most people think) then simply flossing and using mouthwash after every meal plus brushing two times a day would assure you have great teeth. This is simply not true!
I shouldn't even give you examples why this is wrong because if you're interested in this topic you probably have some issues with your teeth, and you probably think you take good care of them. You brush, you floss, you use mouthwash and who knows what else. You also probably still have problems with your teeth. I do all this and I've been doing it for several years. My girlfriend is not even brushing her teeth twice a day (at least not every day), and it seems that she doesn't take as much care about her dental hygiene as I do. Yet, I constantly have a toothache, while she rarely does.
Now you might want to say that it's genetics. I agree that it probably is also due to genetics, but it is not the only factor.
Again, if you want to believe that it's all genetics and teeth can't heal, go ahead, but I'd much rather believe that evolution didn't make us completely (!) helpless (!) when it comes to our mouths. Not only it makes much more sense (more like: it makes absolutely no sense that we can't do anything), but it is also better for my mental health because at least I feel in control instead of being helpless.
Now I'm just going to tell you basic advice on how to properly take care of your teeth.
Nutrition!
We already established (I hope) that teeth can heal and the way to do it to slow the rate of decay and make the remineralization faster. Using a little bit of thinking, we can see that the only way to have better teeth is to give them what they need by proper eating.
This is the simple truth that you've never been told directly. This is the fact I've learned from all the reading and this is something I want you to realize. There are many things that help: proper brushing, eating less sugar, flossing, chewing gums, but the only way to actually heal your mouth and solve your problems is by eating correctly.
What does that mean?
1. Avoid sugar.
Obvious, isn't it? Sure, but how many of you who have bad teeth really avoid sugar? How many of you think that a small cookie after lunch won't make a difference? I mean, you need something sweet at the end, right?
Well, maybe you do, but don't be surprised that your teeth will always deteriorate.
Sugar is simply the worst thing. When I eat something sweet I can feel my teeth and I can feel they don't enjoy it. That's why I eat desserts first nowadays. If I have one! Avoiding sweets is the number one task right now, I will eat sweets first so that the rest of the food will wash the sugar out.
The reason why sugar is so bad is not only it feeds the bacteria and destroys the enamel, but that it elevates the blood sugar level. The problem with this is that the calcium is in the blood, and high levels of sugar pull the calcium from the bones and teeth. Therefore even with everything else correct, eating too much sugar will lead to tooth decay.
I think this is the main issue in our family. My mom, my sister and I have problems with teeth, while my dad doesn't. I could blame genetics, but I think the main problem are the small sweets after every meal. This is a regular habit, and borderline addiction, I have and I'm trying to break. It might not be such a big issue to indulge once in a while with a sweet meal, but elevating blood sugar levels after every meal with small sweets now seem to me like the main cause of my problems. And looking at the eating habits of the people I know, I really think that this is the number one thing to avoid.
2. Intake of Calcium and Phosphor
This is the simplest advice you can get. Look up what are good sources of calcium and phosphor and get more of those minerals in your body.
For both the usual source are milk and all of its products. For calcium, you can also eat dark leafy greens (Kale, spinach, broccoli, swiss chard and so on). For phosphor, you can eat beans, meat, fish. You shouldn't be really worried about getting enough phosphor because it is almost everywhere. Calcium is a bit trickier.
A lot of people will suggest eating nuts or seeds. I just found out that poppy seeds have huge amounts of both calcium and phosphor. Nuts and seeds will, therefore, seem like a great thing to eat, but that is not necessarily true because of phytic acid (see part 4.)
3. Other nutrients
There is a lot to cover in this topic, but I already wrote too much, so let's just mention what's important and why. To help your body ingest and use calcium more efficiently, you need vitamin D (D3 to be specific). This can be done either by being in the sun, by eating food with vitamin D or by supplementing. I would very much suggest supplementing. You can take a lot of vitamin D without overdosing, and it's easy to just buy it, and eat it with meals. Sources of D are obviously sun, but also fish (and its liver oils), cheese or mushrooms.
Other important vitamins are A and K. Vitamins A,D, E and K are all fat-soluble, and almost all sources suggest using cod liver oil as a supplement for healthy teeth. Other sources are sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach or broccoli. Vitamins A and D help the body to use the calcium correctly and help with building bones as well as teeth. Vitamin K helps similarly and can be found in cheese, butter spinach, peas, tomatoes, blueberries and more.
Basically, all of the fat-soluble vitamins are important, and we need the right amount so the body can function as it should.
Other vitamind and minerals are obviously crucial to the body in general, but not necessarily for the teeth and bones. Vitaminc C helps with some problems with gums I believe, and there are others, but to make it simple, in the beginnning you should focus on getting enough calcium, phosphorus and Vitamins A,D and K.
4. Cut down on phytic acid.
Phytic acid is an "antinutrient". What it means is that some minerals will bind to phytic acid making them useless for the body. One of those minerals is calcium (iron and zinc are others), so high intake of this acid will make some or all of the calcium beneficial for your bones and teeth unusable for your body. It doesn't leech the calcium out of your body, but it will bind the calcium from the food you just ate. So the advice is simple: avoid phytic acid. The problems are following:
Grains, seeds, nuts and legumes are usually full of it. For me it is hard to avoid all the pastry and beans. I don't really have an issue with seeds and nuts, but living without bread or beans is quite an achievement.
Second problem is that phytic acid on its own is beneficial. Getting rid of all of its sources is not a good idea.
Luckily, all of this can be solved. First of all, there are ways to break down the acid. Heating or soaking works for nuts, seeds and beans and this should be done regularly. Sprouting is also another (even though a bit complicated) option. Second option is to eat supplements or at least food with high content of calcium (or iron and zinc).
All of this doesn't mean you should stop eating bread, but you should pay more attention to it. If all of your meals contain bread, rolls or handful of nuts you may have found the source (or at least part) of the problem. Eat phytic acid, but try to eat less of it than before. And if you do eat food with phytic acid, make sure you also eat enough calcium.
5. Good care
Doctors very rarely tell you what you should do to prevent some bad things from happening. Kudos to dentists for saying brushing is important. Too bad this is only part of the prevention, and while important, brushing alone can never protect your teeth. And no matter what you say or think, I know you know this to be true. I'm sure my sister takes good care of her teeth by brushing, flossing and regularly going to a dentist. Yet, somehow she still has issues. Same as I do. It is obvious something doesn't fit there.
Anyway, brushing is important. First thing in the morning and last thing before going to bed for a few minutes. Important note, don't use the fancy toothbrushes with five different kinds of bristles. I mean it! Your goal with brushing is too get rid of all the leftovers. Brushing your gums out is not. Use the simplest and the softest brush you can get. The brand ones are Curaprox (they have nice colors ;- ), but there are cheaper ones to get. In Czech you can find them regularly in stores I believe, in US you might need to order them.
Another note, don't brush your teeth right after the meal. It will only help with the decomposition of the tooth.
After meal, you should at least rinse your mouth with water, several times if possible. Alternatively, you can use mouthwash. You should be careful with the ones that contain alcohol, and personally I wouldn't use them all the time, but they definitely help.
If you can, gums are a great thing. Don't overdo it though. There's no point chewing gum for an hour, because it is only too much stress for your jaws. Chew gums, but when they lose their taste (I usually say 5-10 minutes), discard them.
I don't floss. I used to do it after brushing, but it seemed pointless to me. With that said, that's just me and I may be wrong. Flossing is important and you should definitely add it to your routine. Especially if you know you have problems with leftovers from stuck stuck between your teeth.
6. Supplements
I read several articles and at least two books about teeth, and most of the information comes from book Cure Tooth Decay: Heal And Prevent Cavities With Nutrition from Ramiel Nagel. I have some issues with that book, but it is the one that convinced me to finally pay attention to my food, and I definitely suggest reading it. It's not that long, and you can skip the parts that seem irrelevant to you at first (do come back and read it after you've finished though). In this book, Ramiel Nagel suggests several supplements. I think they're not completely necessary if you get the nutrients from other sources, and as a student I am very skeptical when the price for a small bottle of fish oil is 40 dollars. With that said a lot of people claim it helps, so make your own decisions.
Several times he suggests using cod liver oil. Small dose few times a day taken together with high-quality butter.
Cod liver oil (or fish oil in general) is one of the supplements that are proven to be beneficial and no one seems to argue about it. If you don't eat enough fish regularly, supplementing fish oil is a great idea, because of the omega-3 fatty acids. We eat way too much of the omega-6, but the healthy ratio should be 1:1, so use your own judgment, and instead of spending the next 20 minutes checking your FB, spend it on looking up omega fatty acids ;)
This is a digression, because I don't think that omegas are the important part for your teeth. What is important in the liver oil and butter are the vitamins. A and D in the cod liver oil, and the K in butter. Fish oil is great for omega-3, but only in the liver oil you will get the vitamins. The reason for buying the small 40-dollar bottle is that the vitamins are "natural", while in the cheaper oils they're added at the end. Again, use your own judgment. I supplemented cod liver oil in US and I will again, but from what I've read it's not anything specific in the oil that will heal your teeth. It's just a good source of the vitamins our body can easily use. Therefore, other supplements should work the same if you want to eat them.
With butter it's a bit easier. Just eat a lot of the high quality ones. Few tips:
grass-fed is important. More so than organic because organic cows eat organic soy or grains, while their natural food is obviously grass. Grass-fed is the way to go.
Yellow butter is good. Unless it is without added color, yellow butter means it has more healthy vitamins than white one.
Supplements are all up to you. I'd suggest using them and see if they make any difference. I wouldn't suggest eating them and hoping they will heal your teeth without changing anything. They just won't.
(7. Fluoride
I have no idea about fluoride. I've read several articles and studies about fluoride, and I have no idea if it's really helping us or killing us. Fluoride is meant to remineralize the enamel with fluorapatite. I am very confused with this because fluorapatite is found in shark's teeth, but not in humans. It helps with repairing of the enamel, but why should I want to repair it with fluorapatite and not with hydroxyapatite, from which the tooth is made of, is beyond my understanding. The fluoride is also neurotoxin. That is a fact that no one doubts. With that said, the questions are:
In what amount is it toxic? It is possible that the amount in US water or toothpastes are so small that they posses absolutely no risk.
Is it toxic for humans to drink fluorinated water? I.e. can it get through the blood-brain barrier to make any harm in your brain?
Again, I have no idea! Again, make your own decision. Personally, I try to avoid fluoride when I can, but I'm not bothered by it too much.)
I am not an expert!
This is a simplified guide! And only a guide!
This is not a medical advice!
I was thinking of adding resources for some of the claims, but I decided not to at the end with following reasoning:
Most (all?) of you know me and most of you know me quite well. You know (or at least I hope you know) that I'm not an idiot, and I wouldn't say anything and meant it seriously without reading and learning a lot. You know I can think critically and I wouldn't just accept first opinion without thinking about it. I like the book Cure Tooth Decay, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has problems with teeth, but I don't believe everything that is said there. Just to mention at least one reason: we are all different, and we all have different needs and wants and I doubt I need to spend so much money on small cod liver oil or butter blended with fish oil. People were not meant to eat pure cod liver oil from a bottle anyway.
Therefore, I didn't include the resources because you either know me and believe what I'm saying, so that you wouldn't even look at them. Or you don't believe me and you wouldn't look at the resources because you would say I only included the ones that support my view.
To be honest, you would be right. I would do exactly that because that's what everyone does. We might look at the studies we eventually ignore, but if anyone writes a book or an article and includes resources, it is most of the time one-sided view.
If you believe me: go on and try the following tips. They are kind of in order of importance, so avoiding sugar is most important for me and it probably should be for you too. I ask you, try at least some of those tips for some time and tell me your results. Try it, be tough on yourself and wait for results. No matter what they are, tell me! I really do want comments that you tried it and it made no difference. I'd rather hear that then nothing, because at least I made you do something.
If you don't believe me: do your own research! We are unbelievably lucky we have internet, and all the information are easy to find. Spend the time on it and look up how to take care of your teeth properly. We only have one set and with the life expectancy I should have the teeth I have now for the next 56 years. Fifty six fucking years with one set of teeth! I better take good care of them!
If you doubt this article, take it at least as another opinion to consider and then really consider it. I'm not saying the dentists are destroying your teeth to make your money, which is opinion you will hear a lot if you decide to read more. I'm only saying: don't put responsibility on the dentists. They are (or should be :-D ) here to help, but they are not the ones who feeds your body. They can't heal teeth, they can only repair them. And that's not something you should strive for. You should strive for healthy body, not a body that can be easily fixed with pills, drillings and operations.
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