To us, it’s critically important to help heal the misunderstandings that our culture has around how to navigate the path to greater oral health. After all, tooth decay has deep implications about the level of whole-body health that each of us experiences on a daily basis.
In this 3-part series diving into the role of nutrition and oral health, we are going to introduce 5 main aspects of how diet and nutrition impact our oral health.
5 main dietary aspects that impact our oral health
- Having sufficient fat-soluble vitamins in our diet (vitamins A, D, E, and K2)
- Having plenty of vitamins B and C in our diet
- Having WAY more minerals in our diet
- The consumption of too many foods that are high in phytic acid
- Eating too much sugar (in all forms)
In the subsequent articles in this series, we have grouped these 5 main ideas into two categories: What TO eat to create greater oral health and what NOT to eat to create optimal oral health.
In this article, we’ll explore the inner workings of diet’s impact on oral health.
Setting the foundation…
In order to really put into perspective the role that diet plays in helping or undermining our oral health, this first article is going to explore the work of Dr. Ralph Steinman.
Dr. Steinman was a dental researcher in the 1970s who did extensive research to determine the cause of tooth decay. He published his work in his amazing book, Dentinal Fluid Transport.
Bear with us here as we wade through this information.
For those of you who are passionate about using diet to create optimal health (or who, like me, enjoy nerding out on old medical journals), you’re going to love this piece to the puzzle!
Dr. Steinman’s work uncovers some foundational information that we need to have in place in order to really grasp the significance of diet and nutrition’s role in creating optimal oral health.
He conducted tens of thousands of experiments on lab rats to determine the cause of tooth decay. What he found may surprise you.
What the heck is dentinal fluid flow? (and how does it impact my oral health?)
Fundamentally, what Dr. Steinman discovered is that our teeth are alive.
Contrary to the popular cultural belief that teeth are like small rocks, the fact is that our teeth have fluid running through them, and this is called ‘dentinal fluid flow’.
The dentin is the layer of tissue in each of our teeth that’s just between the hard outer (enamel) surface and the inner soft tooth pulp.
Dr. Steinman discovered that this dentinal fluid flow is part of the blood circulation that goes into and out of each of our teeth.
He also discovered that when the dentinal fluid is flowing from the inside of the tooth outward, the teeth are very resistant to decay. However, when the fluid flow reverses and flows from the outer surface of the tooth towards the inner portion of the tooth, decay sets in very quickly.
The thug bugs in our mouths contribute to tooth decay. If the dentinal fluid is flowing the healthy way, this flow prevents the thug bugs from being able to decay the teeth; the flow washes them out of the teeth. It’s like they have to swim upstream to get into the teeth. On the other hand, if the dentinal fluid flow reverses, then it’s like the thug bugs get a free pass on a highway right into our teeth!
Dr. Steinman found that dentinal fluid flow is controlled by the parotid gland, a part of our salivary system that is located in the region behind our lower jaw. Then he discovered that the parotid gland is controlled by the part of our brain called the hypothalamus. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to this relationship between dentinal fluid flow, the parotid gland, and the hypothalamus as ‘dentinal fluid flow’.
With these pieces in place, Dr. Steinman then went about discovering what factors cause the dentinal fluid to flow the health-giving way as well as what causes the dentinal fluid to flow in the way that promotes decay.
The real cause of tooth decay…
Dr. Steinman found that the balance of mineral phosphorus in the blood is what causes the dentinal fluid to flow one way or the other.
This is crucial, so I’m going to repeat it:
What determines whether our teeth are resistant to decay or prone to decay is the balance of the mineral phosphorus in our blood!
Through extensive experimentation, Dr. Steinman found that when he induced a low blood phosphorus level, the whole dentinal fluid system went into self-destruct mode and decay quickly followed. He also proved that when the blood phosphorus was maintained at a high level, dentinal fluid flowed in a healthy way and there was very little (and sometimes zero) decay.
Now, remember that a little knowledge can be dangerous.
So, let’s not jump to the conclusion that all we need to do is supplement with phosphorus–it’s not that simple, unfortunately. 🙂
The gritty details about blood phosphorus…
While the specific measurement of phosphorus in the blood isn’t really important, for those of you who would like to know, the magic number that Dr. Steinman identified was 3.5 mg/dl blood. So, if blood phos is > 3.5, dentinal fluid flows in the healthy direction.
If it’s < 3.5, fluid flow reverses and promotes decay. Incidentally, if you’ve had or are going to have any recent blood work done, phosphorus is a common mineral that’s measured, and its level can give you profound insight into the overall health of your body (as well as whether or not your dentinal fluid is flowing the healthy way).
Blood phosphorus balance causes the cascade through the body which results in how our dentinal fluid flows, which causes our teeth to be resistant to decay or prone to decay.
Yes, thug bugs in the mouth are part of the issue of decay (and for that, we use our OraWellness HealThy Mouth Blend). However, thug bugs are only part of the problem. Diet really plays a foundational role in whether we experience resistance to or a tendency towards decay.
With this important information in place, let’s cover the last point for today.
Since this whole issue is around blood phosphorus, let’s begin to look at what factors cause blood phosphorus levels to rise or fall. For this, we’ll use a wonderful graphic we learned from Dr. Hal Huggins. Dr. Huggins was the modern dental guru whose work contributed greatly to our understanding of how blood chemistry impacts the health of the whole system.
What causes low blood phosphorus?
Dr. Huggins explained to us that phosphorus balance is impacted by several other factors in a teeter-totter fashion.
Simply put, while we have phosphorus on one side of the balance, we have some heavy hitters on the other side, including calcium, glucose, triglycerides and cholesterol. So, when any of these factors goes up, phosphorus goes down.
With this, you can see that it’s not as simple as taking more phosphorus supplements. 🙂
Let’s quickly review the important points covered in this article.
- Our teeth are alive and have a fluid flowing through them.
- When this fluid flows the health-giving way, our teeth easily resist decay.
- When dentinal fluid flows the wrong way, decay soon follows.
- The balance of blood phosphorus determines which way the dentinal fluid flows in our teeth.
In the next article in this series, What TO eat to create greater oral health, you’ll learn what foods to eat to promote a healthy blood phosphorus balance in your system.
If you’d like to learn more about how diet plays a huge role in supporting or undermining our oral health, here’s a link to check out our free video tutorial series, the 5 Steps to a Healthy Mouth!
Also, if you’re ready to take your oral health to the next level and gain a complete understanding of how to stop tooth decay and reverse cavities, feel free to download our FREE eBook, “How to Remineralize Your Teeth”.
Please comment below if you find this information helpful. As always, if you know someone who could benefit from this information, please share this series to help us help others navigate to greater oral health.
Helpful, Related Resources:
How to stop tooth decay and remineralize your teeth [Free eBook]
Why eating healthy fats is our #1 diet hack to reverse cavities [article]
What TO eat to create greater oral health [article]
What foods undermine our oral health and why [article]
Dentinal Fluid Transport by Ralph Steinman [Amazon link]
HealThy Mouth Blend [product solution]
5 Steps to a Healthy Mouth [Free video tutorial course]
image credit (http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/parotid+duct)
Question about root canals and dentinal fluid flow: would a tooth with a root canal be more or less susceptible to decay? After all, it would have basically zero dentinal fluid flow in or out.
Aloha Steve,
Great question!
It’s our understanding that a root canaled tooth no longer has fluid flow, so its ability to resist decay is reduced because it no longer has a way to maintain healthy microbial balance within the tubules.
Here’s an article that explains more about fluid flow in root canaled teeth: Understanding the issues with root canals, part one
We hope that helps!
I have wondered if the gut-mouth connection is not a one way street. Do you think it’s possible that gut microbiome can actually come up through the acidic stomach and esophagus and enter the mouth? I just wondered what your opinion is on this.
Thanks!
Certainly. In fact, the periodontium is a reservoir for helicobacter pylori. Also, people with GERD can reflux microbes into the mouth.
That graphic on the top totally makes sense now that I have been plant based for 2 years and understand more about nutrition and blood chemistry. A high protein diet which is laden with animal meats and products is high in cholesterol, very acidic and will cause diabetes which leads to high levels of triglycerides and glucose in the blood. Because of the acidity, the blood has to rob calcium from bones and teeth to bring the levels to the base side. It all makes sense now. If you have a plant based diet with low protein, in the levels of 10% of your total calorie intake, you rarely will have kidney problems because more than that amount of protein takes a toll on your kidney functions. Also a plant based diet will give you just the right bio available minerals you need. Check out Dr McDougall, Dr Campbell, Dr Esselstyn, Dr NEal Barnard , Dr Michael Greger… they all have extended research in this area of nutrition and how it relates to our health. We have reversed health issues and kidney function eating a plant based diet and none of my kids have cavities. 😀
Hello where can I find the article on how to promote healthy phosphorus balance in the blood and also the link to the tutorial series, the 5 Steps to a Healthy Mouth is broken.
Thank you, so much!!! That was such interesting and helpful information!!! I had never heard about that flow, that our teeth have..fascinating stuff. I’m going to find out what my family and my phosphorus levels are now.
The human body sure is an amazing thing!!!
Make bone broth from the bones from grass fed, pastured cows who live on the open range. The minerals in bone broth are great for teeth and bone density. I always roast my bones first in the oven for about 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then I add purified water in a huge stock pot….garlic, onions, celery, carrots, herbs, root vegetables are great. You can use beets but it will change the color of the bone broth. Be sure to add apple cider vinegar to the broth because the acidic PH of the vinegar helps release large amounts of calcium from the roasted bones.
Simmer at very low temperature for about 1 hour. Lots of lovely gelatin is released from the roasted bones, plus lots of minerals – an excellent way to remineralize your teeth and bones!
The article makes NO SENSE! Allegedly, to have healthy teeth we are supposed to eat a diet high in phosphorous? But excess phosphorous causes kidney disease!
The chart and the article is confusing and not science based info.
The chart states that high levels of glucose and cholesterol are good – but it is a no brainer that high glucose in the blood causes insulin spikes and diabetes and high cholesterol causes heart disease – but the BIG problem with the chart is does not separate HDL and LDL types of cholesterol. We need cholesterol for our brain, sex hormones and for overall good health – but we need the GOOD cholesterol and not the BAD cholesterol. The chart is very simplistic and ANNOYINGLY confusing.
I like your emails and website, but too often the articles are dice-y….kombucha article, for instance! Kombucha does not rot teeth, nor does drinking purified water with a squeeze of lemon.
Aloha Colleen,
I hear you that the graphic is a bit simplistic. However, even so, I think you may be reading it differently than we suggest. As I’m sure you know, the body isn’t as mechanistic as if we want higher blood phos that we can simply take a phos supplement and expect that to do the trick.
Incidentally, whether this info is science based or not, we did get this info straight from Dr Hal Huggins’ mouth. While some may argue that some of his strategies were a bit from pure science, I’m sure we would agree that his contribution to cultural mindset about the importance of oral health for systemic wellness is unparalleled.
Again, we’re sorry if this info rubbed you wrong. We do our best to share information as we understand it. We don’t claim to be masters of this subject, just students who are trying to help others find helpful info to assist them on their path to greater oral health.
Aloha Will, (and Susan),
Thank you for another valuable lesson. Do you agree that these imbalances (i.e. high blood calcium, glucose, TGs, and LDLs) tend to correlate with the high cortisol phase of adrenal fatigue? Also, as Dr. Green pointed out, high utilization of phosphorus to support ATP production during adrenergic crisis would contribute to phosphorus depletion. I think we all have met folks that tell us that in the aftermath of a very stressful period, their teeth deteriorate. (Not only do we see the high glucocorticoid level contribute directly to demineralization, but the types of foods we tend to pick to help us get from one emergency to another augments these imbalances).
What’s more, Dr. John Lee taught us that in the context of estrogen poisoning (from our Big Brother, the food industry), we tend to have relative progesterone deficiency, which not only directly leads to demineralization, but as progesterone engenders cortisol, contributes a depletion of cortisol.
So we see the Yin and Yang of adrenal insufficiency: as chronically low cortisol levels forces a “spike” when our stress response is not adequate to deal with rough stuff, we have a transitory peak. Interestingly, as you very well know, in reference to Traditional Chinese Medicine, weak Kidneys leads to soft bones, (even if you resist the temptation to suggest that what the ancient masters described as Kidney Qi Deficiency may well include “adrenal insufficiency”, as described in modern physiologic terms.
I’m “afraid” (considering less than optimal Kidney QI!) that that seems to support your premise that the Number One cause of tooth decay is me! (Bummer!)
Thanks for doing such a great job for so many.
Aloha,
Jon
Excellent recap as always Dr Jon!
Precisely why I’ve wanted to interview you for years now! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by to add your experienced eye on this subject with us.
I have a 4 year old that has some major tooth decay on on… He is the healthiest eater in our house. I have done everything I can to prevent tooth decay. Brushing, I use MI paste. we recently stopped drinking milk. He just had a molar pulled because of infection and a spacer put in. I don’t want to see him going through that again. And now he is complaining of his teeth hurting again. Im at a loss. Im wondering if this could be the problem. If anyone has any suggestions I would appreciate it. My other son who is special needs has only had 1 cavity his whole life and he is 17. He may go days without brushing because of his sensory issues we don’t push it… and his teeth are perfectly fine. So there has to be something lacking within my little ones body that is causing this issue.
Aloha Kim,
Thank you for adding your experience to the discussion here. I’m so sorry to hear about your little one. I know how frustrating it can be to watch your child in pain and not know what to do.
I think there is much you can do nutritionally to address this. I encourage you to sign up to receive our free video tutorial course, the 5 steps to a healthy mouth, as it covers A LOT of ground toward this subject.
The unfortunate reality is what a ‘good diet’ is for one isn’t necessarily the case for the other. Taking a good, hard look at his diet and considering whether he has sufficient fat soluble vitamins and minerals in his diet is a great place to start. While not in fashion in modern age, liver (from healthy animals raised on pasture) has amazing healing qualities because of the amount of fat soluble vitamins and minerals it contains. Liver capsules from Radiant Life are an easy way to get this super food into the diet of someone who doesn’t have the palate for the flavor.
I hope this helps!
HI,
I need help!! I have two lowel molars that have a black ridges on myright on the gum line. What can i do to help my teeth??
Aloha Elja,
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. As I’m sure you know, we can’t make suggestions about what to do for specific situations like you describe here. Even if we could know exactly what your circumstances are through an email, giving you advice would be suggesting that we know what dentists know, which we don’t.
What I can do is offer you what I would do if I were in your position. Given that it sounds like you have active decay along the gum line, I would find a dentist in your local area who is holistically minded in their approach and ask them.
I’m sorry I can’t be of more assistance on this one. We can’t suggest treatment or even come close to diagnosing anything. We’re researchers not dentists. 🙂
I have a calcium level of 9.7; phosphorus level of 3.3; vitamin “D” of 22; but I am diabetic type 2 so my glucose and triglyceride levels are normally high, even with medication. I have two molars that are deteriorating because I have bone loss probably caused by my diabetes. i enjoyed reading your article and look forward to future publications. I use your Healthy Mouth blend and I also use a mouth wash consisting of combining essential oil of oregano & essential oil On Guard.
I am confident that any potential infection has been prevented by the use of this protocol but what can i do to prevent further bone loss? The dentist said i will lose my two teeth and suggested dental implants. I am very leery of this procedure. Any comments?
Aloha Greg,
Thanks for stopping by to share your story with us.
As you painfully know, there is a strong association between diabetes and gum disease. You see, it’s not tooth decay that has put your two teeth at risk of falling out, it’s gum disease. Periodontal disease is the process where the jaw bone slowly degenerates until the teeth can no longer stay anchored in the jaw.
You might guess that we are not fans of implants. I have many questions around the whole premise of implants and the collateral procedures, like bone drafting, that are often necessary to give the implant a firm bone to screw into. Much of my dislike of implant technology is due to the materials used in most implants. While titanium is seemingly safer than other dental metals, I simply do not trust the premise that putting metals in the mouth long term is safe. If you choose to go implant, I strongly encourage you to research zirconia implants. Zirconia is the crystal form of the metal zirconium. As such, it’s not a metal and offers a much less risky option from our brief review.
Really, the answer to your question lies in approaching your gum disease (and diabetes for that matter) from a whole body perspective. While I don’t know the details to make a dietary shift with diabetes, I know that both diseases are strongly provoked by consistently high blood glucose. I know this is nothing new to you. I feel the need to just state the obvious.
It might surprise you to hear that I was headed along the same path as you. I joke that we’ve all been raised in the ‘twinkie generation’. The bottom line is if you choose to make changes to your daily dietary habits (granted, it can be challenging due to the amount of focus and addiction that need to change), you can make substantial changes. Your jaw bone would stop degenerating and remineralize. The two teeth in question would tighten up in your head again and no other teeth would become compromised.
It’s really all about managing our immune system/microbiome. You see, the bad bugs in the mouth only have the upper hand in an environment that promotes their growth and proliferation. As each of us shifts our diets toward what actually supports our genetic potential, the microbiome changes quickly. Everything becomes much easier then (because you no longer have these disease provoking bugs causing us to crave the foods that nourish THEM).
Ok, enough. I hope that helps Greg! Thanks again for stopping by!
Aloha!
Following your blog. Fascinating! Just ordered the toothbrushes and Ph testing. I wanted to add something to the discussion that you may not be familiar with — hair tissue analysis – http://www.drlwilson.com/ARTICLES/HA%20INTRO.htm
I’ve had my hair tissue analyzed and in the process you can find out all sorts of info about your body — it’s more accurate than blood testing in the sense that minerals, toxins may show up less in the blood than in the hair tissue, because the body is in the business of keeping blood as “pure” as possible. So when you analyze hair tissue you get a more accurate account of what is happening in your body. So this morning I pulled out my hair tissue analysis (which only costs about $150-200) and I can see that my phosphorus levels are pretty much on target for the ideal range, but my calcium levels are way too elevated. Also, it shows me toxic levels of PB,HG, As, AL, Ni in my system. ALso, gives more info about oxidizing rates, etc. Anyway, for those who are frustrated by not knowing how to change mineral levels in their body, this body of knowledge called Nutritional Balancing, can be a place to check out. They recommend specific supplements to help rebalance the minerals. And as you wisely mentioned, just adding phosphorus is too simplistic. The body chemistry of minerals is extremely complex.
Thanks!
Aloha Vanessa,
Thanks for stopping by to share your info.
We are familiar with hair mineral analysis. As the late Dr Hal Huggins shared with us, hair analysis is more helpful to understand what’s going on inside a cell whereas blood analysis is more helpful in identifying what’s going on between cells.
So, just because your hair mineral analysis shows good phos levels doesn’t mean that the numbers we share in this article apply to the data from hair analysis. The figures we share for blood phos are specifically for phos in the blood. It’s interesting that your Ca numbers are high. This is pretty common and interestingly, Ca does suppress Phos. It’s a dizzying maze of info within us, isn’t it? 🙂
Aloha!
Hi there, thanks for this great series of articles and videos, they are so helpful! I’m wondering if you have printable versions of these articles?
Thank you 🙂
I think you can just print them from the blog.
Aloha!
Thank you so much for all of the information you guys are making available! I am desperately seeking to remineralize or even just stabilize my 2 year old daughter’s decaying teeth. They are to the point that the dentist wants to pull or cap the front four teeth. We know she has methylation issues and the anesthesia required to perform any work on her scares me to death. Her teeth are fragile and breaking. We have been on a mostly WAPF diet most of her life, she consumes bone broth 3-4 times/week. She consumes a plethora of fresh organic vegetables, fruits and pastured meats. We consume no refined sugar. We likely were consuming too much phytic acid (recently reduced this drastically). Her blood phosphorus level is 4.5. Her vitamin D is on the low end of normal (40) but her vitamin A is very low. Do you think these could be the cause of her decay. She is still breastfed. I’m curious how much my health at time of conception may have affected her developing teeth. We eat so healthy now. It just blows my mind that I have a child whose teeth are rotting out of her head! Also not sure how we have such low levels of D and A since we take FCLO daily….. We recently purchased the orawellness oil and toothbrushes for her. All suggestions for what else to test or do are appreciated!
Aloha Jill,
It definitely sounds like you are heading in the right direction! Her blood phos levels sound awesome! Here’s the catch… When we go about treating the issue from ‘the inside out’ via nutrition, the outer level of seeing the results can be slow. You see, the teeth remineralize via two distinct pathways (from our understanding). One is for superficial demineralization via saliva. The second is from within the structure of the teeth by the body laying down what is called ‘secondary dentin’. So, in any case, active decay can harden (but still look rough). But under the knowledgeable probe from a dentist, the decay will be hardened.
The only thing that comes to mind is making sure that she isn’t allowing any acids to sit on her teeth. Rather than brush after eating something acidic, we encourage the idea of vigorously swishing plain water around the mouth after eating to remove any acids and food from a meal. This way, we allow the enamel that may have been softened by any acidity in the meal to harden prior to putting a brush to the teeth.
We hope this helps! I’m sure all will be fine and we encourage you to not beat yourself about your preconception health. We have been there and it does no good. In fact, undermining your immunological potential focusing on stuff that you can’t change now only does harm. 🙂
Aloha!
Jill,
It is strange that your daughter’s phosphorus is 4.5 yet her teeth are still decaying. According to Dr Steinman it should not be happening. I am confused!
Will, is it possible that having phosphorus >3.5 does is not enough for some people?
Thank you
Aloha Barb,
Thanks for stopping by here. I think there’s always more to the story. For example, we don’t know what this girl’s blood phos is on a regular basis. In other words, how often is her phos in the ‘health giving’ zone? It’s tough to base everything off of one blood test as it’s just one ‘peek under the hood’ of what’s going on in the body. Best would be to retest in 3-6 months, track diet and lifestyle factors, and look for a pattern.
I hope this helps!
Recently I went to FT Worth to a Dr. Tennant as I had Macular Degeneration, he tested my teeth and he told me that my teeth were most likely the cause. I have since gone to a bio dentist who uses laser, ozone, natural products, no metals in the mouth; therefore, I had to have all of my crowns removed that had metal under them and they were replaced with porcelain. Thank God in heaven I didn’t have a root canal, as all root canals are infected and can cause serious health issues, as you can find out in reading about Dr Price who took out a root canal from a R. arthritic patience and placed it in a rabbit. Basically the rabbit developed the illness and the lady no longer had to use a wheelchair to get around. I have discussed with about 8 different dentists, at a seminar I went to, that root canals can cause serious health issues due to the infections they hold. A friend of mine recovered from Breast cancer once she removed 2 titanium implants from her mouth. Teeth are serious business and my eyes seem to be better after all of this improvement in my mouth, but I am having to detox to get the heavy metal out of my body to really see the total effect of this. Keep brushing, smiling and eating healthy.
Aloha Merry,
Thank you for sharing your story with us here so more people can benefit from your experience!
We agree that the damage caused by dentistry is so profound. We can only hope that someday it will be common knowledge that the mouth is connected to the rest of the body (aka we cannot treat the mouth separately from the rest of the body). Having to spend time, energy, money to clean up from old dental work can be challenging and frustrating. We hope that our work in the world will help others avoid taking the conventional route and go for the prevention approach. As it’s said, a stitch in time saves nine. But in this case, we’re dealing with the health/vitality of the whole body!
Thank you again for sharing!
A really interesting post. I knew diet played a part in dental health but not to this extent. Do acidic drinks and sugary foods still play a part in oral hygiene and tooth decay? I think it is still important to reduce the in take of such foods and drinks. Is it too soon or too late to apply the knowledge you gave us above? General oral hygiene is just as important I think. The two go hand in hand.
Aloha Paige,
Thanks for the supportive words! We completely agree with you… Lifestyle(diet, proper exercise, proper rest, etc) AND oral hygiene play a role in the creation of optimal oral health. It’s never too late to make wiser choices… We hope that you would apply this information in your life! 🙂
Thank you and Aloha!
Thanks for the reply Matt. I think it is so easy to forget that other things do affect your teeth. You just tend to think of the obvious points like food and smoking. Do you think part of the problem is also not regularly visiting the dentists? I think you are supposed to make two visits a year if I am not wrong.
Wish I had heard about this 10+ years ago. I was raised on a diet of natural foods and our own organically raised food, with only whole grains and very limited refined sugars. Had access to all sorts of alternative health care info, but not enough alternative dental care info. I am now 58. At about 30 my gums started to recede; which exposed roots and allowed decay at gum line to set in. Conventional dentistry could not arrest it, even I maintained a far better than average diet; though my refined sugars intake did increase after I left home at 25. My diet did include a lot of raw fruit(most of which I grew); maybe as much as 25% of total food intake. By the age of 45 I could no longer afford the costs associated with controlling the decay by external physical intervention($9000 in 5 years) and had to make the reluctant decision to begin pulling decayed teeth. After another 10 years all had been pulled. There was never any periodontal disease; and the last teeth to come out, incisors, were so well attached, it took 4 university dental students, to figure out and finally sitting in my lap, to get the needed “leverage”, about an hour of work to get the 4 upper ones extracted.
I am going to try to get any available blood work results from the past , in an attempt to ascertain what my blood phosphorus levels were at the time.
As may father used to say, ” a tooth brush has little if any thing to do with tooth decay”. Ever seen an animal with a tooth brush extension to their paw? Any animals on their evolved diet, with out any human intervention, have little or no dental decay issues. In the 1930 – 40s Weston Price DDS documented that most dental issues arose in one generation when the historical indigenous diet was corrupted with refined foods; and could be reversed (in one generation), if diet integrity was restored.
This new to me information on decay and phosphorus / dentinal fluid flow is fascinating and I await the next article in the series. Meanwhile I will share the info with dentally challenged persons I know so they can benefit from the insight. Thanks.
fruitfully,
DanL
Wow Dan,
Thank you for sharing your story with us!
We have a friend whose teeth are in pretty rough shape. He has shared with us that for years he drank a gallon of fresh squeezed orange juice (from his own trees). So, in his life, the regular ‘acid bath’ of his teeth from drinking lots of orange juice did his teeth in. We discuss this impact of the role of what is called ‘acid dissolution’ in a previous article. Here’s a link just in case you’d like to check it out.
I think you will very much enjoy the next article, as we spend some time talking about Weston Price :).
Thank you for sharing about this article with your network. We very much appreciate your help getting the message we share out to others.
Aloha!
This was very helpful and interesting. Can’t wait to read the next installment. Thank you!
Thank you again for compiling excellent research in an excellent way! I recently stumbled on an interesting piece of the oral health puzzle I had never considered: have you heard about the wisdom teeth as being cell factories to nourish the other teeth–that those glands (pictured above in your article) and the blood supply to the rest of the adult teeth flow through the root buds of the wisdom teeth? And that when those teeth and their root buds are removed, all that flow is decreased. That makes some sense and would be interesting to understand better in situations like mine where the removal of those teeth was actually optional, but “recommended”.
All that aside, I want to thank you again for the difference your work has made for my family. We were stuck in a place where all our noble efforts to fix our health problems seemed futile.
Our problems haven’t all disappeared, but over the past 18 months, not a single one of them are worse, while some have shown improvement. And as we have learned to seek GOOD news and good health, rather than to avoid “bad” things so we could avoid poor health*, gratitude and hope have taken the drivers seat; unexpected doors have opened and answers have fallen into our laps. We sleep better, breathe deeper, digest better, see possibilities and feel JOY more often. I can part with my teeth, but I’ll keep the attitude if I can… if the teeth want to stay along for the ride, well, that’s great too! 🙂
Thank you for being a part of that discovery for us.
*Just the very idea that our bodies are so amazing that they will sacrifice something like baby teeth before robbing even MORE important parts of the body is a great reason to rejoice! With that good news in mind, we can expect the body to heal when we help it, because it is amazing! (Rather than starting from the perspective that this body is messed up and MAYBE if I cut out all these bad things I can avoid more problems…?)
This information is very interesting about the wisdom teeth. I have all mine. I never had a cavity my whole life and a few years back the dentist found one. At the gumline on my wisdom tooth! It was so hard to get at and fill and they literally ruined the nerve. I still have trouble with the sensitivity of that tooth. Now I have more ‘gumline’ cavities on the wisdom teeth on the other side and I am trying to remineralize them. I also have bone loss in spots with some receding gums. I have thyroid issues and with this new info on the Hypothalamus and parotid glands it makes sense why my phosphorus is most likely low and dental flow is going the wrong way. I really don’t want to lose my teeth like my Mom and Dad did. Oil pulling is said to reverse cavities. I use coconut oil for the pulling and it kills the germs as well. Anyway must be my wisdom teeth are working overtime for the other teeth and saving them seeing that they are getting the decay and not the others. Time to really get off the grains for good. Thanks for the new info!
Thanks for this insightful and timely post-trying Fermented cod Liver oils-raw milk and cheese -grass fed beefs and butter -sourdough breads and some supplements of magnesium and calcium
You are welcome Jennifer! Thank you for stopping by and offering your supportive words!
Aloha!
Thanks for all the helpful information. I am currently trying to remineralize my teeth and also see if I can reverse my receding gums and have adopted a low-phytic acid diet. I am wondering if you have a low or no phytic acid cracker recipe that you use and like? I’d like to have this available to my 1 1/2 year old son who is growing teeth … as I’d like to not give him (for example homemade sesame seed) crackers that may block some of the minerals that he gets from the foods he does eat… I’d also like to be able to eat some as a snack too. I’d be open to hear what you do for your snacking needs when you are trying to remineralize. I heard flax seeds and hemp hearts are either low or no phytic acid so that may be a possibility… Thanks!
Aloha Christine,
Thank you for stopping by with your great questions. We commend you for looking for solutions to offer your son to help him maintain a low phytate diet. He will reap benefits from your efforts his whole life.
We aren’t the diet experts on this one. There are lots of articles from our friends on this subject on the net. May I suggest you start with WellnessMama.com and look there.
I think you may want to consider reorganizing your strategy a bit. Here’s why…
We all are told that flax,hemp, even chia are really good seeds for us and arguably, they are. However, if we take these seeds that are very good for us in their raw state and heat them (to make a cracker I presume), then we risk denaturing the very heat sensitive fats in these seeds. I’m not sure what the matrix of types of fats in each of these seeds are, but if they are similar to flax, they are VERY sensitive to heat degradation. Once these fats are damaged by heat, they are not healthy for us to consume.
I know how challenging it can be to fill that ‘I want something crunchy to eat’ craving. I’m sure if you do a quick search on WellnessMama.com you’ll come up with something. 🙂
Thank you and Aloha!
Thanks Will! I appreciate your advice. Luckily these crackers that I make with flax, hemp and chia are dehydrated at a temp where it is still considered “raw”… but your comment does make me wonder if those seeds are super sensitive… if a very low level heat will still degrade them… something for me to think about. In the meantime, I have posted in Wellness Mama and await her reply.
Lastly a bright spot in my dental journey, I just got my blood phosphorous level back and it was 4.5. And my Vit. D level improved from 17 (6 months ago) to 35. 🙂 Yay new diet, FCLOs, lots of butter, lots of ghee, lots of eggs and gf beef and absolutely no processed foods. With using essential oils and the new toothbrushes and brushing technique, I feel as if some of my enamel from my teeth that eroded from my last pregnancy is coming back…I was told once enamel is eroded than that’s it and it was not possible… but it does look more milky white where there was pink and dark red before… so here’s to progress and possibly making the “impossible” possible!
Aloha Christine!
Congratulations on living your own ‘dental miracle’! 🙂 4.5 blood phos is awesome! Keep doing what you are doing! Be sure to take notes of what you are doing so in the future if/when you choose to vary, you’ll know how to get back to this level!
Keep up the awesomeness Christine! We’re so honored to be part of your journey!
Try searching for paleo crackers – I know that Paleo Mom has one made with green plantain. Otherwise there’s Our Nourishing Roots’ or Nourished Kitchen’s soaked cracker/all-purpose dough recipe, which are grain-based but with lower phytate through lactic acid presoaking, as per Weston Price Foundation principles.
This was a great summary of Dr. Steinman’s book, Dentinal Fluid Transport. I read it about a year ago and it was fascinating. I am looking forward to the upcoming articles! I enjoy the well researched information that actually promotes dental health, thank you!
Aloha Andrea!
Thanks for stopping by and for your supportive words.
Fascinating stuff! I am desperately trying to avoid more fillings, and also avoid what seems to be a genetic predisposition to periodontal disease and tooth decay… So far with limited success. Looking forward to the next post!
Aloha Vanessa!
I hear you on the ‘genetic predisposition’ to periodontal disease. While we don’t think there is a true genetic connection, there very much is a ‘loose’ genetic connection. What I mean is the bugs implicated with periodontal disease are communicable. The three main ways we pick them up are what we call ‘the 3 P’s… parents, partners, pets.
So, you are probably right that you picked up the perio bugs from your mom.
Thankfully, there is much we can do to navigate to greater oral health. Depending on where you are on your path with perio disease, we encourage you to check out our healthy mouth system. Here’s a link…
Also, here’s a link to a blog post that is actually just one of several long testimonials we have from thrilled happy customers.
Aloha!
I’ve read a bit about dentinal fluid flow before, but this is helpful. I’ll look forward to your future articles.
Keep up the great work!
Great information but, to me, the “scale graphic” doesn’t represent your message well using the words “UP” and “DOWN”. Maybe if you change the words to “INCREASE” and “DECREASE” it would make more sense? Because on a scale like the one depicted, increasing the mass on one side actually makes that side go down. So…
“When one of these heavy hitters increases, phosphorus decreases,” would fit the graphic better. Just sayin’. ;-D
Aloha Lyn,
Yep, we completely agree! We hadn’t seen this potential confusion from the graphic until others like you brought it up.
We hope the message still is clear…
What we were looking to communicate is when we have more of any of the components on the right of the scale, phosphorus gets driven down which results in a reduced blood phosphorus and decay sets in more quickly.
Thanks for the feedback! We totally agree!
Thank you and Aloha!
Wow I never even knew any of that. I think I will def take this on board and go over everything I eat and make changes that need to be made. Thank you ever so much.
Thank you Annemarie for stopping by and sharing your appreciation. Truly, we write these articles for you (and others who read them and find benefit from the info).
Thank you and Aloha!
Great article! Steinman probably never heard the words biofilm (or honmesis or epigenetics).
I thought when saliva phosphorous dropped (when the mitochondria greedily make a lot of glucose into ATP due usually too much sugar in the diet) the biofilm in the mouth could get needed phosphorous by dissolving he teeth.
The inhabitants of one’s biofilm depend on phosphorous to make ‘the chemical currency of energy’ ATP too.
Aloha Dr Green!
Thanks for stopping by and offering your insight to the discussion! For clarity, in the article we were discussing the role of blood phosphorus. I’d love to learn about the role of phosphorus in saliva! It makes sense what you are saying about biofilm, phos and ATP! More please!! 🙂
Thank you and Aloha!
How interesting.despite years of research into holistic dental health this is new info to me. Looking forward to the next article.
Aloha Bo!
Glad we could offer you more new information! We agree! This research of Dr Steinman blew our minds when we first came across it. We are excited to bring the info into the light so anyone desiring to know how to better navigate the path to greater oral health can do so more easily…
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Aloha!
I’m not understanding the balance analogy. If the right side is high, that means it doesn’t weigh much, meaning if we get less calcium, glucose, cholesterol, and triglycerides–that will make us have more phosphorus in the blood (making the phosphorus side heavier and go down). i.e. increase?
We want more phosphorus in the blood, so not so much of the four on the right? It seems weird to want less calcium so I’m confused.
:0
Kim
Aloha Kim,
Thanks for asking! We agree that the graphic representation of a scale may miscommunicate the message a bit, our hope was that the scale graphic would provide an overview of the concept. To directly address your question, when blood calcium goes up, this drives blood phosphorus down, which results in the cascade we explain in the article that ends up with an environment where the teeth are prone to decay. Make sense?
To address this question more fully, we would have to get into the fact that free calcium in the blood is not what we want. In other words, we can have too much calcium in the blood. It’s all about optimizing the balance of minerals in the blood. Like we state in the article, it’s not as easy as just supplementing more of one or more minerals. While chemistry does play its part, we are also biological organisms, colonies really. Our ‘job’ is to be a good steward to the ‘good bugs’ in and on our bodies. For without these good organisms in and on our bodies, we would not survive.
I have to admit I find this frustrating. See I recently experienced rapid tooth decay due to LOW blood calcium. I HAVE to take calcium supplements daily or my blood calcium levels drop and one of the ways I can tell is the change in my teeth. I need to increase my blood phosphorus most likely it seems. But will taking calcium supplements prevent this increase? Dietary calcium sources were simply not enough. :/
Aloha Marcella,
Thank you for posting your frustration here. I think the game here is to find a calcium supplement that is more bio-available as well as make sure you are taking other minerals at the same time which can make sure that the calcium in your system is being well used.
It’s becoming more widely discussed in circles we are part of, the role of vitamin K2 in providing the ‘intelligence’ for the body to know how/where to place available calcium. Perhaps your calcium ‘need’ isn’t really a need for calcium but a K2 deficiency? After all, one of the known roles of vitamin K2 is to help with calcium deposition, thus remove it from being free floating in the blood. High blood calcium isn’t a desirable situation from our understanding. We don’t want lots of calcium floating free in the blood. Perhaps there in lies the misunderstanding?
We hope this helps you along your path! 🙂
i have some kidney damage ,and do not process some minerals well, like calcium , and over process magnesium, finding out these things were very hard, because ,blood test were no help. also calcium channel blockers for high blood pressure, will cause your teeth to rot and fall out, so beware, the kidney function is very important, but my kidney function tests alway state that my kidney function is normal!! no way, they really need to get better tests for kidney function.
Aloha Sharon,
Thank you for adding your voice to this story! We completely agree with you regarding the need to better identify ‘sub-clinical’ issues with kidney function. I’m really curious how you were able to identify that you had some kidney damage. If you are inclined to share, please email us your journey at info (at) orawellness (dot) com. Sorry for the cryptic email. It helps keep it out of the hands of spam robots scanning the internet for emails. 🙂
Aloha!
Sharon, thank you for this post ! I understand that mercury damages our kidneys to a certain degree. My Chinese doctor in China Town used to say:”Left kidney weak” – and left is exactly where for years I had a giant load of mercury filing, with barely a shell of tooth left around it. Weak kidney would likely lead to adrenal and other stress. Stress from my research leads to ACIDITY of saliva, and there we have tooth decay. Thank you for the info about calcium channel blockers making teeth fall out. I will share this info.
I will also share this wonderful site and the product info with all I know have suffered damage to their teeth, and are searching for answers.
I noticed in one of the comments how these products make great presents. Bingo !