Healthy Teeth
I am not claiming to be a teeth expert here buy I have had my fair share of dental work done and I am not happy about any of it. I have learned so much on my mouth journey that I wanted to share it with you and hopefully open your world to another way of dentistry. This post is being written from a consumer standpoint and will be about all things teeth. Why? For one reason teeth are necessary and important to our health. People do not realize how connected each tooth is to the rest of the body. Did you know that your hormones run through your teeth? How about the more surface area of teeth you have the better for you? Also from an aesthetic stand point if you want to look younger you would want to have all your teeth and keep them as white as possible.
In this post I am going to try and break down different dental procedures and processes that I have been through into easy terms and let you know what other alternatives are available that I never knew about. Trust me if I knew then what I know now about teeth my whole oral and mouth story would be different. So I’m here to shed some light. Some points here may be my personal opinion and some is scientific fact. I know that I have learned a lot about teeth in the last 4 years that I never knew and I am sure there are a lot of people out there like me who didn’t know. So its time to share.
Structure Of Tooth
I’m going to start by explaining my understanding of teeth. You know how most the time we think teeth are hard like rocks? At least as a kid that is what I thought and when I eat hard things I also feel my teeth are rocks. Well they are not. Teeth are a porous substance in the body connected to your jaw and mandibular bone. So essentially if you can imagine your teeth as a sponge with fine little holes in them, kind of the way I describe your skin with pores. Through your teeth your hormones pass through. So yes when you are ovulating or menstruating you can feel more sensitivity in your teeth. Also pregnant women feel more in their teeth and gums.
What is the structure of a tooth? The tooth outer surface is made of enamel and then your dentin and pulp are in the middle body of the tooth. The deepest part of your tooth is the root. This is very important to maintain Now your dentin is the live tissue of the tooth. You want to protect your dentin at all costs. If that gets infected the tooth is more than likely a goner. ( Although I learned you can still save the tooth even if the dentin is damaged) One way you will know your dentin is being affected is if your tooth is sensitive to hot and cold.
White Teeth
First of all, did you know one of the aspects of looking younger is that it is important that we take care of our teeth. The trend in the passing years is to keep the teeth white. Obviously the less stained your teeth are the younger the teeth or your mouth will look. We don’t need that glowing white teeth like Ross on the episode of Friends. It would be nice though to keep our teeth healthy and thriving to keep us looking younger. Note some whitening services can be highly sensitive and even ruin enamel.
I’ve done the whitening services at the mall where you use the ultraviolet light. That had my teeth feeling very sensitive. I’ve also used the whitening pen. Works pretty good although I am not sure how many chemicals you are consuming through your mouth with that one? One economical and efficient way to keep your teeth white naturally is to use coconut oil and tumeric. Combine those two ingredients together and do oil pulling or mouth swishing for 20 minutes and then spit out. Oil pulling is good for removing unwanted bacteria from your mouth and with the combination of tumeric works to whiten teeth naturally.
Types of Dentist
There are more alternative options out there for teeth maintenance and repair. People don’t know and I didn’t know. It really is important how your mouth is treated. Not to mention and I have learned that a lot of people have dental trauma. Meaning they have been “through it” at a dentist office before and they are scared to go to a dentist. One of the most important things I’ve learned about dentistry is to use a bio dentist or a holistic dentist.
Why would you want to use a bio dentist or holistic dentist? They practice dentistry different.
- They do not use fluoride in the mouth
- They do not believe in root canals. Did you know that almost every root canal after 30 days can become infected? This causes connected health issues in the lower body as each tooth is connected to an organ. Imagine you have an infected tooth, the organ that tooth is connected to can have problems.
- They treat the mouth with ozone which is a natural gas that will not hurt us but can kill bacteria and infections effectively
- They use lasers to work on teeth which can be less invasive and highly effective at fixing teeth
- They are trained to remove metal mercury fillings safely and in a non toxic form – Metal is not good for the body and if you have a mercury filling they will remove it properly while protecting your health. Remember mercury is a gas and is toxic to the body, every time you chew with a mercury filling you are releasing the gas into your body. Good to have that safely removed.
The other thing that holistic dentist do is work with intention. The intention to save your teeth and tooth surface. Which brings me to my next heading and explaining in a little more detail.
Crowns, Onlays & Inlays
Types of treatments to teeth. You can have a cavity and get a filling, you can get a crown and you can get a inlay or onlay. Now I did not know about the inlays and onlays. No dentist ever gave me an option. Honestly I feel my teeth would be totally different right now if someone would of offered me an onlay or inlay instead of a crown. (Note, I found out the onlay and inlay technic is not always taught in dental school and to newer dentist they are taught to go straight for a crown) Once I learned that you want to keep your tooth surface area I realized crowns are not the way to go.
How you end up getting a crown is your tooth has 4 surfaces, think of four prongs. If you get a cavity and it is small that would cover 1 prong. That small cavity would receive a filling. The cavity can expand and grow and a dentist would have to clean it out and now you may be taking two surfaces of your tooth. This would be a larger filling to fill the cavity. Well once you have a cavity or hole in your tooth the size of the 3 prongs or surfaces that is affecting a lot of your tooth surface. So what happens? A dentist will offer you a crown and shave down all of your tooth and cement what looks like a tooth over your tooth and then your own tooth is saved from extraction and it has a cover to reinforce its strength. Here is the downside to a crown and trust me if I was given an option I know I wouldn’t have crowned all the teeth I did. You need your tooth or teeth surface.
The more surface on your tooth the healthier you are. All of your teeth are connected to internal organs. If you loose a tooth or you shave it down that info is getting less and less data to that organ. Your hormones run through your teeth too. So less tooth surface means less information on the tooth hormone brain connection highway. This is why the trend for veneers is not the best. If absolutely necessary yes but otherwise try to keep your own tooth surface.
Why you would want an onlay versus a crown? Again cannot emphasize enough because it essentially saves your tooth surface. The more tooth surface the healthier your teeth organ connection. Now why I’m writing this post is for you to know the next time a dentist suggest a crown you would want to ask if an onlay is possible? Note: a lot of dentist do not perform onlays or do not know how to do an onlay. So you would want to find a dentist that knows how to do an onlay or inlay.
What is an onlay? It is a copy of a form shape of your tooth. They essentially take a mold of your tooth shape. Then whatever part of the tooth surface needs work, you can think of it as a big filling, they will make a piece the size of that filling. Then once the piece is made and ready it is cemented on the tooth surface and fills the whole filling in. Onlays can last a short time like two years or up to tens years. Some dentist discourage because of that but anything to save keeping your tooth surface area I would say is the most important option. This saves you from getting a crown which would include shaving your tooth down flat and leaving a little prong for the cement to attach to.
Something In The Water
My story. First and foremost I want to say “theres something in the water” is very important to realize when your dealing with teeth. Why? Well when I was around 2 years old we moved to a small town. Obviously at this age all of my baby teeth are growing in. I started to get white spots on my baby teeth. Mind you, we lived in this small town from the age of 2 to about 4. My teeth started developing these white spots on them called dental fluorosis. Essentially it was the fluoride in the water and my teeth couldn’t handle that fluoride so my teeth developed these white spots.
Now I ask you does this sound natural? As a mother if you saw white spots growing on your young child’s teeth wouldn’t you wonder what was going on? The fact the dentist have a name for this is bizarre. So yes this is a real thing. The solution. It only affects your baby teeth and then when you get your permanent teeth they should be fine? Well we moved before I started getting my permanent teeth but needless to say my permanent teeth grew in fine no added white spots.
That is why holistic dentist do not use fluoride. Be aware of the water you use to brush your teeth. The same thing stands for filter water versus tap water. Tap water has a lot of chemicals in it and may not be the best for your teeth. Even the water you rise with. If you use a mineralized water it can help your teeth. You may want to try brushing with Kangen water as it is a mineral ionized water and can have a better effect on your oral health and help with the ph level that you are brushing with. More info on the kangen water is here. https://missellen.kangendemo.com/
Hydroxyapatite
This gets its own heading. The most necessary ingredient in your toothpaste, hydroxyapatite. Why? We actually have hydroxyapatite in our bones.
Definition: Hydroxyapatite is a mineral that makes up 97% of tooth enamel, to remineralize and strengthen teeth. It is highly effective in reversing tooth decay, reducing sensitivity, and whitening teeth. Upon usage hydroxyapatite nanoparticles enter microscopic cracks in the enamel and remineralize it, creating a new layer of enamel.
Now be careful because a lot of hydroxyapatite toothpastes out there actually have nano-hydroxyapatite. You do not want the nano as that can be damaging to your tooth enamel. Just make sure you read your ingredients and you are looking for hydroxyapatite. The way this works is you want to brush your teeth with this toothpaste and at least at night leave the toothpaste on the teeth. You will go to bed and let the hydroxyapatite mineral go to work to help strengthen your teeth. Yes do not rinse your mouth out when you brush in the evening. Keep the toothpaste in your mouth.
Mouth guard
I never understood what a mouth guard was. My cousin had one to wear at night when she slept but I never understood it. Would you believe that I needed one for years and had no idea? On top of the fact that, no dentist caught that I needed it? It took one really good dentist to figure out what was going on but by then was almost to late.
So a mouth guard is what guards your teeth. Meaning if you have a tendency to grind your teeth at night you can grind to much and the mouth guard acts as a barrier. I was asked by many dentist do you grind your teeth? I was always under the impression that no I do not but I sleep very deep at night. It turns out I was grinding my teeth but not my back teeth I was pushing my lower jaw to my upper and rubbing the back of my front tooth almost raw. We never caught it until the front tooth was so thin it chipped. By then it had to be addressed or I could loose the whole front tooth. Crazy how no one caught it but I knew for years that the front tooth was thin on the inside. Moral of this experience is ask and always ask again if you think something is off with your teeth.
Tongue Scraper
I will tell you, everyone needs to use a tongue scraper! Why? I am convinced that if you use a tongue scrapper you will not get sick. If you do get sick it wont be so severe in my opinion. Tongue scrapping is an old ayurvedic practice used for centuries. Essentially as you sleep at night your mouth is collecting bacteria. When you wake up the first thing you want to do is scrape the tongue. No water, no coffee, TONGUE SCRAPPING FIRST to get all that bacteria out of the mouth. You use a metal curved tongue scraper and place it on the back of your tongue as far as you can handle. Then you pull forward scrapping all the gunk from your throat to the front of your tongue. You will see a nice white film (hopefully white and not green). Wipe it off and scrape again. You will end up pulling the tongue scrapper forward on your tongue at least 5 to 6 times. You can gauge it by how much stuff is on the scrapper. This I feel does wonders for your health.
Conclusion
I am going to wrap this up here as I could go on and on about teeth. I will make a vlog on this and add more to the story. Just to sum it up you also do not need a fancy mouthwash as not to many commercial mouthwashes benefit the mouth. You can use water and baking soda and swish around the mouth. If you remember it is good to floss every day to get the extra food particles out from in between the teeth. I am going to list some holistic dentist here as you can follow on Instagram or look up their websites to learn more. Also if you get a chance to watch the documentary called The Root Cause its is a real eye opener. You will learn a lot about your teeth.
Instagram Accounts I recommend for natural holistic mouth health:
- @biological_dentist
- @drleedia
- @blodgettedentalcare
I will definitely do a Vlog on this post as there is so much more I could talk about on the topic of teeth so stay tuned for the link.