Can cavities be reversed?

[Joyous_5]

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to hear others thoughts on cavities and whether or not "reminerilization" can really undo cavities or repair teeth. I'm reading a lot about consuming a traditional foods diet (having been a vegetarian/vegan for many, many years) and several of the blogs I'm reading say that this really is possible.

As someone with serious tooth problems, many fillings and teeth that generally seem fragile, I'm excited but also skeptical. Anyone have first-hand experience or knowledge to share?

Many thanks,
-Joy

[MamaM]

I have heard eating more greens/green smoothies without added sugar, just maybe strawberries or blueberries may help. Also, oil pulling to clean the teeth. I think eating a large amount of vegetables in as natural a state is helpful.

[ApatheticNoMore]

How bad are these cavities? If they are just the areas the dentist says they are keeping a watch on then may have better chances than if the dentist wants to drill (my dentists are never eager to drill, they keep watches,I don't think they've all developed into cavities though I admit I've lost track). I let them drill if they want to.

Sure you could just blame your diet in general (and I have, oh no how am I such a failure that I got a cavity! that's about as unconstructive as you can imagine). Probably better to start with low hanging fruit as that alone should eliminate most cavities (seems to have reduced how often I get them a lot). What's low hanging fruit? How much time the sugar is exposed to the teeth matters more for cavities than just eating sugar. So liquid sugar because it is in long term contact with the teeth (soda, sweet coffees, juice), sweet things that stick to teeth like raisins and other dried fruit (these things really are horrible for teeth, if you eat them brush afterward). I was eating a lot of trail mix back when I wondering how my diet was unhealthy enough to *always* have cavities! haha, the jokes on me. If there's a diet perfect enough to protect me despite such trial mix with raisins and dried fruit consumption, it clearly was nothing I was practicing.

I also like a toothpaste that has both flouride and xylitol (natural dentist), I also got a lot of cavities when trying nutty experiements like baking soda as toothpaste. Flouride and xylitol seem better protection. Seems that xylitol can help with remineralization some though I'm not sure about full blown cavities. I dont' use as a sugar substitute or anything, just use the toothpaste, sometimes sugar free xylitol gum.

[Suzanne]

Weston Price reported high success with remineralization of teeth and sealing of cavities (I don't think they actually got filled in totally) through good diet. He was not only a dentist, as detractors like to claim, but a research scientist with a very good understanding of scientific and nutritional principles. These two links give a good overview of his work:
http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cm...ing-to-an-rct/
http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cm...as-an-example/

From Part 1 of these blog posts:
"Price didn’t end there. He tested his nutritional theory of tooth decay by reversing tooth decay among his patients with a nutrient-dense therapeutic diet, and conducted animal studies showing the effect of nutrition on tooth decay. He also made copious use of the nutritional literature available at the time to explain these findings."

Price's book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, is a hefty tome to read, not exactly sizzling with excitement, but it is very well worth the effort of chugging through it. Chapter 22 provides some excellent examples of his work in reversing tooth decay. Boiled down, he provided children with rotting teeth a mixture of butter oil and codliver oil, which gave them vitamin A, vitamin D, and another vitamin called by him Activator X and now considered to be vitamin K2, the MK4 version. A group of very poor children was also given, besides the fat mixture, a meal including a pint of very rich veggie and meat stew, including marrow bones and lots of very yellow carrots. Sometimes the stew was made with fish or organ meats. This was followed by cooked fruit, barely sweetened, and a bread roll made from freshly ground whole wheat, spread with the high vitamin butter, as well as two glasses of fresh whole milk. The childrens' home diet was appalling: highly sweetened coffee, white bread, white pancakes with syrup, doughnuts, and lots of vegetable fat. With the Price supplemental meal, dental decay was completely halted.

On page 431, there are before and after photos of the mouth of a girl who came into the programme with 42 cavities in 24 teeth. The good supplemental meal allowed all her teeth to be saved as secondary dentine grew onto the teeth.

The high vitamin butter oil was extracted (essentially this is ghee) from the butter made from the milk of animals grazing lush summer pasture. Kerry Gold sells summer butter, available in the USA. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Springhill Jersey Farms also sells good quality butter, as does Straus Family Creamery.

[JaneV2.0]

I've had cavities disappear from one dental visit to another years later. A healthy body regenerates and heals itself on an ongoing basis, given supportive nutrition and circumstance.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Yea I just don't like people to blame themselves too much for getting the ocassional (and easily fixed with a filling too - the tooth colored non-mercury type if you prefer) cavity, while ignoring the most obvious cause of excessive cavities: sugar or carbs in *long term* (like a sticky raisin not passing like a chocolate chip cookie) contact with teeth. There's a dentist, just a dentist, that wrote a whole paper on this (which I doubt I'll never be able to find on the tangled world wide web) that most people think it's sugar as such or something and they dont' understand that it's really this long term contact with sugar or carbs that break down into it that causes cavities (although hey don't blame me if you get diabetes from too much sugar as such, I'm just talking cavities). But the butter may also help, though I don't like that it seems that not much recent research has been done on it since WP.

[Float On]

My dentist has told me that small cavities will sometimes heal themselves.

[pony mom]

I've read this entire site and have been following this program since Sept.

http://www.drellie.com/Zellie-Mouth-Care-System.php

My teeth have never felt cleaner and looked brighter. It's a bit of a hassle consuming Xylitol all day but my mouth feels so clean afterwards.

According to this dentist, the bacteria that forms from having a dry mouth is one of several causes of cavities.

The items used in the program are inexpensive and easy to find. She doesn't think flossing is important, and truthfully I don't need to do it as often anymore. This program was designed to help elderly people keep their teeth who may not be able to physically brush or floss them.

At least one other member of this group is doing this too.

[awakenedsoul]

I'm also doing Dr. Ellie's program. I no longer have to go to the dentist. My teeth feel strong and rebuilt. But, I had the work done before starting her program. I had a history of bad teeth. This diet info is interesting, though. I had great teeth as a kid. No cavities. We ate a lot of meat, potatoes, salad, casseroles, and fruit. I am now eating that way again. I also think financial stress can really weaken your teeth. (Especially if you can't afford to go to a dentist!) I take fish oil now, too. I'm going to have to read the above links on this man. (Weston Price.) He sounds very in tune...Thanks Suzanne!

[Suzanne]

I'm also doing Dr. Ellie's program. I no longer have to go to the dentist. My teeth feel strong and rebuilt. But, I had the work done before starting her program. I had a history of bad teeth. This diet info is interesting, though. I had great teeth as a kid. No cavities. We ate a lot of meat, potatoes, salad, casseroles, and fruit. I am now eating that way again. I also think financial stress can really weaken your teeth. (Especially if you can't afford to go to a dentist!) I take fish oil now, too. I'm going to have to read the above links on this man. (Weston Price.) He sounds very in tune...Thanks Suzanne!

You're welcome! Here's more on Price: http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cm...f-prices-work/

Another poster was concerned that Price's work on Activator X/K2 stands alone, so I ran a search on PubMed.gov, and found a slew of modern studies on the many and varied metabolic reactions involving K2, including a bunch on the anticancer potentials of K2. I haven't started working through them, as my school load is currently too heavy.