Can cavities be reversed?

[Joyous_5]

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.

Can you tell me more about oil pulling MamaM? I've never heard of that before. Smoothies are GREAT and a wonderful way to get more greens. I love them! My favorite is a chocolate/spinach/banana--yum yum.

[Joyous_5]

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.

Good reminder on the dried fruit, ApatheticNoMore. I have to watch that. I cut out most white sugar last fall (for other reasons, not my teeth) and reach for dried fruit more now. To answer your question, I'm not talking huge cavities, just small ones or those which are on the "watch" list. It just amazes me that this is even possible. When I asked my dentist if there was anything I could do to strengthen my teeth and prevent cavities he said to use a super strength flouride toothpaste. It's exciting to think that I might have more influence on this than I thought.

[Joyous_5]

Great information, everyone, thank! How exciting to think that I might be able to do SOMETHING to make my teeth stronger and healthier. The biggest problem I have now isn't cavities (though I've had many of those in my life) it's teeth breaking/fracturing. I'm only in my mid-thirties and just think that's too young to be losing teeth! Part of it is an overbite problem but still, now I'm hopeful that I might have some options; things I can do on my end rather than just forking over more money for additional fillings/repairs. Hooray!

If you think of other things or want to jump in, please do.

[Joyous_5]

Very cool--I've never heard of this. Will check it out. I do need to chew more Xylitol gum--I used to be religious about this when working full-time (stress, most likely!). Good reminder. It's interesting to hear that a dentist doesn't think flossing is important. Why is that, do you think? Perhaps due to the mouthwashes?

[awakenedsoul]

Very cool--I've never heard of this. Will check it out. I do need to chew more Xylitol gum--I used to be religious about this when working full-time (stress, most likely!). Good reminder. It's interesting to hear that a dentist doesn't think flossing is important. Why is that, do you think? Perhaps due to the mouthwashes?

She has a great blog where she explains everything. She also wrote a book called Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye. If I remember correctly, she designed the program so that people with special needs could use it. Some can't floss. The rinses and Crest regular toothpaste really clean the teeth well. Mine feel like pearls when I finish. It's funny, when we were growing up, we used Crest regular. (That's when I had good teeth.) I also had a problem with my teeth cracking in my thirties. They felt weak and soft. Now they feel hard and strong.
Dr. Ellie studied her patients that had "good teeth." She quizzed them about the products they used. Closys, Listerine, ACT flouride rinse, and Crest regular kept coming up.

[MamaM]

Oil pulling- swish around some oil. I use EVOO and swish, swish, swish for 20 minutes. Spit, rinse and then brush. It's supposed to be the best method. You can google it.

[Joyous_5]

She has a great blog where she explains everything. She also wrote a book called Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye. If I remember correctly, she designed the program so that people with special needs could use it. Some can't floss. The rinses and Crest regular toothpaste really clean the teeth well. Mine feel like pearls when I finish. It's funny, when we were growing up, we used Crest regular. (That's when I had good teeth.) I also had a problem with my teeth cracking in my thirties. They felt weak and soft. Now they feel hard and strong.
Dr. Ellie studied her patients that had "good teeth." She quizzed them about the products they used. Closys, Listerine, ACT flouride rinse, and Crest regular kept coming up.

Interesting--well, that's what the experts say, isn't it? If you want to be (fill the blank: rich, thin, creative) do what those type of people do. Smart of her to catch onto that!

[Joyous_5]

Oil pulling- swish around some oil. I use EVOO and swish, swish, swish for 20 minutes. Spit, rinse and then brush. It's supposed to be the best method. You can google it.

Will check that out further, I've never heard of it before. Is it really 20 minutes you have to swish or 20 seconds?

[JaneV2.0]

Will check that out further, I've never heard of it before. Is it really 20 minutes you have to swish or 20 seconds?

20 minutes. Here's a short entry in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_pulling