if diet is very much related to dental health, why some family members have decay/some don't?

[organicmidwestmama]

just very curious, as i know of two people who both have near perfect teeth and yet have siblings w/multiple cavities. my husband has NEVER had a cavitiy and is in his 40s, while his sister, similar age, has had many throughout her life. also my friends husband has had only 1 cavity his entire life and is in his 30s, while his siblings have had many cavitys.

i wonder if there's a general explanation for this, i find it puzzling and it seems to suggest that either the siblings in a single family had different diets and ral care (doesnt seem likely) or there are other significant factors in what causes tooth decay. my husband says he drank milk by the half-gallon at times but his sister didnt like milk as much. i am fimiliar w/ dr. price's work and other dentists who cured/halted decay in teeth w/proper nutrition but these modern examples seem to show something more...

[Panserbjorne]

nutrition is a large part, but it's not just about what you eat, it's about what you access and moreso-what your requirements are. that's the important part that people often skip over. we all have individual requirements-not everything is black and white. this (I believe) is largely dependent on the mother's nutritional status in pregnancy.

IN the instances you cited the things that would be interesting to know is what was the birth order, how many years between births, and what was the mother's general state of health/medications she was on etc.

The last thing is that while I have several siblings and we grew up in the same home, our diets are were very different. I wouldn't assume they were literally eating the exact same things as their siblings.

[Koalamom]

My sister and I have very different teeth. When we used to go to mcdonalds as kids, she would eat the meat and I would trade her mine for the buns. I would ask for the white meat when we had chicken, and she would eat the skin that no one wanted. To this day she has never had a cavity and I have over 14. Oh but this a a really bad example as she was also adopted when she was a babe.

[eireann]

Two of my sisters and I have bad teeth. My other sister and brother have near perfect teeth. My brother and I ate similarly. My mother smoked thru all her pregnancies (it was the 60s and 70s.) Oral hygiene as a kid may have played a role and I barely have any memories of seeing a dentist in my youth.

[organicmidwestmama]

Originally Posted by Panserbjørne

...this (I believe) is largely dependent on the mother's nutritional status in pregnancy.

IN the instances you cited the things that would be interesting to know is what was the birth order, how many years between births, and what was the mother's general state of health/medications she was on etc.

The last thing is that while I have several siblings and we grew up in the same home, our diets are were very different. I wouldn't assume they were literally eating the exact same things as their siblings.

w/my husband he is the second child, his sister who has suffered many cavs in the first and his mother actually became pg w/him a few months after giving birth to his sister, so this example seems to fly in the face of the idea that subsequent pregnancys are harder nutritionally on the child/mother.

with the case of my friends hubby he was the first child. he remembers his mom buying 4 gallons of milk per week for a family of 5. he ate a typical meat and potatoes diet with white bread and some sweets.

[Panserbjorne]

Originally Posted by organicmidwestmama

w/my husband he is the second child, his sister who has suffered many cavs in the first and his mother actually became pg w/him a few months after giving birth to his sister, so this example seems to fly in the face of the idea that subsequent pregnancys are harder nutritionally on the child/mother.

with the case of my friends hubby he was the first child. he remembers his mom buying 4 gallons of milk per week for a family of 5. he ate a typical meat and potatoes diet with white bread and some sweets.

tracing it back is harder without additional information, I was more just saying that there can be variables. My third child is healthier than my second by miles...but my attention to diet was different so there are always variables. Subsequent pregnancies are only harder if you don't restore nutrients in between. Also, what else was happening in her life? What other stresses (which deplete nutrients) what habits, medications, what environment etc?

Maybe there isn't a good answer. I doubt you'll find one. I'm just playing devil's advocate and poking holes to show that nothing is black and white. It's fun trying to unwind things, but it can also be confusing!

[organicmidwestmama]

Originally Posted by Panserbjørne

tracing it back is harder without additional information, I was more just saying that there can be variables. My third child is healthier than my second by miles...but my attention to diet was different so there are always variables. Subsequent pregnancies are only harder if you don't restore nutrients in between. Also, what else was happening in her life? What other stresses (which deplete nutrients) what habits, medications, what environment etc?

Maybe there isn't a good answer. I doubt you'll find one. I'm just playing devil's advocate and poking holes to show that nothing is black and white. It's fun trying to unwind things, but it can also be confusing!

agree on the confusing part, lol. i wish it were simple! i just wonder these things, which i dont expect an exact answer to, but why is it that some folks seem to be able to eat sugar and flour and get no cavities and others eat dried fruit and do get cavities, ya know? crazy making...

with my husband im just happy for him that he has beautiful teeth, and i wish for my children to have teeth like that. i wish i knew the "secret".

[Panserbjorne]

Originally Posted by organicmidwestmama

why is it that some folks seem to be able to eat sugar and flour and get no cavities and others eat dried fruit and do get cavities, ya know? crazy making...

and if you're asking me (lol) the answer in most forms of natural medicine comes down to the person's constitution-what they come into this world with. there's not (in my mind) a perfect formula, there's support for where you are.

[Thyme Mama]

i haven't read all the replies, but i read somewhere (so long ago, can't remember where) that the genetics that affect *your* teeth goes like this: it is your maternal GREAT-grandmothers' health that determine your genetic tooth health the most because the egg that became your mother developed in her body.

[Panserbjorne]

you existed in your grandmother's body. that's true. however the egg selection process (thrifty genome and all that) depends on what' going on in your mother's body at the time of conception. The egg chosen is no accident. It's the one that's best suited to the current situation. And even in the selection process there's a finite pool from which to draw. Unless we're forming new eggs, and then it's a different conversation.

Even so, this always comes down to genetics vs. hereditary inheritance for me. More than anything I do think there is a hereditary component at play here.

[treeoflife3]

I have perfect teeth. My mom smoked when she was pregnant and I highly doubt she was particularly healthy with what she was eating, plus she was a pregnant single mom so had that stress. Same is true for my brother (and she was under a great deal of stress as his father was very abusive and probably knew she was going to be a single mom to TWO kids) although he has had one cavity. I don't think he has had more. Neither of us were very good at dental health growing up however we saw a dentist every six months most of the time. I personally refuse to floss.

I assume that one's diet and general health play a part in dental health, but that genetics is going to be the most important factor. Really, I have everything working against me. I SHOULD have had cavities. When I was younger I'd do everything I could not to brush (going months sometimes when I could get away with it) and we weren't on a particularly healthy diet and I liked candy a lot once upon a time. My mom was an inside the house and car smoker for most of my life. The fact that I still manage to have perfect teeth is mind boggling and completely unfair to those who are totally healthy and were raised more healthy and who brush and floss twice a day and have since they were very small rather than just since being an adult.

I can only assume it must be because people in my family in general have healthier teeth. However I am the only one with NO cavities. Its got to be genetics though. on paper, I was a dentists nightmare growing up but looking at my mouth, I was always told how perfect and beautiful my teeth are.

[Thyme Mama]

Originally Posted by Panserbjørne

you existed in your grandmother's body. that's true. however the egg selection process (thrifty genome and all that) depends on what' going on in your mother's body at the time of conception. The egg chosen is no accident. It's the one that's best suited to the current situation. And even in the selection process there's a finite pool from which to draw. Unless we're forming new eggs, and then it's a different conversation.

Even so, this always comes down to genetics vs. hereditary inheritance for me. More than anything I do think there is a hereditary component at play here.

the egg that became your mother was formed in your great grandmothers body, so it the great grandmothers' health that would affect the genetic aspect of the egg. because all the info is there in that egg that became your mother.

if the health of the body the eggs were formed in was poor, than ALL the eggs are going to be somewhat sub-par. so the "egg selection process", as you call it, is going to "select" the healthiest egg *available*, theoretically. that doesn't mean it is actually a healthy egg. also, an egg is never really chosen in the way of picking the one best suited to the situation. the egg maturity process and ovulation simply do not work like that. if they did, then we would have no children with down syndrome and other terrible chromosomal anomalies that sometimes result in humans being born with heartbreaking and deadly genetic "defects". ART would also be much more successful. for an egg to mature and then be ovulated is a loooong process. many eggs are maturing at different rates, and sometimes at the same time, in the case of multiple ovulation.

[Panserbjorne]

just to be clear I didn't say, nor do I believe the "healthiest" egg is selected. Again for me it's still genetics vs. heredity.

[organicmidwestmama]

i just found out an interesting bit of info on my hubby's and his sisters teeth. my husband was fed milk formula but his sister apparently had colic/gas and was fed soy milk, as there was no soy formula when they were kids. could definitly have something to do w/the difference in their teeth