Do-it-yourself Dental Care

[eilonwy]

Is there anything you can do at home if you need a root canal or have cavities? Anything at all?

[kaylee18]

<double post>

[kaylee18]

Absolutely. Home measures usually do not result in a reversal of cavities, nor the recovery of a tooth that is so far gone that a root canal is indicated. However, recalcification does occur to some extent in some people, and there are many home measures that can prevent further tooth decay much more effectively than brushing (which does not even have any anti-decay effectiveness unless you are using fluoridated toothpaste, and even that doesn't do much and is rather toxic).

You can modify your diet:
- Dark chocolate (the kind with very little or no added sugar) helps prevent cavities due to compunds in the cocoa.
- Cheese (preferably the raw-milk kind, if you are not pregnant) helps, due to the live beneficial bacteria it contains; they compete for living area with cariogenic bacteria.
- Ditto for plain yogurt (or no-sugar-added yogurt).
- Cut out 100% of the refined sugar (including soda, ice cream, etc.) and clear fruit juices. Go easy on fruit. If you must, use fructose rather than sucrose (table sugar). Fructose is sweeter than sucrose, so you can use less, and it has half the energy from chemical bonds that feed the cariogenic bacteria.
- Also cut out all refined flour (called "wheat flour" in ingredient lists). Switch to 100% whole grain pasta, bread, cereal, crackers, etc. Don't be fooled by "whole wheat" or "multi-grain" on the fronts of packages. If it does not say "100% whole grain," then 99% of the time it's mostly "wheat flour." Refined flour is bad for the immune system and facilitates abnormal insulin responses.
- Avoid acidic beverages such as seltzer. Anything carbonated contains carbonic acid.
- Take your Vitamin C in non-chewable pill form. Chewable tablets and Vit. C liquid are very acidic and can add to decay.
- Take a liquid calcium supplement (with no sugar added). I'd suggest 1 gram or more (1,000 mg), 3 times a day. The finer (creamier, non-gritty-tasting), the better. Let it sit in your mouth without swallowing for as long as you can stand.
- All humans can benefit, at least a little, from consuming human milk (obviously, babies benefit a LOT). Even if you are the one producing it, expressing a little and swishing it around in your mouth can help make it more inhospitable to bad bacteria. Obviously, it's only a source of supplemental calcium if it comes from someone else.
- Make sure your diet is adequate, especially in calcium, Vitamin D, and the B vitamins. For omnivores, Adelle Davis's books are a great place to start (Let's Eat Right to Kep Fit, Let's have Healthy Children, Let's Get Well). For vegans and vegetarians, her recommendations can be modified to provide the same nutrients from other sources; alternatively, there are tons of resources for these diets available on the Internet. I am vegetarian but mostly follow A.D.'s recommendations for daily nutrient intake.
- Omnivores may also enjoy consuming chicken or turkey hearts and gizzards. These provide good mechanical tooth cleaning and a jaw workout along with protein and iron.

You can modify your oral hygiene routines:
- Use a tongue scraper like this one http://www.drugstore.com/qxp44438_33...ue_scraper.htm
every day. It removes a huge bacterial load from your mouth. Brushing your tongue also works, but is not as effective.
- Use gentle toothpaste and a very soft toothbrush. Stiff bristles and harsh abrasives can erode your tooth enamel.

You can address your stress level:
- Anecdotal reports have suggested that tooth decay can be associated with excessive stress. Some people have reported a halt or reversal in decay after they began to meditate daily, or use belief suggestions to ask their bodies to stop attacking the teeth. Though stress can certainly harm physical health, I don't know if I'd go as far out as belief suggestions, but if it's your thing, that's great.

Chlorhexidine mouthwash can help prevent dental decay, but I think you can only get it by prescription.

You may want to get a second opinion if your dentist recommends a root canal. Often there is a lot of difference of opinion on whether one is necessary (as opposed to an ordinary filling). Don't tell the second dentist that she is giving a second opinion; there is a huge tendency to agree with "precedent."
And to digress a bit: If you would prefer not to have super-concentrated fluoride products or mercury-containing fillings used (these are both commonly used in dentistry), then be sure to notify your dentist pronto and have her identify every product she plans to use ahead of time. Both of these heavy metals have been shown to have deleterious health effects.
If you have any children with teeth, please be careful to avoid exposing their mouths to anything from yours. Although many acids can cause tooth deacy, the most common corrosive mouth acid comes from a particular bacterial category (cariogenic bacteria) that we are not born with. If cariogenic bacteria are introduced before tooth euption, the baby may not keep the infection, since the gums shed outer cells regularly and the bacteria have nothing to stick to. However, once a tooth is visible, any introduced bacteria can latch on to the hard tooth surface and live below the gumline. Once that happens, the child will always carry the infection. There is no cure.
I see moms lick off their toddlers' pacifiers and stick them back in their babies' mouths all the time. It would probably be better for the kid to give it back to him straight off the floor. I also sometimes read here about the "wonderfully natural" custom of parents chewing food for their babies and then feeding it to them. Like a mother bird. They don't realize that native tribes often do not have endemic cariogenic bacteria.

And finally - my position on fluoride. I know you didn't ask about this, but it is a pet topic of mine . I grew up on bottled, fluoride-free water. I use non-fluoride toothpaste. As a child I went literally years without brushing. I have never had a single cavity. My parents were careful not to let me be exposed to others' spit as a child, and they kept candy, gum, and soda completely out of my diet. Fluoride is not necessary for decay prevention, nor is it very effective. Some effectiveness has been shown for topical tooth application for young children. No benefit at all has been demonstrated from taking it internally, and consumption of fluoride can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis (permanent yellow tooth mottling, plus an increased risk of bone malformation and fractures). The human body cannot get rid of fluoride. Like lead exposure, fluoride exposure is cumulative. I consider fluoride a naturally occuring environmental contaminant, and will not be exposing myself or my children to it. There are many effective ways to avoid cavities. It is deeply unfortunate, IMO, that fluoride is viewed by most dentists the same way that vaccinations are viewed by most pediatricians. </rant>

[lilyka]

If you have decay I would do whatever it tok to get it taken care of. It can spread and make matters worse. Also be careful not to share cups and tooth brushes etc with your children because I have heard that you can pass the bacteria that causes decay around.

and then prevent like crazy. The beginings of decay can be helped by xylitol. there is a Toms of Maine line that has xylitol. you can also get mints (or so I have heard Ihave never actually seen these wonder mints.).

and then of course everything the previous poster said. My baby has decay from all the antibiotics i took while pregnancy,. we have been keeping a close eye on it and using xylitol. It has not gotten worse. Since it is baby teeth we are hoping we can skip dental work. it is on the bottom four front so they should be the first ones out. hopefully it won't come to dental work.

the xylitol tooth paste is expensive ($7 a tube) but it lasts a good long time. So maybe $2 a month. Cheaper than dental work though.

[momto l&a]

The xylitol mints are

I buy my xylitol products at www.vitaminshoppe.com as they seem to be the cheapest.

We use mints and toothpaste

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by kaylee18

I also sometimes read here about the "wonderfully natural" custom of parents chewing food for their babies and then feeding it to them. Like a mother bird. They don't realize that native tribes often do not have endemic cariogenic bacteria.

I'm very curious about this...

Why not?

Where and how did this epidemic of bacteria start?

[eilonwy]

That's nice, but it doesn't answer my question: if you already need a root canal, is there anything to be done for it at home? If you already have the decay, is there anything that you can do without a dentist to make it better?

[Breathless Wonder]

eilonwy-
I think that some people have had good luck getting small cavities to remineralize. Search this forum- there was a thread on it recently. I've also heard that Pau d'arco is helpful.

As far as the root canal- I'm assuming a tooth with large amounts of decay, and infection underneath? You can manage the infection aspect of it, with the usual route (extra c, garlic, echinacea, etc.), and stave things off, but eventually, you will need to have something done with the decay. I do not believe anyone has had luck remineralizing large areas of decay.

Do you have a teaching hospital nearby? Many off services on a sliding fee scale.

And may I, as a dental coward recommend not putting it off? I did last year, and was very sorry indeed. A tooth that might have needed just a filling turned into a root canal tooth, with multiple rounds of antibiotics, and I was lucky to not end up with blood poisoning. Granted, there were underlying health issues, and general "self abuses", including a soda habit- maybe I wouldn't have gotten as bad as I did if I'd been taking better care of myself, but once the damage was done...it was time to cut my losses, get it taken care of and make changes, such as those suggested above, in the future.

[toraji]

I know of one woman who saved her tooth from a root canal even though the decay had hit the pulp. Her description below.

I would recommend reading the "Dental Self-Sufficiency" site. Go get yourself a water pik pronto. http://mizar5.com/omedia1.htm

Make massive changes to your diet. Read "Curing Cavities with Nutrition" in this forum.

Exercise, de-stress, and good luck!

"Oh, my tooth: I had a cavity under a filling, and being just a year out of college and not under my parent's insurance anymore, I didn't get a check-up for a year, so I didn't know about it 'til it started to really hurt. We moved to NY, I finally went to a dentist who told me the decay had hit the pulp, no hope, and had to have a root canal. Well, I didn't want one, so I went to three other dentists 'til I finally found one who didn't make any promises, but drilled out the decay, put in a temporary filling and then had me take chlorella for a couple weeks (for mercury, not for saving the tooth). I looked up anything regarding teeth in "Healing with Whole Foods" and "Food and Our Bones" (both vegetarian but still lots of really good info, before I knew about Weston Price). I didn't eat or drink anything that could possibly interfere with calcium or anything acidic, so: 30 min sunshine on bare skin, soaked grains to neutralize phytic acid, seaweed, no list: coffee, soft drinks, diuretics, excess protein, too little protein, sugar, alcohol, too little exercise, excess salt, no solanum (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell pepper); took a balanced liquid cal/mag supplement, mixed green drink with clorella, cilantro, alfalfa, and kelp; use oxalic acid food sparingly (rhubarb, cranberries, plums, spinach, chard, beet greens); only fermented dairy; chinese tonic of horsetail, oatstraw, kombu, and lobelia; ate food high in silicon (alfalfa, lettuce, parsnips, buckwheat, millet, oats, brown rice, dandelion greens, strawberries, celery, cucumber peel, apricots, carrots); no acidic food like salad dressing or citrus fruit. I did this for a couple months and my tooth deposited calcium like a patch from the inside, and then my wonderful dentist drilled away all but a thin layer of the temporary filling and put a permanent filling over it. It was a hard diet; I definitely don't follow it now."

[lilyka]

Sorry, when editing my post to make it clearer I left out my answer. in short no I don't think there is much you can do. Especially on a budget. There may be natrual remedies etc but all that adds up and can cost more then dental work (if that is a concern). it looks from the previous post there could be a middle ground of some dental work and a strict diet. And said remedy might not work. or in the mean time your tooth is getting worse and the infection might be spreading. I would not hesitate to get something that far gone taken care of if at all possible. For some reason I take dental infections very seriously. Light decay and what not can be handled (xylitol which is apparently stavia?) but I wouldn't mess with an infection of that nature. I have never heard of any herbs or whatnot that you can take to fight it or anything to put on it that would kill the infection etc . . .

[eilonwy]

This the teeth in question definately need root canal work, and while the lovely organic diet makes a lot of sense, it's not going to happen. Firt of all, I can't afford it and secondly, I've been limited to eating things like room-temperature Cream of Wheat for a while now. Not only is there a large amount of decay and a noticeable infection, I have blood and puss regularly coming into my mouth around the tooth (it's just as gross as it sounds), as well as within the tooth. The other tooth which I suspect needs a root canal is not in as-bad shape as the first one, but it's bad enough that on it's own, I suspect I still wouldn't be able to eat much.

[kaylee18]

(in response to the statement that native tribes often do not have endemic cariogenic bacteria)

Originally Posted by JaneS

I'm very curious about this...

Why not?

Where and how did this epidemic of bacteria start?

Cariogenic bacteria, Streptococcus mutans, are one of many human pathogens common in industrialized countries, but not present among most isolated tribes of people. Similarly, certain STD's and measles were not found in the native Hawaiian people, until Captain Cook's men brought the former and travel to foreign countries exposed them to the latter. It's simply a matter of the presence or absence of the pathogen in the population. I do not know where S. mutans first arose, but it is very common for pathogens not to have a worldwide distribution.

[JaneS]

Really, it is literally like the plague that is the cause of poor teeth in this society?

[karlin]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

This the teeth in question definately need root canal work, and while the lovely organic diet makes a lot of sense, it's not going to happen. Firt of all, I can't afford it and secondly, I've been limited to eating things like room-temperature Cream of Wheat for a while now. Not only is there a large amount of decay and a noticeable infection, I have blood and puss regularly coming into my mouth around the tooth (it's just as gross as it sounds), as well as within the tooth. The other tooth which I suspect needs a root canal is not in as-bad shape as the first one, but it's bad enough that on it's own, I suspect I still wouldn't be able to eat much.

I have a serious fear of dentists...I mean really bad (until recently). The one tooth leaking pus will probably have to be extracted, and the other(s) will probably need root canals. For your own health and your children's sake, you need to get this taken care of. I am very hard to numb, and my previous dentists have all been real jerks about it...saying I was making it up because I was so anxious....it was an awful cycle. A few months ago I started clenching my teeth at night and having awful pain I thought was from TMJ. It finally got so bad, that I saw a dentist. I needed a root canal. I cried so hard....I couldn't have it extracted, since it is next to a missing tooth and underneath a dental bridge. While it cost us our entire tax return plus more (due to the fact that I needed a new bridge...extractions and root canals aren't too bad price-wise), it was so worth it. I was taking awfully high doses of ibuprofen every day for a month, and I haven't had to take any since the morning before the procedure. I don't clench my teeth anymore, and the dentist didn't blink an eye when I told him I wouldn't take the oral sedative because I was breastfeeding a 2 year old. I was terribly hard to numb this past time as well, but my dentist believed me and did what he had to do (which was drill into my bone and give me anaesthetic there). It was a little scary, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat to live pain-free like I am now. Ask around and find a GOOD dentist. After you get this work taken care of, then make the changes to your diet and lifestyle. I know it seems scary and expensive now (we gave up a vacation to get my dental work done), but it will be so worth it. I can eat apples again! It's wonderful to be able to bite into some crunchy like that with no pain. I was also grumpy a lot and didn't sleep well, so it was affecting me as a mother too.

Good luck!

[eilonwy]

It's not fear that keeps me from going, just lack of cash. I've seen a good dentist, and I know that he can numb me well. I trust his recommendation of an endodontist (he can't do the root canal on one of my teeth; it has a bifurcated nerve, and it's freaky and beyond his comfort zone/ability to deal with it) as well. I'm just poor. It's not like we'd be giving up a vacation, we'd be giving up things that are a lot more immediate and important (like food and heat). We're going to end up spending half of a paycheck on this, so we'll have to time it so that the rent check doesn't come out at the same time. Blech.

[lilyka]

this really sucks.

[kaylee18]

Originally Posted by JaneS

Really, it is literally like the plague that is the cause of poor teeth in this society?

Yes. However, unlike the Black Plague, this 'plague' cannot be cured by antibiotics, since it resides beneath the gumline where neither saliva nor a blood supply can bathe it in any drug. Chlorhexidine mouthwash can inhibit its effects only on exposed tooth surfaces.

There are other acids that can damage teeth, but the overwhelming majority of the time, decay is caused soley by acid that S. mutans produces from sugar.

The high sugar content of the standard American diet certainly doesn't help anything, since sugar feeds the bacteria, reduces immune response, and inhibits calcium absorption. However, in uninfected people, sugar alone will not cause tooth decay.

Even if we avoid infection in childhood, I'd say probably 99.9% of us will get S. mutans at one time or another, since we have this habit of kissing other teenagers when we hit puberty.

[JaneS]

I really don't know much about the bacterial theory of cavities, do you have any links that support this so I can read up on it?

However, in uninfected people, sugar alone will not cause tooth decay.

I do know that this statement is not correct according to extensive research of Weston A. Price, DDS among native populations.

He found that as long as the native diet was adhered to, no cavities. But when members of the same family moved to town, started eating processed food, they lost teeth/got cavities. Once they moved back to their native village, and native diet was resumed, all decay stopped.

Interestingly enough, he found that proper minerals and fat soluble vitamins in the diet reduced bacterial counts in the saliva down to very low to nothing.
More on website and published works, www.westonaprice.org

[kaylee18]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streptococcus_mutans
http://www.mchoralhealth.org/OpenWide/mod1_2.htm

A Google search for "Streptococcus mutans" yielded many informative hits as well.

Weston Price's observations were consistent with the existence of cariogenic bacteria. Since S. mutans requires a sugar source to produce the acid that corrodes teeth, and indigenous diets tend to be very low in simple sugar as well as high in minerals that aid in tooth remineralization (while industrialized diets are high in processed sugar and low in mineral content), diet makes a huge difference in the decay-producing potential of these bacteria.
The people studied probably either had cariogenic bacteria present in the population but not causing decay due to not being fed sugar, or were exposed to it when they moved into the described community. S. mutans survives without simple sugars, but does not produce acid from non-carbohydrate calorie sources.
Bad diet alone can cause the teeth to be softer and prone to breakage, since the body cannot mineralize teeth properly if it isn't provided with a supply of minerals. Also, as I mentioned earlier, other acids (such as lemon juice) can corrode tooth enamel. Hwever, sugar alone does not cause tooth decay.

[seekermage]

Sorry to hear about your problem. I would seriously look into getting it taken care of sooner then later though. Problems with your teeth, especially something as infected as your current tooth can get to the baby (I noticed your pregnant?) and cause problems and you certainly dont want that! For help with some relief in your mouth and the infection you might want to just so some salt water gargeling....should help stop the bleeding and work on the infection some. I would seriously look into getting the work done soon though. Are you eligible for assistance? Perhaps even call around, some dentists can put you on a payment plan etc. Good luck!