Cure Tooth Decay

[WordKeeper]

I went to the dentist on Monday and was told I have a cavity. The dentist wanted me to make an appointment for two fillings and a crown. The crown costs $1025 and the fillings $165 each. That is more than I can affort as I don't have an income right now.

I thought I would try a few things to deal with the problem to stall for a while. Four or five years ago a periodontist told me that I had 2 #5 pockets in my gums that needed to be surgically corrected at a tune of $2500. I went home and began treated my gums with tea tree oil and other anti bacterials. My gums are much more healthy now and I never went back to that professional.

When I was browsing some of the threads here last night I watched the video about vaccines and cancer and saw a link about curing tooth decay. Some guy posted 3 videos on curing tooth decay so I checked out his websites: Your Return - Embracing Nature's Benevolent Healing Principles, For Peace and Healing and Cure Tooth Decay, Cure, Tooth, Decay, Curing Cavities in teeth, Reversing Tooth Decay, Curing Cavities. I started changing the way I eat today.

I don't know if this diet will help my teeth or not but I hope it helps my aging bones. I guess time will tell.

I also started Wii fit today. My little boy gave it to me for my birthday on Wednesday. We got it out tonight. It is fun. I can't wait to get going.

[liamona]

I've heard great things about the book. It's based on Weston Price's research on the diet of 14 isolated primitive peoples in perfect health, something I've been following for about four years now. I drank raw milk throughout my pregnancy, and my daughter has perfect teeth despite not brushing every day (in fact most days she doesn't).

There's a lot of Yahoo nutrition groups that are based on Price's research. A lot of members post their experiences on healing/remineralizing teeth. The key is adding fats, especially saturated fats from grass-fed animals, to your diet.

[WordKeeper]

So glad to read your reply. I wish I had known about this when I was pregnant. My little boy has weak teeth but he is very, very selective about what he will eat or drink. Raw milk maybe but plain kefir or cod liver oil - forget it. I'll just try to sneak some of these things into his diet.

I bought pasture fed butter and marrow bones and found methods for preparing the marrow. I've started on the plain kefir (after drinking flavored kefir for some time) and I plan to get some fish bones, heads and guts for stock tomorrow.

But how in the world did you find raw milk? I don't even know where to begin for that.

[Lupe]

The key is adding fats, especially saturated fats from grass-fed animals, to your diet.

What about vegans?

[WordKeeper]

I suppose vegans would not chose this method.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by WordKeeper

But how in the world did you find raw milk? I don't even know where to begin for that.

I came to the Weston Price Foundation through the RealMilk.com site, but unfortunately didn't read the information about cod liver oil and saturated fats until my dd was 2.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by Lupe

What about vegans?

Vegans can consume lots of fresh organic non-radiated coconut and palm, and either go in the sun a lot and/or get one of those new sun lamps that help the skin produce vitamin D. They can also eat natto and other fermented veggies, which contain a lot of Vitamin K2.

[Lupe]

Originally Posted by liamona

Vegans can consume lots of fresh organic non-radiated coconut and palm, and either go in the sun a lot and/or get one of those new sun lamps that help the skin produce vitamin D. They can also eat natto and other fermented veggies, which contain a lot of Vitamin K2.

would this work for coconut?

Thai Kitchen Pure Coconut Milk, 14-Ounce Unit (Pack of 12): Amazon.com: Grocery

So Vitamin K2 is what you need to prevent/heal tooth decay?

[liamona]

[QUOTE=Lupe;313203]would this work for coconut?

Thai Kitchen Pure Coconut Milk, 14-Ounce Unit (Pack of 12): Amazon.com: Grocery

I think so. Just check labels, because some brands contain preservatives. I don't use coconut milk very much, but copious amounts of the oil every day. I also like baking with coconut flour. It makes some great-tasting desserts.

So Vitamin K2 is what you need to prevent/heal tooth decay?

Yes; it works synergestically with vitamins A & D. It places calcium where it needs to be, like in your teeth and bones, and away from where it shouldn't be, like your body's soft tissues. Dairy from grain-fed cows has virtually no K2, which may be one of the reasons why so many people have trouble with it.

K2 in fermented veggies isn't exactly the same as what's in animal foods (which were grass-fed), but for the most part your body treats it the same way.

This is one of the best articles on K2:

"On the Trail of the Elusive X-Factor: Vitamin K2 Revealed"

[ginkgo]

Weston Price loves eating dead animals. I am a vegan now, but while growing up my favorite food was meat. Back then the corned beef had a lof more fat and tasted better. I could eat a pound of it by itself. Yum.

But animal foods are terrible for arteries. Vegans can have cholesterol levels of 110. Refined sugar is terrible for the teeth. I do not know if you can make a cavity or hole get cured but you can definitely avoid future ones. You can now find refined sugar in bread, cans of beans and 'healthy' organic salad dressing. It appears that some manufacturers feel that if you use sugar instead of corn syrup, it is healthy.

Of course dentists are doing their job to make money. So their nightmare would be for everyone to have healthy teeth.

[WordKeeper]

Of course dentists are doing their job to make money. So their nightmare would be for everyone to have healthy teeth.

LOL - isn't that the truth.

This guy, Rami Nagel, actually shows images which indicate a restoration of the tooth material underneath the decay. I'm definitely going to take him at his word and see what I can do.

I certainly understand the argument against eating dead animals but I and definitely not ready to sail on that ship. Not yet any way.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

[SIZE="2"]Weston Price loves eating dead animals.

LOL. Really? That's strange, considering he's been dead for over sixty years.

Refined sugar is terrible for the teeth. I do not know if you can make a cavity or hole get cured but you can definitely avoid future ones. You can now find refined sugar in bread, cans of beans and 'healthy' organic salad dressing. It appears that some manufacturers feel that if you use sugar instead of corn syrup, it is healthy.

Yeah, sugar is bad for teeth, but avoiding "bad" foods and practicing good oral hygiene isn't enough to build up healthy teeth. You really need to consume fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, and K2. And it can be a challenge getting some of these vitamins, especially vitamin A (which is NOT the same as beta-carotene, contrary to current nutritional misinformation) in our diets.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by WordKeeper

This guy, Rami Nagel, actually shows images which indicate a restoration of the tooth material underneath the decay. I'm definitely going to take him at his word and see what I can do.

I'm not surprised. You can also see before and after x-rays of improved teeth from Weston Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:

Figure 97 from Chapter 16, "Primitive control of dental caries":

"Three cases that illustrate how nature can close an exposure of the pulp due to dental caries by building a protecting wall within the pulp chamber when the nutrition is adequately improved."

In addition to the improved teeth, one of the kids' teachers noticed a remarkable change in learning ability.

Figure 133 from Chapter 21, "Practical application of primitive wisdom":

"The oldest child, ten years of age, is shown at the upper left. She has a marked underdevelopment of the width of the face and dental arches. The nostrils are abnormally narrow and she tends to be a mouth breather. She is very nervous and is becoming stooped."

The mother didn't follow any special diet during the pregnancy. She had a difficult 53-hour labor with the older child. "Following the birth of the first child the mother was a partial invalid for several months."

The bottom x-rays are from the second child. The mother changed her diet, and there's a dramatic improvement in this girl's teeth over her sister's. The mother only labored three hours to give birth to her.

"It will be seen that the proportions of her face are much more normal and that she breathes with complete ease through her nose. She has none of the nervous trouble of her older sister. In the x-rays, below, at the right, it will be seen that her permanent arch, as indicated by the positions of the permanent teeth, although not so far advanced as that of her sister, has good design."

BTW, thanks for providing a link to Rami Nagel's new site. I didn't know about it.

[WordKeeper]

Liamona, thanks for your posts. I am learning much from them and am looking forward to reading through the links you have posted.

BTW, how do you use the coconut oil? Do you ingest it, use it topically or both?

You are so knowledgable. What other topics are you conversant in?

[Herbivore]

The key is adding fats, especially saturated fats from grass-fed animals

The problem with that(and milk) is the excess protein leaches calcium out of the body. There must be another way of getting K2. Yea, there must - where do the cows get it??

I had a chipped tooth that remineralized. I had been vegan for 10 years at that point. But is a chip healed differently than the healing that occures under decay?

[liamona]

Originally Posted by WordKeeper

Liamona, thanks for your posts. I am learning much from them and am looking forward to reading through the links you have posted.

BTW, how do you use the coconut oil? Do you ingest it, use it topically or both?

Both. I like to use coconut oil in broths and desserts.

You are so knowledgable. What other topics are you conversant in?

Thanks—I'm glad I've been helpful. Nutrition is my passion, but I didn't come to it until recently. I've also enjoyed studying about vitamins, aromatherapy, herbal medicine, and homeopathy.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by Herbivore

The problem with that(and milk) is the excess protein leaches calcium out of the body.

Yes, consuming low-quality pasteurized dairy from grain-fed, confined cows causes all sorts of health problems. But Price's research into two primitive peoples' diets that relied on dairy revealed that they had none of our modern problems with dairy. The isolated Swiss villagers' diet was mostly dairy products from grass-fed cows and rye bread. They ate meat on Sundays, and whatever vegetables would grow when the weather was warm.

There must be another way of getting K2.

I guess you didn't read my other posts? The other way is natto and fermented vegetables.

Yea, there must - where do the cows get it??

The cows get K1, phylloquinone, from grass. Here's some information about it from the article I posted a link to, which you may want to read if you'd like to gain more knowledge about the difference between vitamin K1 and K2:

"There are two natural forms of vitamin K: vitamin K1 and vitamin K2. Vitamin K1, also called phylloquinone, is found in the green tissues of plants, tightly embedded within the membrane of the photosynthesizing organelle called the chloroplast. As the chlorophyll within this organelle absorbs energy from sunlight, it releases high-energy electrons; vitamin K1 forms a bridge between chlorophyll and several iron-sulfur centers across which these electrons travel, releasing their energy so that the cell can ultimately use it to synthesize glucose.13

When animals consume vitamin K1, their tissues convert part of it into vitamin K2,14 which fulfills a host of physiological functions in the animal that we are only now beginning to understand. The ability to make this conversion varies widely not only between species14 but even between strains of laboratory rats,15,16 and has not been determined in humans. The mammary glands appear to be especially efficient at making this conversion, presumably because vitamin K2 is essential for the growing infant.17 Vitamin K2 is also produced by lactic acid bacteria,18 although bacteria produce forms of the vitamin that are chemically different from those that animals produce, and researchers have not yet established the differences in biological activity between these forms."

I had a chipped tooth that remineralized. I had been vegan for 10 years at that point. But is a chip healed differently than the healing that occures under decay?

I believe so. In one of the quotes from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration I posted, Price talked about how the tooth forms a protective chamber around decay. It seems like a different process from when the body repairs a chipped tooth by remineralizing it.

[WordKeeper]

Hurray, thanks to realmilk.com I identified sources of raw milk in my state - all small farms raising pasture feed animals. The farms' websites say the raw milk is for pets. I assume that is because it is not legal to sell raw milk in my state. Anyway, each of these farms is over an hour away one way. I hope the milk has a long shelf life and can freeze.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by WordKeeper

Hurray, thanks to realmilk.com I identified sources of raw milk in my state - all small farms raising pasture feed animals.

That's great! I am so envious that you have access to a bunch of small farms.

The farms' websites say the raw milk is for pets. I assume that is because it is not legal to sell raw milk in my state.

That's right. It's always best to say that the raw dairy is for your pet.

Anyway, each of these farms is over an hour away one way. I hope the milk has a long shelf life and can freeze.

It should, depending on when the cows were milked of course. You should bring a cooler with some ice to keep it cold. When you get home, shake the jars to distribute the cream and milk, and put them in quart or half-gallon size mason jars (depending on how much you drink every day). Be sure to leave room for expansion; otherwise the glass can shatter.

I freeze raw milk all the time. The nice thing about it is that when it starts to go sour, you can strain the whey out and make a type of cheese with it. The sour milk tastes pretty good with salt, or used in baking. Pets LOVE sour raw milk. Nothing need go to waste—there's no expiration date as with store-bought milk.

[Herbivore]

I saw the video. are the recommended foods mostly about calcium? He did mention veggies, but he should specify Green veggies, especially kale being super high in cal.

He neglects fruit. I can guess why(fruit myth). Dr Doug Graham's been on a fruitarian diet for 30 years - no tooth probs.

I'm listening to the audio now. The host mentions an anicdotal story about him being "vegetarian, vegan for a few years, raw for 3" and had 10 cavities. That got me suspicious. Firstly, grains and junk food are vegan and easily cause cavities and aren't for humans. They seem to be singling out all vegan diets and making that the enemy. Strange....Calcium(and all minerals) originate from plants.

You don't need to resort to saturated fat. I don't see the benefit; only harm. From learning about nature and food, it's clear that in nature, only babies would get a high fat diet(milk is for babies; milking cows on farms is un-natural)

[liamona]

"Latest Study on Vitamin K and Coronary Heart Disease"

A Dutch group led by Dr. Yvonne T. van der Schouw recently published a paper examining the link between vitamin K intake and heart attack [...] They followed 16,057 women ages 49-70 years for an average of 8.1 years, collecting data on their diet and incidence of heart attack.

They found no relationship between K1 intake and heart attack incidence. K1 is the form found in leafy greens and other plant foods. They found that each 10 microgram increase in daily vitamin K2 consumption was associated with a 9% lower incidence of heart attack. Participants consumed an average of 29 micrograms K2 per day, with a range of 0.9 to 128 micrograms. That means that participants with the highest intake had a very much reduced incidence of heart attack on average. Vitamin K2 comes from animal foods (especially organs and pastured dairy) and fermented foods such as cheese, sauerkraut, miso and natto. Vitamin K is fat-soluble, so low-fat animal foods contain less of it. Animal foods contain the MK-4 subtype while fermentation produces longer menaquinones, MK-5 through MK-14.

There's quite a bit of evidence to support the idea that vitamin K2 inhibits and possibly reverses arterial calcification, which is possibly the best overall measure of heart attack risk. It began with the observations of Dr. Weston Price, who noticed an inverse relationship between the K2 MK-4 content of butter and deaths from coronary heart disease and pneumonia in several regions of the U.S. You can find those graphs in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

The 25% of participants eating the most vitamin K2 (and with the lowest heart attack risk) also had the highest saturated fat, cholesterol, protein and calcium intake. They were much less likely to have elevated cholesterol, but were more likely to be diabetic.

[ginkgo]

There are strict laws with raw milk but there are cheeses made with raw cow's, goat's and sheep's milk and they are treated by the law just like other cheeses. The healthiest milk is goats milk according to the USDA. More people in the world drink goat's milk than cow's milk. Of course this does not include human milk. I bet Pamela Anderson could get a lot of money for her milk. I think that Borat says about her "wow wow woee wee."

[Lupe]

So if you regularly have fermented soybean (Doenjang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and fermented veggies (kimchi) in your diet, you don't need to go to the dentist and can safely cancel your next appointment for a new filling?

[Herbivore]

OK, I finished the audio. They did get into fruit. And I was right - the fruit myth.

Funny he mentioned apples ... they are one of the only foods that help teeth directly; and you shouldn't brush or rinse after eating apples.

He said fruit inhibits remineralization. Again, my tooth remineralized while eating 10 fruits and 12 oz of grain a day.

He said he was starving for nutrients. That's the real reason for tooth decay. So his vegan diet was probably too high in grain, fat and junk food.

He said fruit inhibits remineralization. Again, my tooth remineralized while eating 10 fruits and 12 oz of grain a day.

Cod liver oil is the snake oil of the 50's

The guy eats raw organs.

At the end, the host said he's still confused at to what to eat after 30 years of looking. This info serves to confuse. Mis-info often keeps the public confused. The truth is simple.

PS - I'm 40. I've never been to a dentist. I have all my teeth. High fruit, bean and grain vegan diet for 15 years.

[liamona]

Originally Posted by Lupe

So if you regularly have fermented soybean (Doenjang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and fermented veggies (kimchi) in your diet, you don't need to go to the dentist and can safely cancel your next appointment for a new filling?

I think it depends on how fast your body is able to heal the tooth. In the post where I quoted Weston Price's success story from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (Chapter 16, "Primitive control of dental caries"), The children whose teeth are shown in figure 97 to have created a chamber around decay had to eat at least one optimal meal a day for three to five months. I wonder if the process would have been quicker if they ate three optimal meals a day?

You may want to get a blood test to see how much vitamin K2 you have—I read that studies show that those who have osteoporosis have extremely low amounts. There's even a home test you can do for vitamin D. I think you can only get a vitamin A test through a health care provider.

[Lupe]

Funny he mentioned apples ... they are one of the only foods that help teeth directly; and you shouldn't brush or rinse after eating apples.

awesome. Whiten Teeth with Apples - Prevention.com

"The mildly acidic nature and astringent quality of apples, combined with their rough, fiber-rich flesh, makes them the ideal food for cleansing and brightening teeth," explains Jeff Golub-Evans, DDS, a cosmetic dentist at New York University.

Crunchy foods, including apples, celery, and carrots, act like little toothbrushes when you chew them, and they actually help scrub away stubborn stains over time. Their cleansing effect on your teeth may be noticeable--if ever so slightly--especially if you're a coffee drinker who wasn't eating apples every day to begin with.

If you start eating an apple a day as a between-meal snack and don't get the chance to brush your teeth afterward, be sure to chase it with a glass of water to rinse away the sugar, acid, and any plaque it may have removed from your enamel.

[liamona]

I wanted to share a couple of good posts about tooth decay from one of my favorite nutrition blogs:

"Preventing Tooth Decay"

This talks about the research of Sir Edward Mellanby, who discovered vitamin D, the cause of rickets, the problems consuming phytic acid causes, and what dietary factors control the formation and repair of teeth and bones. It's interesting that this information has been out since the 20s and 30s, but there's not a peep about it in mainstream nutrition sources.

"Teeth and bones are a mineralized protein scaffold. Vitamin D influences the quality of the protein scaffold that's laid down. For the scaffold to mineralize, the diet has to contain enough minerals, primarily calcium and phosphorus. Vitamin D allows the digestive system to absorb the minerals, but it can only absorb them if they aren't bound by phytic acid. Phytic acid is an anti-nutrient found primarily in unfermented seeds such as grains. So the process depends on getting minerals (sufficient minerals in the diet and low phytic acid) and putting them in the right place (fat-soluble vitamins)."

Here's a link to part two, "Reversing Tooth Decay."

Dr. Mellanby conducted a six-month study with 62 children:

"In group 1, oatmeal prevented healing and encouraged new cavities, presumably due to its ability to prevent mineral absorption. In group 2, simply adding vitamin D to the diet caused most cavities to heal and fewer to form. The most striking effect was in group 3, the group eating a grain-free diet plus vitamin D, in which nearly all cavities healed and very few new cavities developed. Grains are the main source of phytic acid in the modern diet, although we can't rule out the possibility that grains were promoting tooth decay through another mechanism as well.

Dr. Mellanby was quick to point out that diet 3 was not low in carbohydrate or even sugar: "Although [diet 3] contained no bread, porridge or other cereals, it included a moderate amount of carbohydrates, for plenty of milk, jam, sugar, potatoes and vegetables were eaten by this group of children." This study was published in the British Medical Journal (1932, 1: 507) and the British Dental journal. Here's Dr. Edward Mellanby again:

The hardening of carious areas that takes place in the teeth of children fed on diets of high calcifying value indicates the arrest of the active process and may result in “healing” of the infected area. As might be surmised, this phenomenon is accompanied by a laying down of a thick barrier of well-formed secondary denture... Summing up these results it will be clear that the clinical deductions made on the basis of the animal experiments have been justified, and that it is now known how to diminish the spread of caries and even to stop the active carious process in many affected teeth.

Dr. Mellanby first began publishing studies showing the reversal of cavities in humans in 1924. Why has such a major medical finding, published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, faded into obscurity?"

[ScotiaCoast]

You beat me to the chase, liamona! I was just thinking about how relevant Stephan's recent post on preventing tooth decay would be in this discussion. Love his blog!

[liamona]

Originally Posted by ScotiaCoast

You beat me to the chase, liamona! I was just thinking about how relevant Stephan's recent post on preventing tooth decay would be in this discussion. Love his blog!

Last night he posted some anecdotal comments in response to those two posts. I have to agree with the people who've experienced great health upon adding vitamin D3—it's really miraculous.

[TiffyLove]

I have been researching fasting lately and I read some info about fasting curing decaying teeth.

I don't remember if it was the link Ginkgo posted which is here, if not I will try to find it when I have more time.

Hope it helps.