Do you give much thought to your teeth? When they hurt you pay them a lot of attention because of the pain, but when they are fine most of us don’t give them much thought. Think again, they are really pretty interesting. We know about their job of chewing food down into a soft mush so we can swallow it without choking, but there is more going on than just that.
Several months ago I had a news clip in one of my newsletters about atherosclerosis. Researchers did a genetic analysis of the hardened plaque found in arteries and discovered that it contained non-human DNA. More specifically it contained the DNA from a type of bacteria found exclusively in the mouth. What they were saying is that it was mouth bacteria that was the cause of the hardening of the arteries. The big question was ‘how did those bacteria get into the arteries in the first place?’
Over a hundred years ago there was a ton of research done on this very subject by a research team headed by Dr. Weston A. Price at the Mayo clinic. Dr. Price was the head of the dental society at that time and wanted to do research into the effects of nutrition on dental and physical health. One of the things they discovered was that if they removed a tooth from a sick person and placed the tooth under the skin of a rabbit, in short order the rabbit would end up with the same disease the sick person had – even when the disease was something degenerative like heart disease or diabetes. This applied particularly to teeth that had received a root canal.
Clearly there is more going on in teeth than just chewing.
I have written extensively about the ravages on our health created by a leaky gut because of the leakage of large proteins and parts of bacteria coatings (LPS) getting into the bloodstream. These things drive our immune system crazy. What we have not considered is that our teeth provide a direct access point for bacteria to enter our body. How can that be? Teeth look solid and hard, but at the gum line and below the gum line the teeth are different. The hard enamel outer covering of the tooth is gone and the softer inner dentin layer comes to the surface. This layer is filled with tiny tubules going from the outside down into the blood filled pulp of the tooth. Each tooth has so many tubules that if they were all arranged end to end it would reach 3 miles. Those tubules are tunnels big enough for bacteria to travel down. In addition many mouth bacteria secrete acid that dissolves the dentin and makes the tubules even larger.
In a healthy tooth the pulp pushes fluid outward along with nutrients to help rebuild the tooth. This outward flow mechanically pushes out most of the bacteria, but in a tooth with a root canal there is no pulp to do this so the tooth becomes one huge bacteria hotel with 3 miles of tunnels filled with bacteria. Literally a tooth with a root canal is a permanent infection site. Dr. Price proved this over a hundred years ago. Dentists of the time did not like his results and buried the information from his group’s 14 years of research. His published works are available here.
The bottom line here is that keeping your teeth clean and healthy is way more important than just avoiding unpleasant trips to the dentist. Your teeth are the very first step in your digestive tract. Everything you are physically begins with your digestion. Any health challenge you may face will be impacted directly by the foods you eat and digest. A failure of any part of your digestive system will eventually produce failures in the rest of your body.
Many years ago I wanted to strengthen my teeth because of sensitivity. My dentist suggested fluoride, but a little research turned up that the increase hardening created by fluoride was so thin that it simply wore off in a few days. The negative toxic effects of fluoride for so little long term benefit prompted me to decline the suggestion. Instead I went into research mode again and I discovered a paper on strengthening teeth with theobromine, a compound found in chocolate. The researchers had already brought their idea to market by the time I found the article as a tooth paste called Theodent. I bought some and liked the results. The only problem was that the clinical strength product was over $100 a tube. Check it here.
I never use commercial toothpaste because it is full of toxic ingredients I want no where near my mouth – even the groovy natural ones. If you would like to check the toxicity of your toothpaste go to www.ewg.org/skindeep. I especially avoid sodium lauryl anything, a foaming agent. Foam does nothing to help clean the teeth. Old school tooth powder was just a mixture of salt and baking soda – pretty nasty. You can brush with just plain coconut oil, but it does not do a good job of cleaning away food stains. Various mixtures of baking soda and coconut oil will work ok, but it does not strengthen teeth or help remineralize the teeth. Then there is the whole issue of periodontal disease/ gum health.
With persistence, research, and trial and error, I have created a nontoxic toothpaste that meets all my qualifications.
Bacteria removal – xylitol, peppermint & myrrh oils, coconut oil, theobromine
Plaque removal – baking soda, coconut oil
Teeth hardening – theobromine, calcium, phosphorus
Teeth remineralizing – coral calcium and dicalcium phosphate
Teeth whitening – baking soda, peppermint
Healing gums – CoQ10, peppermint & myrrh oils, coconut oil
Trying to stuff this all into toothpaste tubes is not only too much work, but the fillable toothpaste tubes available to me are really for oil paints and made of soft aluminum – another toxin. So I just put the paste in a small tub and use the toothbrush to scoop out a pea sized quantity. The natural antibiotic ingredients in the toothpaste keep it fresh. It has a lovely peppermint taste and a light golden color from the CoQ10.
For fun I thought I would make up some of this powerful tooth cleanser for patients to try. I find that most of my patients are not keen on making up their own natural health remedies. But if you would like to make your own then please do. The ingredients above are the ones I believe will give you superior results in caring for your teeth. The base oil is organic coconut, MCT oil, and coco butter. I used an equal mix of xylitol and baking soda and added in dicalcium phosphate, coral calcium (to get the trace minerals), theobromine, CoQ10, peppermint and myrrh oils. The theobromine and CoQ10 are the expensive ingredients at $14 per ounce and $24 per ounce respectively, so this is not an inexpensive toothpaste to make. This is if you want toothpaste much better than you can buy anywhere. I made up a dozen 2.5 ounce jars yesterday and will have them in the office Monday for $12 a tub.