Take Care Of Your Teeth

Gadsie

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Just wanted to make a quick tip thread on oral health, because looking around the forum I see many people with teeth issues. I’m just gonna describe some basic well-known stuff but it might help some people.

Mainstream medical science is actually very good regarding oral health, as opposed to some other medical fields.

The “ray peat diet” does not cause tooth decay. Yes, sugar causes decay if not properly dealt with.

There’s 2 things you want to be doing:
1. DON’T constantly snack throughout the day. Limit your food consumption frequency to about 6-7 times max (don’t slowly sip OJ please). It’s not the amount of carbohydrate that matters for your teeth, it’s the frequency you eat it with. When you eat, your teeth demineralize (lose calcium and phosphorus), when you stop eating, your teeth remineralize. This is also why t’s a good idea to finish every meal off with some milk or cheese.

2. Brush and floss twice a day. Proper brushing requires more effort than most people think. Seriously, I would advise to look up youtube videos on technique. Use an electric toothbrush with the softest brushhead you can find (this is very important for your gums). Brush every single surface with attention, I personally always use a mirror. Also, brush the gumline with MINIMAL pressure (the brushhead just needs to make contact, any additional pressure is unnecessary). This way you remove plaque without causing gingival recession by brushing too hard.
While I do advise fluorized toothpaste (even ray peat says topical fluoride is not a big issue), it’s the brushing that’s most important. Many dentists actually believe that you can do without toothpaste if your brushing technique is on point.
 

baccheion

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Salivary flow (associated with acetylcholine and histamine) and nutrient sufficiency are more important than brushing. 1 mg+ vitamin K2 MK-4, for example, keeps the mouth clean and minimizes tartar. Vitamin D3, vitamin C, magnesium, etc also improves oral health.

Use a glycerine free toothpaste to allow remineralization, as glycerine is said to coat teeth.
 

Attakai

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Yes.
1. Stop snacking/drinking ANYTHING between meals. It takes about 30 minutes for you mouth to stabilize PH and start re-mineralizing teeth. If you're snacking or drinking in between you mess with this.
2. Increase salivary flow by eating a couple xylitol mints after finishing eating and drinking a meal. Xylitol also helps with plaque.
3. Brush properly. DON'T BRUSH HARD. Brush the gums lightly.
4. Listerine doesn't get rid of plaque, but prevents you from developing more plaque. HOWEVER only use Listerine AFTER brushing, and If you use Listerine follow it up with ACT mouthwash as it is acidic and you do not want to leave it on your teeth.
5. Get a new tooth brush every couple weeks. Try not to store it in the bathroom. Let it air dry.
 

Jib

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Novamin is also good stuff. There is also a new "Biomin" here: BioMin F Toothpaste | BioMin Technologies Limited

It supposedly is similar to Novamin but even more effective. Anyway, you can get Novamin from overseas via eBay, as the "Sensodyne Repair and Protect" toothpaste. You do not want to rinse after brushing, simply spit, as the toothpaste needs to stay in the mouth and coating the teeth to take effect.

Dr. Perio's extra soft toothbrushes are my favorite.

Oil pulling with coconut oil is also helpful, although I don't do that as much these days as I've been using the Novamin toothpaste. For years I used nothing but magnesium chloride on a toothbrush and never had a single cavity during that time. It's now been a few years since I've gone to a dentist. Would probably be a good idea to get a checkup there again sometime soon.
 
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Gadsie

Gadsie

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Yes.
1. Stop snacking/drinking ANYTHING between meals. It takes about 30 minutes for you mouth to stabilize PH and start re-mineralizing teeth. If you're snacking or drinking in between you mess with this.
2. Increase salivary flow by eating a couple xylitol mints after finishing eating and drinking a meal. Xylitol also helps with plaque.
3. Brush properly. DON'T BRUSH HARD. Brush the gums lightly.
4. Listerine doesn't get rid of plaque, but prevents you from developing more plaque. HOWEVER only use Listerine AFTER brushing, and If you use Listerine follow it up with ACT mouthwash as it is acidic and you do not want to leave it on your teeth.
5. Get a new tooth brush every couple weeks. Try not to store it in the bathroom. Let it air dry.

I always heard mouthwash is useless. What's the mechanism behind it?
Also I think drinking milk in between might actually be fine. It's above the critical ph and it contains calcium and phosphor and lactose is not that damaging to the teeth.
 

LiveWire

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I use the hardest toothbrush there is, so hard they dont make them anymore. Have been using it for decades. I brush everywhich way, all the wrong ways, and I brush hard.

I routinely fall asleep without brushing teeth, with orange juice or honey being my last meal.

I don’t get cavities. My teeth are often complimented on how healthy they look.

I honestly think the majority of cavities and other dental problems come from within, from how healthy you are and how good your vitamin and mineral balance is.

I don’t floss, but I use waterpick. When compared to waterpick, flossing is a joke.
 
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Gadsie

Gadsie

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I use the hardest toothbrush there is, so hard they dont make them anymore. Have been using it for decades. I brush everywhich way, all the wrong ways, and I brush hard.

I routinely fall asleep without brushing teeth, with orange juice or honey being my last meal.

I don’t get cavities. My teeth are often complimented on how healthy they look.

I honestly think the majority of cavities and other dental problems come from within, from how healthy you are and how good your vitamin and mineral balance is.

I don’t floss, but I use waterpick. When compared to waterpick, flossing is a joke.

That’s great, although I would keep an eye on it because it might not go so well forever. My girlfriend also hardly brushes at all, snacks all day, takes SSRIs and doesn’t even eat that nutrient dense and still has good teeth for the most part. Some people are lucky, but the luck might run out sometime.
 

schultz

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Also I think drinking milk in between might actually be fine. It's above the critical ph and it contains calcium and phosphor and lactose is not that damaging to the teeth.

Milk has several things in it that are protective.

Cheese is beneficial as well.

Sugar/starch combinations appear to be the worst for the teeth (cookies, etc.). (Starch Combined with Sucrose Provokes Greater Root Dentine Demineralization than Sucrose Alone. - PubMed - NCBI) I would imagine that sticky candy would be right up there as well (they usually contain acids too)

Some whole fruits, and foods in general, can have protective things in them. Raisins for example (Raisins and oral health. - PubMed - NCBI). You would expect them to be pretty damaging, considering they are sugar dense and sticky, but they have things in them that help to prevent damage. Whole foods have things that pure sugar just doesn't have. Even honey has been shown to be protective, and it's not just the insanely expensive manuka honey (swiss multi-floral was shown to be comparable to manuka honey with an NPA rating under 15). The protection comes from more than the antibacterial effect and includes mitigation of dental plaque. Cranberries, tea, coffee, cocoa, grapes and apples have also shown to have protective effects. Other fruits might be protective, we just haven't studied them.

I'm not saying to brush your teeth with honey. The point is whole foods can at least help mitigate damage.

You can also add baking soda to orange juice to make it less acidic.

Here is a nice little snippet on dairy and teeth: (Functional foods/ingredients and dental caries. - PubMed - NCBI)

"Dairy products were recognised in the late 1950s as a food group that is effective in preventing dental caries. Shaw et al. [76] observed that milk, ice cream and cheese lowered incidence of dental caries in rats. Desalivated rats given 2% milk or lactose-reduced milk remained essentially caries-free [6]. Epidemiological studies in recent
years indicate that children [65, 66] and adolescents [67] with low incidence of dental caries drank more milk than those with high caries incidence. Elderly people who eat cheese several times per week had a lower incidence of root surface caries development [64]. Several reviews describe the role of milk and dairy products in dental caries prevention [33, 35, 54].

The dairy components that have anticariogenic properties are calcium, phosphate, casein and lipids. Casein added to food (e.g. chocolate) reduced cariogenicity, but casein’s adverse organoleptic properties and the large amount required for efficacy precluded its use in a food. Digestion of casein did not destroy the proteins’ ability to prevent enamel demineralisation in a human oral caries model. Two casein digestives, caseinophosphopeptides (CPP) and glycomacropeptide (GMP), have been patented for use in common personal hygiene products to prevent dental caries. Research has shown CPP and GMP to be growth inhibitory to the cariogenic bacteria S. mutans and other species [32, 56, 57]. Additionally, CPP forms nanoclusters with amorphous calcium phosphate at the tooth surface to provide a reservoir of calcium and phosphate ions to maintain a state of super saturation with respect to tooth enamel.

Caseinophosphopeptides (CPP) can be produced forming colloidal complexes with calcium and phosphate in solution (CPP–ACP). The use of CPP–ACP would increase
the level of amorphous calcium phosphate in plaque increasing the degree of saturation. Specific pathogen-free rats orally infected with S. sobrinus had a reduced incidence of smooth surface caries after CPP–ACP solutions were applied to the animal’s teeth twice daily. The in situ caries model has shown the ability of CPP–ACP to prevent enamel demineralisation and promote remineralisation. Clinical experiments have been conducted with CCP–ACP in chewing gum (for overview see: [70]).

Schupbach et al. [75] demonstrated that GMP could prevent cariogenic bacterial adhesion in an in vitro model. The researchers speculate that GMP reduces dental caries by changing the microbial population of dental plaque from being predominated by S. mutans and S. sangius to a less cariogenic population predominated by Actinomyces viscous. In vitro experiments, Reynolds et al. [69] showed GMP to have an inhibitory activity to enamel demineralisation.

Other bioactive components of milk that might play a role in prevention of dental caries include lactoferrin, lysozyme, lactoperoxidase, folate-binding protein, immunoglobulin proteins, growth factors and others (Table 4). For example, lactoferrin inhibits adherence of S. mutans to saliva-coated hydroxyapatite beads. Lactoperoxidase and lysozyme synergistically inhibit glucose metabolism by S. mutans [43]. Proteose peptone fractions 3 and 5 were shown to inhibit demineralisation of hydroxyapatite in vitro [24]."
 

schultz

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Glycine has also been shown to be protective. I thought people would find this interesting. (Effect of dietary supplementation of glycine on caries development and lipids in rat molars. - PubMed - NCBI)

"Glycine was added to a cariogenic diet at a 4% level. This supplemented diet and the unsupplemented diet were fed to two groups of rats for 92 days beginning when they were 8 days old.

The glycine supplementation caused a slight decrease in gain in body weight in comparison with the control group. This effect was the result of decreased food consumption. The feeding of glycine had no effect on bone growth and the retention of either calcium or phosphorus.

The feeding of glycine reduced the development of caries by approximately 65.7%. This caries reduction was also associated with a reduction in total lipid content.

Glycine supplementation also modified the fatty acid composition of teeth. The saturated-unsaturated fatty acids ratio of teeth was increased as a result of glycine consumption."


I found that last part interesting. It says this earlier in the study...

"Dietary intake of glycine caused a 48% increase in the saturated to unsaturated fatty acids ratio in molars. This increase in saturated to unsaturated fatty acids ratio was
primarily a result of the increase in the proportion of stearic acid and the decrease in the proportion of oleic acid."

Edit: It should be noted that the decrease in weight gain of the glycine group probably has something to do with the other amino acids needed for growth. Possibly the glycine replaced those amino acids in the diet, or displaced them in the body?
 
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Gadsie

Gadsie

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Glycine has also been shown to be protective. I thought people would find this interesting. (Effect of dietary supplementation of glycine on caries development and lipids in rat molars. - PubMed - NCBI)

"Glycine was added to a cariogenic diet at a 4% level. This supplemented diet and the unsupplemented diet were fed to two groups of rats for 92 days beginning when they were 8 days old.

The glycine supplementation caused a slight decrease in gain in body weight in comparison with the control group. This effect was the result of decreased food consumption. The feeding of glycine had no effect on bone growth and the retention of either calcium or phosphorus.

The feeding of glycine reduced the development of caries by approximately 65.7%. This caries reduction was also associated with a reduction in total lipid content.

Glycine supplementation also modified the fatty acid composition of teeth. The saturated-unsaturated fatty acids ratio of teeth was increased as a result of glycine consumption."


I found that last part interesting. It says this earlier in the study...

"Dietary intake of glycine caused a 48% increase in the saturated to unsaturated fatty acids ratio in molars. This increase in saturated to unsaturated fatty acids ratio was
primarily a result of the increase in the proportion of stearic acid and the decrease in the proportion of oleic acid."

Edit: It should be noted that the decrease in weight gain of the glycine group probably has something to do with the other amino acids needed for growth. Possibly the glycine replaced those amino acids in the diet, or displaced them in the body?

Teeth have fat? Human teeth too? That’s new to me lol
 

Stramonium

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Swishing sodium bicarbonate after drinking OJ has helped. I would advice not to brush your teeth immediately after drinking something like orange juice it will absolutely destroy your enamel, rinse your mouth often instead
 

Inaut

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novamin has helped my teeth tremendously...

i think poor gut health and grinding my teeth at night greatly eroded my enamel a few years ago. Since then i started using toothpaste with novamin (sensodyne) (in addition to fixing my gut) and the enamel has been restored slightly... They aren't sensitize to foods anymore. I also do BS and xylitol rinses after food now to assist with acid reduction.

Biomin sounds quite interesting
 
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Gadsie

Gadsie

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Swishing sodium bicarbonate after drinking OJ has helped. I would advice not to brush your teeth immediately after drinking something like orange juice it will absolutely destroy your enamel, rinse your mouth often instead

Yes, very important. I will include that in the OP too. Edit: too late to edit :p:
 

Luann

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Thanks @Gadsie this topic is SO relevant right now.

Snacking constantly thru the day will absolutely hurt your teeth unless you are rinsing them off every time. The combo of acids, and sugars that feed acid-producing bacteria, is no good.

I must add my 2c where potatoes really don't work for my teeth. I've known this for a long time and been silly enough to try to make it work but its not going to happen. Potatoes caused me problems 100%, I don't know whether the heavy pesticide contamination or maybe phytic acid from them.

"When dry weights are compared, potatoes have almost as much phytate as seeds. Even though cooking typically eliminates some phytate, that’s not true in potatoes. Whether potatoes are baked, boiled, microwaved or fried, they retain virtually all of their phytate. Based on average consumption, the researchers noted that phytate consumed in cooked potatoes may account for a substantial portion of the average American’s daily intake of phytate" link

Hope I didn't derail you. Good topic
 
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schultz

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Teeth have fat? Human teeth too? That’s new to me lol

Apparently, lol. I'm not sure if it is unique to rats or not. I thought the glycine might be important for the dentine part of the teeth.

It says in the introduction...

"Since lipids are involved in the calcification process, it is possible that any abnormality in the mineralization of teeth as noticed in tryptophan deficiency is associated with the alteration of the lipid composition of teeth. Dietary glycine may be an important factor in this respect primarily because it is a major (20%) component of tooth collagen. Although the lipid composition of the tooth is influenced by various factors, such as dental caries, dietary energy, essential fatty acid deficiency, and dietary phosphate, a review of the literature showed no report concerning the influence of dietary free amino acids on the lipid composition of teeth."


It says this as well which is interesting...

"It is known from an earlier study that the dietary supplementation of DL-tryptophan increases the level of salivary tryptophan and the incidence of caries. Even though it has not been tested, a possibility remains that this caries-stimulatory effect of DL-tryptophan is associated with the phosphaturic effect of its L-Component."
 

Cirion

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I think overall health of the body determines oral health.

Though I absolutely agree that oral care is critical, especially when you aren't in good health, because this puts your teeth in a highly compromised position.

I started having teeth problems myself, but I know it's because I still have health problems. That said, until I get better, I'm more proactive. Xylitol, at least 4x mouth washes a day (both before AND after brushing teeth), flossing, using glass straws now for drinks that aren't water... etc...
 

schultz

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I think overall health of the body determines oral health.

I don't think this is necessarily true.

I've seen studies where a tribe is in pitiful health but they have excellent teeth. I'll find the study I'm thinking of later when I have access to my computer.
 

Cirion

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What do you think determines teeth health then?
 
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Gadsie

Gadsie

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I don’t know too much about it, but I don’t think overall body health has a whole lot to do with your oral health, especially not your teeth. Your enemal really only gets nourished from the outside. So apart from perhaps salivary makeup in terms of calcium and phosphor, I don’t think it matters too much. It is very important to not have a dry mouth though. It might matter for gingival tissue and attachment but I never heard of it. Most gingival problems arise from plaque buildup.
 

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