Holistic Teeth Care

I had a tense moment last month where I started experiencing pain in my tooth. I got incredibly nervous and started revamping my nightly teeth routine, and so I figured I would compile the information I gathered about ways to keep your teeth happy and healthy! It’s a good time to focus on it, while we’ll likely be exposed to more sugar during the holiday season.

Nutrition

The book “The Dental Diet,” By Dr. Steven Lin, has some really great and detailed information about how the foods we eat impact our oral health. I highly recommend it, because he breaks down a lot of complex information about health in a way that’s easy to understand.

Vitamins and Minerals

Making sure you’re getting enough of Vitamins A, D, and K2. They all work together to keep your mouth healthy.

Vitamin A can help bone development by helping old cells break down to make room for new cells. Cod liver oil is a great source.

Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium and brings it to where it needs to go. While we can get vitamin D from absorbing the sunlight, it’s also good to have some of it included in the diet. Fish are a great source, as well as mushrooms and dairy products like yogurt, milk, and kefir.

Vitamin K2 helps the calcium to get into the bones and teeth. Vitamin K2 can be found in grass-fed animals, who convert Vitamin K1 into K2 naturally. It can also be found in organ meats, eggs from pasture-raised chickens, butter, shellfish, emu oil, natto, sauerkraut, gouda, and brie cheese.

2. Other Beneficial Foods

Organs are the richest source of A D and K2. You can definitely take it in capsule form if you don’t like the taste!

Bone broths are full of minerals and nutrients and is an excellent source of gelatin, which helps build bones, cartilage and skin.

Fermented foods like sauerkraut, cheese, yogurt, kimchi, even sourdough bread, can produce valuable nutrients like thiamine, nicotinic acid, biotin, riboflavin, and even vitamin K2.

While we technically don’t digest fiber, the “good” bacteria in our gut does, and it can help stool pass through the colon more easily and help that bacteria maintain the gut lining.

Natural versions of full-fat foods like ghee, tallow, unrefined coconut or olive oil provide nutrients in their natural form.

3. Foods To Avoid

Grain fed beef is lower in fat soluble vitamins like A and E. Has fewer minerals like zinc, phosphorus and iron. It has fewer omega 3s and more omega 6s, which increase inflammation in the body.

While the body has the ability to process simple carbohydrates/sugar in certain amounts, according to Dr. Lin, there needs to be a balance between the simple carbs and the complex carbs- so even if you are eating some level of sugar in your diet, make sure you’re properly balancing it with complex carbohydrates and fibers. The “bad” bacteria feed on simple sugars and eat them fairly quickly, whereas the “good”bacteria feed on fibers and complex carbs and eat them slowly.

Avoid processed vegetable oils like canolia oil, margarine, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil, as they can increase inflammation.

Cloves For Tooth Pain

Cloves are great to help with toothaches. You could always chew on one if you’d like, but there are more fun ways to use them. You could make a tincture with clove and whiskey, use ground cloves as a powder to put on your tooth, or you could use a clove essential oil. The active ingredient is eugenol, which is an anesthetic. Too much of it swallowed can lead to liver failure, but in these small portions it is an effective way to ease pain in your teeth.

Coconut Oil Pulling

Oil pulling is an Ayurvedic practice that involves swishing oil in your mouth for 5-20 minutes (traditionally sesame oil was used, but coconut oil is more popular today for its antibacterial properties). By oil pulling, you can reduce the harmful bacteria in your mouth, help reduce gingivitis and bad breath, and help remove plaque. Anecdotally, the first month I had done coconut oil pulling I noticed that my smile looked noticeably whiter, although no research has been done yet to prove that that can happen.

All you need to do to oil pull is swish it in your mouth for 5-20 minutes, and then spit it out. DO NOT swallow the oil afterwards, as you’d just be putting all that bacteria down into your gut. The longer, the better for best results. Also, you’ll want to spit out the oil into a garbage can, and not down into your sink drain so it doesn’t stick in the pipes. You can use just the coconut oil itself, or you can add activated charcoal and/ or essential oils like peppermint or tea tree. The charcoal will help create a deeper detox. An article I’d read years ago talked about putting the melted oil into ice cube trays, then adding the extra ingredients and letting them harden in the freezer or fridge, making pre-made oil pulling tabs that you let melt in your mouth before starting the process. I couldn’t find the article, but I made a recipe card below if you’d like to try it out!

Nano-Hydroxyapatite

Although the name might sound formidable, nano-hydroxyapatite is a small, bioavailable form of calcium that can help repair the tooth enamel, fighting off tooth decay and sensitivity. It was recommended to me by a friend, and I was surprised at how quickly it worked to stop the issues in my mouth! The version I got was called Dentite, available here.

In Conclusion

The health of your teeth goes beyond the usual brushing, flossing, and typical mouthwash. Your oral health is intertwined with the health of your gut and microbiome. Making sure you’re getting the right nutrients in your diet and not taking in too much processed foods can be incredibly supportive to your teeth. Using natural ingredients like coconut oil and nano hydroxyapatite are also helpful to maintain your teeth and keep them healthy throughout your life.