We’ve talked in the past about the relationship between nutrition and your oral health – and the ability to remineralize your teeth to combat tooth decay. We also shared our experience with our boys.. who struggle with this at such a young age.
Our boys floss and brush regularly, we limit sugar and they had some issues with cavities. And while it might be the norm to just get the cavities filled, I wasn’t open to taking that route quite as fast, especially since finding a dentist who didn’t use metal or BPA fillings was an absolute challenge.
While in many cases you might think that tooth decay might just be something that is the cause of sugar or bad genes, the real cause of tooth decay and oral health is one’s diet:
#1 – Tooth decay is the result of a lack of minerals in the diet, and their bio-availability.
#2 – The presence of vitamins A, D, K and E play a large role in your oral health – while synthetic supplements are available, they cannot and should not be a replacement for real whole foods rich in these vitamins and nutrients.
These vitamins and the way they are absorbed is the result of the amount of phytic acid in the diet and the amount of sugar that the person consumes.
This information was ultimately the result of a study done by Dr. Weston A. Price in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
As a result of this information.. we opted to take a two-step approach with our boys, that included addressing mineral levels in the body (due to diet) and working on a remineralizing toothpaste that would help provide some minerals to the surface of their teeth.
We opted to whip up this remineralizing toothpaste so that the whole family could use it, too.
Why Remineralizing Toothpaste
The ingredients in most commercial toothpaste varieties can often times demineralize teeth and cause tooth decay – which has helped create a cause for remineralizing toothpaste.
There is, however, a lot of information out there about tooth remineralization – and local dentists don’t and won’t agree with the fact that tooth decay can be reversed. In most cases, the majority of dentists dentists don’t see people who eat a diet that’s low in phytic acid and high in minerals – so the opportunity for their teeth to heal is not quite as opportune.
It’s certainly not something that “can’t” happen – beceause the teeth are, quite honestly, real and living things so it only makes sense that the opportunity is there, if we take the right steps.
Steps Required to Help Prevent Tooth Decay
A few dietary changes can indeed help prevent tooth decay – and while raw milk has been shown to boost the health of teeth, a diet high in phytic acid can make prevent minerals and nutrients from the milk from being available to the body in terms of absorption.
Soaking and fermenting grains can help reduce the phytic acid in grains – but if you can’t soak or ferment, then the next best option is to eliminate them completely.
Not only can you reduce the foods that contain phytic acid, you will also want to limit foods that contain natural sugars and starches and instead, eat healthy fats, and homemade bone broth, in addition to raw milk and raw milk kefir.
Remineralizing Toothpaste Recipe
Making dietary changes and using a remineralizing toothpaste are a great start to helping re-boost the teeth. This recipe for remineralizing toothpaste is very easy to make and safe for all ages.
Our kids love it just as much as we (parents) do – we keep a jar in each bathroom. You’ll want to use a popsicle stick to apply to your toothbrush to avoid getting water in the mixture and tainting its effectiveness.
- 5 Tbsp Calcium Powder
- 2 Tbsp Baking Soda
- 5 Tbsp Coconut Oil (or less – texture to your preference)
- 3 Tbsp Xylitol Powder
- 15-20 drops Peppermint Vitality Essential Oil
- Other optional ingredients: Cinnamon Bark Vitality, Orange Vitality or Clove Vitality Essential Oils
Combine all of the items together – mix well to combine. The recipe will make (2) jelly jars, each being 4 oz. in size. We use these ball jelly jars here – you can pick up at your typical grocery store in the canning aisle.
Read more about the role of diet and lifestyle and it’s relation to tooth decay.
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