Famed dental researcher Weston Price wrote a book, which he worked on in the 1920s and 1930s, based on studies of the teeth of people in native cultures. People who followed traditional ways, eating simply prepared food indigenous to the region where they lived, had healthy teeth. As soon as they adopted a Western diet of canned, processed food with white sugar and white flour, their dental health deteriorated. Children born to parents on a Western diet had occlusion and malformed teeth. Price even saw that children born before the introduction of Western foods had healthy teeth, while children in the same family born after the new diet was instituted had poor teeth.
The first thing to think about when it comes to healthy teeth is diet. A good diet will be reflected in the condition of the gums and teeth. Think of the general practitioner of yesteryear. One imagines this doctor making a house call on an ailing patient. His first request on seeing this patient was “Stick out your tongue.” He wanted to see the tongue’s color.
Dr. Victor Zeines, the author of The Natural Dentist, reminds us that this practice, far from being quaint and outdated, can still be used to make a good first diagnosis of medical problems. In fact, Chinese doctors, who also ask to see the patient’s tongue, have a book that discusses 280 diseases that can be detected from the state of the tongue. For example, a white tongue indicates that toxins are coming out of the body (this will be observed in people with a cold or the flu), cracks in the tongue indicate vitamin deficiency, a yellowish gray or yellowish green tongue indicates gallbladder or liver trouble, and a brownish or grayish green tongue indicates intestinal or stomach problems.
The mouth is indicative of the body’s general state of health. If you have a cavity, it is the end result of general physical problems of the whole body, not just the isolated tooth. When a person is not eating properly, the body becomes acidic. Minerals are pulled out of the mouth to travel into other parts of the body. The teeth weaken in an acid environment, while acid-based bacteria increase. A cavity may arise from a mineral deficiency followed by an invasion of bacteria.
Sugar is a primary culprit in this process, though not in the way popularly understood. Many people believe sugar gets in the mouth and sits on the tooth, wearing it down. The real problem with sugar is that it reverses the fluid flow. This flow normally goes from the tooth’s pulp chamber into the mouth. Sugar alters this process, sending materials in the mouth into the tooth’s internal environment, irritating the inside of the tooth.
Many Americans contend daily with high levels of stress, pollution, and a deficient diet. Food often comes to us shipped over long distances, losing many of its nutrients along the way. We need to make up for those lost qualities with vitamins and minerals.
Calcium and magnesium are especially important for healthy teeth. Folic acid can help the body utilize nutrients. Coenzyme Q10 and vitamin C are also recommended.
Green leafy vegetables and carrot juice are high in calcium. Traditional culture held that chewing on kale was the fastest way to get white teeth. This idea is probably based on recognition of kale’s high calcium content. Kale can be juiced and mixed with carrot or apple juice, perhaps with a drop of lemon.
Mercury has been widely used in common dental fillings. The “silver” amalgam filling is actually a mixture of silver, tin, copper, and mercury. Mercury makes up about 50 percent of the filling. Eighty-five percent of the American population has these fillings.
For well over 150 years we have been told these fillings are safe, the most durable available. This is not true. Until 1985, the American Dental Association (ADA) repeatedly declared that mercury never escapes from fillings. Then they had to acknowledge that it did leak. Still, even with the leakage, the ADA still declares the fillings safe.
In a guidance document in 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule stating that “clinical studies have not established a causal link between dental amalgam and adverse health effects in adults and children age six and older.” However it reclassified mercury from a “least risk” class I device to a “more risk” class II device, and categorized dental amalgams as a class II device. Among the potential risks of dental amalgam were exposure to mercury, and toxicity and adverse tissue reaction. In addition, the rule stated that dental amalgam releases low levels of mercury vapor. In high levels, mercury vapor is associated with adverse effects in the brain and kidneys.
Dentist Flora Para Stay, in an article posted in the HealthWorld Online website (www.healthy.net), summarizes some of the research on mercury in dental fillings going back more than forty years. One of the first reports, published in 1970 in the Journal of the American Dental Association, concluded that mercury is not stable but rather “vaporizes at ordinary temperatures.” In 1985, a report in the Journal of Dental Research stated that mercury vapor from fillings travels through the body and accumulates mostly in the brain, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract.
According to Dr. Stay, researchers have also described a “battery effect” that occurs when mercury gets into the saliva. She explains that “currents are generated, causing mercury molecules from the surface of the fillings to be released into the tissues.”
Mercury can also damage the immune system. Dr. Stay cites another report from the 1980s that concluded that amalgam- and nickel-based fillings are associated with a reduction in the number of T lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell.
The effects of mercury toxicity range from a metallic taste in the mouth, brittle nails, and dry skin, to fatigue, anxiety, depression, headaches, memory loss, gastrointestinal problems, kidney disease, heart problems, and more. Mercury can stop nutrients from entering the cells and prevent wastes from being eliminated. High mercury levels have been found in people with multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases. Mercury can also produce spontaneous abortions. Because of these wide-ranging symptoms, mercury toxicity often goes undetected.
Many people aware of the dangers of amalgam fillings have had them removed and replaced with safer alternatives. Gold, porcelain, or composite restorations may be used. Upon removal of the silver filling, they often see improvement, although it may be constrained by the mercury already in the body. Complementary physician Dr. Michael Schachter has seen patients whose blood tests have gone from abnormal to normal once silver fillings were removed. He has also seen people with multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome markedly improved once fillings were taken out. Dr. Zeines has seen improved memory, better sleep, and less nervousness in patients following removal of mercury fillings.
Removing these fillings is not an easy task and the process is potentially dangerous since taking out the amalgam could accidentally release mercury.
Dr. Howard Hinton, a holistic dentist, stresses that the removal must be done under the care of both a physician and a dentist. The patient must be on a good diet and should undergo laboratory tests to determine how he or she is eliminating the mercury. Ideally, the removal should be carried out in a sterile bubble chamber—a round room with a Laminar Air Flow or hepafilter circulating through the space; negative ion generators, to charge particulates in the air; and processed water and air. A rubber dam is used in the mouth to reduce exposure, and the filling is removed with extreme care. (The highest absorption in the body is in the mouth.) During the procedure, high suction and a lot of water are used to reduce the presence of mercury vapor.
Once the fillings are removed, the body should be detoxified. A lack of health improvement may be due to the fact that mercury is still in the body.
Dr. Elmira Gadol, another practitioner of holistic dentistry, says that garlic supplements will help the body eliminate the existing mercury toxins, and selenium can be taken to neutralize the metal. Once the fillings are removed, hair analysis should be done to see what other heavy metals are in the body. These metals interfere with cell processes, such as the oxygen going in and the carbon dioxide going out. These metals also have to be drawn out or problems will remain.
Some patients can be helped by taking intravenous vitamin C. Also, various chelating agents can be prescribed. These agents will attach to the mercury and take it out of the body in urine or feces.
Hot baths with Epsom salts and baking soda are also recommended as a way of bringing out the mercury. In working on detoxification, various methods should be tried alone and in combination.
We don’t have to look too far to find fluoride these days—it’s there in our toothpastes, our mouthwashes, and much of our drinking water. In fact, about 75 percent of people in the US who are served by public water systems drink fluoridated water. Proponents of fluoride say we need it to prevent tooth decay. But many health experts say otherwise. Finally, the US government is waking up too: in 2015, for the first time in fifty years, federal health officials cut by almost half the maximum amount of fluoride that should be added to drinking water. Although a step in the right direction, this move doesn’t go nearly far enough. Moreover, the reason cited for it—an increase in fluorosis, or white spots on the tooth enamel—is nowhere near the crux of the problem.
We have been led to believe that fluoride is a safe and effective method of protecting teeth from decay, but this is, in fact, a fraud. In recent years it’s been shown that fluoridation is neither essential for good health nor protective of teeth. Dr. David Kennedy, from the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, puts it quite well when he states that fluoride is a poison. It kills rats and insects so, certainly, it will kill bacteria if it is scrubbed on the teeth. What fluoride does is poison the body. We should all at this point be asking how and why public health policy and the American media continue to live with and perpetuate this scientific sham.
Dr. Mark Breiner, the author of Whole Body Dentistry, who has been practicing holistic dentistry for more than thirty years, says that putting fluoride into toothpaste or mouthwash will probably cut down on decay somewhat because it is such a potent toxin. However, he asks, while it may cause a decrease in tooth decay, what else is it causing? “I think there are better ways to prevent tooth decay, the main way being proper nutrition and if need be, some supplementation. But to go and use a potent toxin like that just doesn’t make any sense.”
The health hazards of fluoride are known, and have been for some time. In 1977, an executive of the National Cancer Society documented that there was a 5 percent increase in cancer in communities that began fluoridating their water. An even more notorious study, and an attempt to suppress it, involved Dr. William Marcus, a senior science adviser at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Drinking Water. He read a study that was done to test the dangers of fluoridation. It concluded that there was an increase of bone cancers in animals that were given fluorides. In April 1990, Dr. Marcus went to a meeting where the National Toxicology Program was to review the study and found that the program’s staff had downgraded every cancer reported. An investigation found that scientists at the program had been coerced into making these downgrades.
Some of the ailments that may be caused or exacerbated by the accumulation of fluoride in the body include a depressed immune system, musculoskeletal problems, genetic damage, cancer, and kidney and thyroid problems. Other effects of fluoride include abdominal distress, tremors, convulsions, skin eruptions, headaches, increased thirst, and disturbances of calcium metabolism. Mottling of teeth, marked by white and brown patchy areas, may also occur.
To limit your exposure to fluoride, drink bottled or filtered water and use nonfluoridated toothpaste. Dr. Breiner offers some additional recommendations. “I like something called Tooth and Gum Tonic, which is made without alcohol or any chemicals. It is an herbal product and has a number of really good ingredients such as echinacea, peppermint, thyme, and eucalyptus. This will also kill bacteria.”
For a mouthwash, you can also use plain salt water. Dr. Breiner says, “Use nonfluoridated water and take some salt and swish that around in your mouth. It is good for the gums. You can take some baking soda and mix that with a little peroxide and make your own toothpaste. You don’t have to go to the store and buy something.”