Dental care

[onomatopoios]

Is anyone aware of alternative methods of dental care? In particular I'm looking forward to giving up fluoride paste and plastic toothbrushes. Natural Alternatives for Dental Hygiene has some relevant information.

[anthony574]

Just a warning, and I don't want to get into a fluoride conversation...I gave up fluoride toothpaste for a while and got at least 5 holes in my teeth.

[Ananda]

take a look at this lesson:

http://www.aypsite.com/plus/313.html

[Scott]

I have been using "Tooth Soap" which is really just soap that you brush with instead of toothpaste.  I originally started it to see the effects...it's claimed that it helps re-enamelize the teeth by removing the glycerine that's in toothpastes.  The problem is that your saliva pH needs to be pretty alkaline for it to work.

Also, I don't buy into the whole anti-flouride thing as well.  It really does help teeth...so I will probably be going back to toothpaste soon before I do any real damage.

[onomatopoios]

Thanks Ananda! I had completely overlooked the latest articles on AYP.

Antohony: Sorry to hear about tooth problems.

Scott: Tooth soap sounds kinky! I must look this up on local natural and wholistic product stores.

A clarification is due however. I neither approve nor condemn the use of flouride; if it works for you, good for you then.

I'm just wondering the fact that man has existed for millenia without the benefits of modern dental care, and a part of me tells that the ancients didn't generally have rotted and cracked teeth.

Okay, a beautiful smile with healthy teeth!

[Goddessinside]

Hi everybody,

I can share some tips about healthy teeth..
It's been 5 years I've been eating a vegeterian diet.
I also used to brush my teeth with "Dentie", a japanese toothpaste made from eggplant and sea salt.
I realised after a while (after several months) that this natural toothpaste wasn't that effective..
I got back to regular toothpaste and felt a huge difference..(perfectly clean teeth, better protection against decay)
Now most important point:
no matter the product you use externally, your teeth and bones health depends mainly on your diet.
Eating a fruit is healthy in itself. But eating fruits too frequently keeps the mouth acidic, and this condition makes a favorable ground for bacteria to grow..
So best thing is watch out the intake of acid forming food that force the body to use minerals from bones and teeth in order to balance the acid and restore an alkaline state inside.
The most acid forming food are of course sugar (in any form, white/brown/honey/maple syrup/fruits...), animal and dairy products, chemicals/drugs, processed food in general.
Seaweed taken in small proportion regularly provide the body with minerals and help in compensating any mineral loss that is harmful to the teeth.
In general, try to include a good portion of green veggies (lettuce, raddish leaves, any dark green leaves). Those are alcaline forming food and contain many minerals.
Also chewing food very well (ideally until it becomes liquid) turns it into alkaline in the mouth and thus prevents digestive problems that create an acidic condition in the body.
Last thing: gargling with salt water after meals is a good habit to take.

.Love.

[anthony574]

True, Goddess, about diet. In a great book called "Adrift", a real life account of a man stranded at sea on an inflatable raft for 114 days, he says at the end that his teeth were whiter and healthier than ever. This after 4 months of eating nothing but fish and drinking rainwater.

[NagoyaSea]

Ono said:  

quote:I'm just wondering the fact that man has existed for millenia without the benefits of modern dental care, and a part of me tells that the ancients didn't generally have rotted and cracked teeth.

That is such a good question.  Some ancient skeletal remains and mummies have been found with near-flawless teeth.  You have to wonder how they did it!  And I wonder if they were the exception rather than the rule.

Kathy

[Goddessinside]

quote:Originally posted by NagoyaSea

Ono said:  

quote:I'm just wondering the fact that man has existed for millenia without the benefits of modern dental care, and a part of me tells that the ancients didn't generally have rotted and cracked teeth.

That is such a good question.  Some ancient skeletal remains and mummies have been found with near-flawless teeth.  You have to wonder how they did it!  And I wonder if they were the exception rather than the rule.

Kathy

Yes.. the ancient people had many wisdoms and had a far better constitution than the modern Man.
Also, their food was far better in quality than ours.
If you just see the quality of whole grains they used to eat regularly, for example, the wheat, it has nothing to do with our modern wheat, even the best organic quality one.
Also they were living in a clean natural environment, with no pollution, and they had strong bonds with nature and invisible powerful energies..
So it's not just a "teeth" thing.. it's a whole way of life!
And because we have been in disharmony with the Whole, we need to work on ourselves, doing all the techniques of purification and meditation to get back to out true nature.

PS:stop eating junk food! Which is not food by the way

.Love.

[Etherfish]

Here is something I discovered about toothpaste: Most major brands have switched to silica as an abrasive. This is way to hard to be using on your teeth. they used to use chalk (calcium carbonate) or walnut shells. The dentin your teeth are made of is about 2.5 on the mohs hardness scale, and calcium carbonate about the same. Silica is about 7, and this is an exponential scale! I asked my dentist, and he said yes, it is popular to over-abrade your teeth now and people are obsessed with whiteness.
If you search, a few alternative brands use calcium carbonate. Some of Tom's for instance. All the others have silica, which is basically sand, made of quartz; closer to a diamond in hardness than a tooth!

[Goddessinside]

quote:Originally posted by Etherfish

Here is something I discovered about toothpaste: Most major brands have switched to silica as an abrasive. This is way to hard to be using on your teeth. they used to use chalk (calcium carbonate) or walnut shells. The dentin your teeth are made of is about 2.5 on the mohs hardness scale, and calcium carbonate about the same. Silica is about 7, and this is an exponential scale! I asked my dentist, and he said yes, it is popular to over-abrade your teeth now and people are obsessed with whiteness.
If you search, a few alternative brands use calcium carbonate. Some of Tom's for instance. All the others have silica, which is basically sand, made of quartz; closer to a diamond in hardness than a tooth!

Yes.. people are obsessed with whiteness: they want the whitest white clothes, the whitest white teeth, the whitest white husband or wife, the whitest white rice that is ready to eat in less than 10 minutes in the microwave, ...
But working on brushing and "whitening" their energies is almost the last thing they are obsessed with!

[hemanthks]

I guess I am too late here, nonetheless I want to share something

In rural India, even today some people use just Neem barks to brush their teeth. These days you can get a ayurvedic toothpaste containing neem bark (fluoride free)

[NSB]

I guess I am late as well, but wanted to point out the research of dentist Weston A Price. He visited indigenous people of many lands during the 1920s. They did not brush at all mostly. Those who had not yet met with "civilization" and who were eating their native local diet all had teeth that were close to perfect. Big white smiles, he had to examine several people to find one small, self limited cavity. This was seen all over the world - pacific islands, Australia, India, Switzerland, the outer hebrides of Scotland, indigenous Canadians. He revisited the same peoples during the 1930s, by which time most had begun to introduce white flour and sugar into their diet, and saw a radically different picture. Rampant cavities, some abcessing and turning into boils that came out the skin of the face. Children who were born after the change of diet had narrower skulls and crowded teeth. The same sort of changes were seen in Pottengers cat experiment; kittens were born with narrower heads when the cats were taken off their optimal diet (raw meat) and fed other things.