DIY Ways to Prevent Cavities
I’m often asked in my practice, ‘Dr O, how can I prevent tooth decay?’ Unfortunately it’s usually after I tell someone that they have cavities and need dental work. Because once you get holes in your teeth (cavities), it’s too late to reverse them and you need dental work to fix them. Fixing cavities also prevents root canals and could save your tooth. So my first advice is not to put off routine visits like cleanings and exams, because if you have any cavities they just get worse over time. In the following post I’ve listed the holistic ways to prevent tooth decay from getting a foothold to begin with.
The first thing is home care. Basically, most everyone needs to brush, floss and use a rubber tip once a day before going to bed. It’s also good to brush after breakfast before leaving home for the day.
Most people are aware of brushing and flossing. It’s the rubber tip that most folks have not heard of. That is, everyone not in my practice, because I’m constantly pulling one out and giving them to my patients.
It’s important to know how to use them and why. I routinely give my patients a mirror and show them how to use it on their teeth until they are expert rubber tip users. The best way to learn a good habit is to hear about it, see it demonstrated and then do it yourself. So we do this while they are in the chair and then they take their rubber tip home with them. There is a video about the most effective way to brush, floss and use the rubber tip demonstrated with a patient in an earlier blog post here: https://myholisticdentist.com/2022/09/01/how-to-prevent-tooth-decay/.
The second thing you can do is oil pulling. A lot of my patients have heard of it, but they have been told to do it for 20 minutes a day. Well that is way overboard in my opinion. Use cold pressed coconut oil. Swish for five minutes once a day and spit it out into a trash can not your sink. or your drain will clog up. That’s plenty and will reduce gum inflammation and will help maintain the health of your mouth. You can also add a drop or two of food grade essential oils to make it even more effective. Myrrh is a traditional oil for the gums and clove and tea tree (melaleuca) are good for infections.
The third thing you can do is alkalinize your mouth by using baking soda, which is a strong salt. Everyone knows warm salt water is good for your teeth and gums. Well, baking soda is even better.
All you need to do is pick up a small amount onto your tooth brush after you have brushed and flossed your teeth and massage in along your gum line. It will do all the work for you. Not only does it kill harmful bacteria and amoeba, it raises the pH of your mouth. You can use a warm baking soda rinse as well.
Acidity is a bad thing for your teeth and gums as it will result in demineralization of your teeth. Acidity also encourages the wrong kind of bacteria to accumulate along your gum line, between your teeth and in the grooves on the tops of your teeth; the very place cavities start and grow. These bacteria primarily live in an acid environment. So if you keep your teeth clean by doing the basics and/or keep your mouth alkaline, it will prevent cavity forming bacteria gaining a foothold to proliferate and start etching into your teeth.
The main bacteria that causes tooth decay is Streptococcus Mutans. Decay is usually slow progressing but not always. It depends on a number of factors especially the makeup of your saliva. For instance is your saliva alkaline or acidic? Does it have a healthy immune component to it? Also, are your gums healthy. If you have inflammation, i.e. bleeding or red gums, this causes more bacteria to join in with Strep. Mutans to cause more breakdown of your gums, bone and etching of valuable minerals in your teeth the lead to tooth decay.
One of the last things that affects oral health and promotes tooth decay is the health of your bone in your jaws which can be affected by your diet, hormone balance, and medications you are taking. Also, if you have gum disease or are pregnant, this can have a dramatic affect on how fast you lose bone, sometimes rather quickly. I will write a separate article on healthy bone and how to maintain it with nutrition, so keep an eye out for that.
Another important subject that deserves more discussion is the microbiome in your mouth. There is a delicate balance that needs to be maintained in your mouth to keep your teeth, gums and bone healthy. The health of the microbiome in your mouth also reflects what is going on throughout your digestive tract including your small intestine and colon. Most people know that the microbiome is extremely important and has been negatively affected by modern living and antibiotics. What most people don’t know is what to do about it and how to restore the microbiome to health.
Because of this I’m also going to be writing articles about the microbiome both in the mouth and the digestive tract, how it affects you, and how to restore it back to health. Since it is such a big subject, I need to break it up into separate articles. I find this subject particularly interesting, as I think it is one of the missing links to recovering digestive health, oral health and possibly systemic health as well.
If you have an interest in the above, and specifically the microbiome of the mouth, make sure you are subscribed to the blog. Thanks for reading this to the end as these are subjects that interest me as well, and feel free to comment below about your questions or what you are specifically interested in and I will write more about it.
Carey O’Rielly DDS has been a practicing dentist for 35 years. He went to USC Dental School and Duke University for his undergraduate degree. He grew up in Laguna Beach and now lives in La Costa with his wife Victoria, who runs his office.
He began his career by owning and operating a network of six offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Presently he owns a private holistic practice in North County San Diego’s Encinitas.
Dr. O started looking for solutions to his health challenges that resulted from the stress and environmental toxicity that built up over a ten year period running his dental network. He has dedicated himself to learning about oral systemic problems and how dentistry can affect your health. He has applied what he has learned over the last twenty years to ensure he, his staff and his patients are protected from the chemicals and toxic materials found in most dental offices. He has produced an environmentally friendly office that is also peaceful and calm.
He is an expert on dental materials having looked at hundreds of biocompatibility lab tests over the years. He has identified the most bio-friendly materials to use in his practice and which dental materials can be used to replace metal fillings and crowns, including BPA free and fluoride free ‘white’ fillings. He also uses metal-free Zirconia or ceramic implants and PRF (platelet-rich fibrin) grafting materials which come from the patient’s own blood.
Dr. O’Rielly teaches C.E. courses on the systemic effects of gum disease. He is an expert in using phase contrast microscopy for analyzing dental infections, where he shows patients what kind of microbes, i.e. bacteria, amoeba, and yeasts like candida are populating the mouth and affecting the body as a whole.
He has an educational blog and is writing a book on dental health called ‘Hidden Dental Infections: Healing Root Canals and Infected Teeth with the Erbium Laser’ where he discusses dental nutrition, toxic dental materials and the effects of old root canals on inflammation and overall health.
