In this article, I am hoping to drive home the essentials concerning the prevention of the decay of the teeth and gums and to promote certain actions which I feel to be the most beneficial to keeping the teeth and gums free from disease.  Some of this is simply a digest of information readily available here at the OraMedia Site for Dental Self-Sufficiency but some is also fairly new.

In PART ONE, let's start with the concept of maintaining overall good oral health.

The tooth surfaces (5), gums, tongue and oral cavity, in general, must be thoroughly cleaned soon after eating, snacking and drinking pretty much anything other than water.  That means that even if you feel that your diet is the best one on planet earth - you need to clean up afterward and do it thoroughly.  If you are on the road a lot, at the very least, carry a toothbrush with you and use it. If you are an adult with your original 32 teeth, this means that you have 160 surfaces to clean.  Most Americans think they are finished brushing after around 30 seconds... this is one big reason why the dental profession is flourishing.

Tools needed?  A good oral irrigator, good toothbrush which is replaced every 30-45 days and perhaps some good floss. The only thing else I would add is perhaps a tongue scraper, but you can also do a good job with your toothbrush.  I am not including floss for several reasons - among them; hardly anyone really flosses on a regular basis, we've recently learned that flossing can actually push bacteria into the spaces between the gums and teeth (while 'cleaning'), flossing an infected area could contaminate an uninfected are as one goes from one tooth to the next and oral irrigation does a much better job of cleaning between the teeth as well as along and under the gum line.  If one is careful of these drawbacks, certainly, flossing should be done when you cannot irrigate because you will be able to clean areas of the teeth no able to be reached with a brush.

I left out dentifrice (paste, powder, soap, etc.) because, technically, it isn't necessary in keeping your teeth and gums clean and healthy.  HOWEVER, if you need and want the features of the various types of dentifrice available, then use one.  I'll get to that.

Water.  Clean, pure water and preferably distilled.

A good diet. By 'diet' I am not referring to a weight-loss regimen.  By diet, I mean eating a balance of foods which provide the nutritional needs of the body in order to grow, function and maintain at optimal levels.  I am not going to interpret diet for you.  There are multitudes of books and various other means of providing this information, and to some, diet is akin to religion and I would be a fool to tread there.  What I will do is list the essential nutrients your diet should include, in order of importance...


If you can get most of these nutrients in the foods that you eat, then you are doing very well!  If not, then you can always supplement.  Remember, these are the nutrients considered MOST essential to your oral health, according to Dr. Michael Bonner and Dr. Earl Mindell, authors of 'The Oral Health Bible,' which compliments Dr Robert Nara's work.  Obviously, you will need others like vitamin D, phosphorus, etc.  A good multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement will likely fill in the rest.  Underscoring this, I would NOT leave out the trace, ionic minerals which aid in the assimilation of the other nutrients.  Otherwise, you will get the 'expensive urine' some doctors refer to, due to the opinion that, they often hold, nutrients are not assimilated by the body and are simply flushed out.  Trace, ionic minerals make all the difference here.

Drink enough clean water. Keeping your mouth moist is important in warding off tooth decay and periodontal diseases because it washes away food and helps to neutralize acids.  Unfortunately, many drugs in use today cause xerostomia, or 'dry mouth,' as a side-effect.  Thirty to forty years ago, the main drugs we had to worry about were marijuana and amphetamines, which are notorious for drying the mouth.  Now there are over 400 pharmaceuticals which create xerostomia as a side-effect.  If you are taking medications, you should know if you are experiencing dry mouth, but if you are unsure, read the documents that came with your prescription.  If this is the case and you cannot switch medications, get to the drug store and buy a bottle of Biotene rinse, which is made for the purpose of dealing with dry mouth and minor oral irritations.  It also contains the enzymes you may be missing as a result of the lack of saliva flow.  You may certainly brush with it also.

Let's take a quick look at what we need to be brushing with.  There is a growing trend in dry-brushing, or simply using nothing.  I'm sort of on the fence here because, while I agree that brushing the teeth - the 'mechanics' of brushing is necessary in removing/disrupting bio-film or plaque, it doesn't necessarily kill any pathogens, rather, puts them in a free-floating state - that is, until they can get organized and re-colonize (form plaque), which takes just a few hours to achieve.  To deal with that issue, you may want a dentifrice (powder or paste) which will help kill of the pathogens.  The most effective and readily available antimicrobials are good old baking soda and salt.  To see a list, in order of effectiveness, go to http://mizar5.com/keyes.html .

Finally, the use of specific probiotics for control of oral pathogens has been gaining attention over the years.  Probiotics don't kill oral pathogens rather, they colonize and crowd out the offenders so that THEY cannot colonize and create the decay-causing problems they are noted for. Before you run out to the store for some yogurt, it must be noted that there are specific strains of bacteria that are grown and supplied for this purpose.  Their specificity and application are essential to their effectiveness, so a gut full of lactobacillus acidophilus is not the same thing - nor in the right location to work in saving your teeth.  Probiotics are not necessarily going to work systemically, either.  On a side note however, personally, I would keep a healthy and regular compliment of a good blend of probiotics in my body - just because they are beneficial in so many ways, otherwise.  For the teeth and gums, however, get a good oral probiotic designed for oral health and use them regularly.

Hopefully, this short article on the basics of maintaining good oral health and preventing tooth decay (cavities, or known generally as 'caries') and gum disease(s) (gingivitis right on through to advanced periodontal disease or commonly referred to as periodontitis).  These actions will help take you to a level far beyond what most people are doing, yet still claiming to have excellent oral health.

One note should be made and taken seriously: If you believe that these actions are unnecessary because you have a healthy diet, you are doing only half the job and will eventually land in the dental office for repair work - despite what Dr. Joseph Mercola, Dr. Weston Price or Ramiel Nagel.  If you do not believe me, I invite you to go six or twelve months without brushing or otherwise cleaning your teeth...  If you have done this successfully, then please write to me.

I'll focus on other dental problems in future issues of this newsletter..