Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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I’ve been reading about healing tooth decay with a high vitamin/mineral diet as I‘ve just been to the dentist and got the bad news that I have a cavity! I was pretty surprised as I rarely get cavities (even after skipping on the dentist for 5 years while eating a high grain/low fat diet!), and I eat close to (lacto) Paleo now which should support healthy teeth…. I reread Stephan’s great article on this: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/03/reversing-tooth-decay.html and I’m wondering if some of the foods I still include in my diet caused this problem due to phytic acid and/or sugar.

I was sorta thinking I was in the clear as I’ve been avoiding grains, and I thought nuts and chocolate would not actually leach minerals as they contain a fair amount. In any case here are the possible culprits:

Macadamia nuts (1/4-1/2 cup/day)

Fruit (1/2-1 piece/day)

White rice (perhaps ½ cup 1x per week)

Starchy tubers (I get leg cramps if I go VLC)

Coffee (rarely consumed before Paleo)

85% dark chocolate (maybe eaten too often, but less than binges on kids’ b-day cake pre-paleo!)

Gluten free English muffin (probably ½ muffin every few weeks, but they are made w/brown rice)

Or, is it more likely my mineral intake has not really been adequate? I do take D, but not in the summer and in winter I take only 1000 IU/day) I was assuming I was getting plenty of K with full fat pastured dairy, but perhaps I still need more?

I want to try to heal this cavity naturally. So far I have cut out all of the above foods except the tubers. I also upped my D to 2000 IU and rushed out and got some vitamin K… I should have read more first as I may have gotten the wrong kind. Mine is MK-7, but should I be taking MK-4? I’m not clear on dosage for K either and cannot seem to find a clear answer on that( I’m not interested in the RDA, but what dose would be enough to rebuild the tooth). Anyone out there have any experience healing tooth decay with diet?

edited Jan 26 2011 at 22:35

Elizabeth
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asked Jan 26 2011 at 3:59

Sandra
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i read "cure tooth decay" and follow some advices. I tried also raw food version. I have experience. Honestly. It changed and now iam feeling better. I cut out sugar and all grains. Sometimes im good with nuts sometimes it dont feel well. I invest a lot of money in good food. I know that this intermitten fasting give a help. You also need to give you body good nutrition. I eat raw milk cheese for a while. Its traditional for this area in europe. Ramiel suggest Raw Milk. Hw wrote a book based on Western PRice. Also look at this pictures of the people in Western price book.emil@sonnenkinder.org – oak0y Jan 26 2011 at 23:43

Eva · Answer 1 · 2011-01-26 04:53:28Z UTC

Are you sure there is a cavity? SOunds paranoid, but I was diagnosed with lots of cavities when I went to my childhood dentist. But when I turned 18 and was no longer on my father's insurance, I switched dentists. I have never been diagnosed with a cavity since then (22 years). The thing is, I didn't change my eating and lifestyle at all during most of the time. I suspect what really happened was my childhood dentist was a liar. These days, I like to get a second opinion!

Other than that I would say, calculate your nutrient intake for free on fitday.com and see if you are low on any minerals like magnesium. High meat intake is believed to contribute to increased magnesium requirements. If your intake was low already, then meat intake could push you over the edge.

Another piece of advice I'd give is start oil pulling, which is swishing/washing your mouth with fat (I use coconut oil) once per day. I don't buy into the crazier claims, but there is evidence that oil pulling reduces bacteria in the mouth and I've heard many who seem to have been helped by it when it comes to their oral health.

Jayan · Answer 2 · 2011-01-26 08:10:08Z UTC

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Xylitol, xylitol, xylitol. The closest thing there is to a dental miracle.

Also, quality, real culture cheese - especially hard cheeses - are both decent sources of MK-4 and also directly influence remineralization. Eating hard cheese after a meal has been shown to halt decay, likely because the casein keeps amorphous calcium phosphate in solution - delivering it to areas of decay in an active form. This gave birth to the technology of "Recaldent", though several trustworthy dental experts have commented that milk powder or cheese would be just as effective.

edited Jan 26 2011 at 8:10

answered Jan 26 2011 at 6:47

Jayan
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Jay, if you have a link or two for studies or data to support the idea that hard cheeses halt tooth decay, I'd love to see that! – Marina Jan 26 2011 at 22:50

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real culture cheese, i have good experience with good raw milk cheese from europe. Xylitol im a bit despite on. The last thing i heard is to swish it in the mouth and spit it out. to eliminate bacteria. Comfreyroot i just put a piece in the mouth and let it there. – oak0y Jan 26 2011 at 23:48

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there are the loeschenthak peopl in Western Price's Book. They eat lots of chees, and vegetables a bit meat, lots of butter and good cheese. The quality of this dairy products was so good because the herbs and the pasture is growing in the high mountains where the cows eat the pasture. It contains good herbs. Realy mysterical magical herbs. – oak0y Jan 26 2011 at 23:51

journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/… – oak0y Jan 27 2011 at 0:26

It's hard to choose which ones, so here ya go: scholar.google.com/… – Jayan Jan 27 2011 at 5:15

W8liftinmom · Answer 3 · 2011-01-26 07:11:27Z UTC

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Did the dentist use the new digital xray?

My daughter had no cavities for years. Even after braces she got a clean bill time after time. Then the dentist office switched to a digital xray procedure and bam! several cavities. They said this new machine is more sensitive and can "see" the smallest cavities. Maybe so, but I didn't trust the new procedure or the techs/dentists ability to read the "films." I wasn't buying it and having them drill for no reason. Got a second opinion, guess what? No cavities.

answered Jan 26 2011 at 7:11

W8liftinmom
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	Yep, they love to find cavities because then they can bill you for em. Many years ago, someone did an investigation by going from one dentist to another to get diagnosed by multiple dentists. What he found was that most of the dentists gave fraudulent inflated diagnosies. – Eva Jan 26 2011 at 16:26
	thanks for the idea...unfortunately mine is there: my dentist showed me using a mirror. It is small, but visible with the "naked eye" – Sandra Jan 26 2011 at 16:46
	Doesn't mean you have to make the situation worse by grinding good tooth away with a drill. Your tooth will heal its self if let. – Alan Jan 27 2011 at 8:52
	I am extremely skeptical of the "high-sensitivity" diagnostic tools that are being used more and more often. First it was x-rays every time you came in; when those stop turning up cavities, they switch to red-diode lasers that beep. You can't see anything wrong, you can't feel anything wrong, but now "you have a cavity." I call bullshit. I know I've already had numerous unnecessary fillings already, and since every dentist seems to have a different opinion, there is clearly something wrong with the diagnostic approach. Methinks it is strongly influenced by the size of the dentist's debt. – Stephen May 2 2012 at 16:43
	I love stories like this. Some medical "professionals" put on blinders - ie their sophisticated scanning devices. – Kelvin Jul 31 at 20:22

Paleo Approved · Answer 4 · 2011-01-26 08:58:12Z UTC

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Bacteria LOVE Sugar. Sugar companies spent millions of dollars to figure out a way to keep cavities from forming due to eating sugar, of course to no avail.

So here's what I'm thinking, but I'm no expert on cavities... You should have it checked out by a dentist because the cavity has already formed. Your tooth will not rebuild itself, this decay and cavity will continue to exist (the geography of your tooth will stay the same..)

Having said that, you can help a lot by changing your diet so that you don't have issues with cavities in the future.

answered Jan 26 2011 at 8:58

Paleo Approved
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is that true? once the cavity happens its game over? – MikeD Jan 26 2011 at 15:49

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That's what the dentists tell you but recently I've read some studies suggesting cavities can heal so don't buy the old stories blindly. At least do some research before rolling over and giving up. – Eva Jan 26 2011 at 16:27

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according to the article I linked, enamel will not grow back, but dentin can and that is enough to heal the tooth and protect it from further decay. – Sandra Jan 26 2011 at 16:48

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Enamel can grow back as well, though its a slow, gradual process requiring extremely consistent habits. Just do a casual search of pubmed or google scholar for "remineralization", "teeth", and/or "enamel". – Jayan Jan 26 2011 at 18:14

Bacteria also thrive in an acidic terrain and dry mouth can also trigger cavities. I confirm that enamel can regrow (mine is almost back to normal) even though the dentist told me it was impossible! I take fermented cod liver oil, bone meal and transdermal magnesium daily. I also find that siberian pine nut oil (which boosts the absorption of nutrients) in very helpful. Go for nutrient dense foods (including fermented foods and nourishing herbal infusions) and vitamins (maybe minerals too) are fat soluble! – Alchemille Aug 14 2011 at 20:43

sunshinestarr · Answer 5 · 2011-01-26 17:42:05Z UTC

I just want to share this - I came to the whole Paleo approach from a Weston A Price/Sally Fallon point of view, I got there because of tooth decay in my children. We reversed our kid's decay using, among other things, fermented cod liver oil and butter oil. It's really great stuff - we also read Curing Tooth Decay by Rami Nagel. This stuff, while maybe not suitable for very strict/non-dairy Paleo-peeps, it worked for us. Good luck!

Travis Culp · Answer 6 · 2011-01-26 18:42:15Z UTC

Sufficient calcium, vitamin A, D3 and K2 ought to be your best bets. The former 2 could be had from spinach, the latter from a 5000IU d3 supp and 100mcg k2 supp. I also eat natto every day, which is probably about 500mcg of k2 mk7. I'm not sure how much I get from the substantial quantities of pasture butter and eggs.

stoic · Answer 7 · 2011-01-26 21:52:12Z UTC

Dental caries ("cavities") are caused by bacteria like Strep mutans. I think the paleo diet puts you at lower, but not zero, risk, and therefore I'm not opposed to adding modern methods. I use Dr. Ellie's regimen (you can Google it, I won't link because it is a commercial site) as well as diet. While there are anecdotes to caries healing spontaneously, and probably some smaller ones do, most of the the time they progress. Don't risk losing your tooth, have the dentist take care of it. Then start to work on reducing the bad bacteria in your mouth for next time.

healing cavities with paleo diet

7 Answers