It is very disturbing that most conventional dentists still insist that a cavity cannot heal on its own when proper nutritional support is provided and detrimental foods to oral health removed from the diet.
The very textbooks in dental school indicate that this is possible! Here is an excerpt:
“It has been shown experimentally and clinically that incipient caries [small cavities] of enamel can remineralize.” – Sturdevant’s Art & Science of Operative Dentistry 4th Edition, 2002.
Of course, Dr. Weston A. Price DDS, a prominent, well-respected dentist early in the last century who used to be President of the National Dental Association (1914-1928), the forerunner of the American Dental Association, wrote about cavities healing with diet on numerous occasions in his nutritional classic Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Why has this information been so completely buried and vilified in recent decades?
Perhaps it is the profit motive that keeps most dentists from acknowledging this truism of oral health. Why dentists might be concerned about their business evaporating if this information became widely acknowledged is short-sighted, however. I mean, even if dentists promoted to their patients that cavities heal and assisted them with the appropriate dietary intervention when necessary, there still would be plenty of drill and fill business for them from caries that did not resolve from diet alone due to food intolerances or genetic issues known to impact enamel formation.
Dentists that choose to insist that diet only impacts the formation of cavities, but not whether they heal are doing their clients a huge disservice.
The reason?
Cavities that have remineralized are actually more resistant to subsequent decay kind of like a callous on your hand. Again, a direct excerpt from dental textbooks on this very subject:
“These discolored, remineralized, arrested caries [cavities] areas are in-tact and are more resistant to subsequent caries [cavity] attack than the adjacent unaffected enamel. They should not be restored unless they are esthetically objectionable.” – Sturdevant’s Art & Science of Operative Dentistry 4th Edition, 2002.
Photographs of the Cavity Healing Process
From a consumer perspective, more and more parents are realizing the power of diet to arrest and heal cavities, and they are starting to photograph it to prove their case.
Kristin S., a mother in New York then consented to the use of her own series of photographs of her child’s cavities healing over a period of six weeks.
The discoloration and holes in the teeth were identified as actual cavities by the child’s own dentist prior to the healing diet being commenced.
The photos are taken at week 1, week 3, and week 6. This article overviews the specific dietary changes and the recipe for the natural toothpaste that Kristin used with her 3-year-old son.
As you can see below, the discoloration in these cavities remarkably disappears over a six week period and the holes in the enamel begin to fill in.
These results are impressive and very encouraging for those parents who keep their children’s teeth meticulously clean only to still experience tremendous problems with cavities.
Do you have a series of photographs of your child’s cavities healing? If so, please email them to me at [email protected]
Let’s keep the heat on the conventional dental establishment by sharing with each other our successes as parents in resolving our children’s cavities!
Need the whole story about diet healing cavities?
This book by Rami Nagel is a must-read on the subject: Cure Tooth Decay
Need a Dentist Who Understands Tooth Remineralization?
I get many requests about who I recommend as a truly holistic, biological dentist. If you are looking for one, I recommend Dr. Carlo Litano of Natural-Smiles.com – (727) 300-0044. He sees young children as well as adults and does phone consults for those who don’t liver close enough for an office visit. Be sure to tell Dr. Litano that Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist sent you and get 10% off your first visit!
References
The Disturbing Trend of Minimally Invasive Dentistry
How I Healed My Child’s Cavity
Toddler’s Severe Tooth Decay Halted in 5 Days
Resolving Periodontal Problems with Bone Broth
Coconut Oil Stops Strep Bacteria from Damaging Tooth Enamel
Avoiding Root Canals with Diet Alone
Could the Cause of Your Illness Be Right Under Your Nose?
it happened to me after eliminating gluten
Not all dentists think exactly the same way. Of course demineralized enamel can sometime remineralize with the right treatments. Of course it’s common parenting sense to give your child a well balanced diet. Anyone can read the process of acid/base reactions and figure how to prevent more caries. Those pictures taken were not “diagnostic”. And she is NOT a dentist. Only a clinical exam and diagnostic radiographs can determine if there is a cavity and if the cavity persists after her “treatment”. My advice? Find a good dentist you trust because cavities in children are nothing to mess with and if left untreated by a professional can be very dangerous in children not to mention can lead to a lifetime of poor oral health and shortened lifespan.
I would give the benefit of doubt, even though light can be a factor too.
I see not even one dentist here that commented have read nutrition and physical degeneration by Price or dentinal fluid transport by Clyde Roggenkamp.
If they would they would have a different approach than digging in the same tunnel again and again, which just points out how close minded people are today when it comes to medical dogmas.
What is the point of insisting in bacteria removal if the body is not even able to sustain itself with the proper nutrients?!.
Do you know sugar does the same decay when injected right? (If not, check out the study)
My dentist told me i had a cavity that was already penetrated into dentin, they told me i had to put a filling in it asap or i would have lost the tooth in few months.
I refused, and i kept up a VERY high nutritional profile with raw milk, vitamin K2 and a lot of raw egg yolks.
Too bad the dentist told me that almost 4 years and a half ago.
My last scan showed the cavity to be exactly in that same position.
What happened was the dentist told me to keep doing what i am, and he did not understand the reason behind the cavity “freezing”.
He still recommended getting a check on that cavity once in a while.
I’m not saying the cavity in this blog post has healed, because light issues can be a factor as well.. that said, i see not even one of the dentist who have written have read nutrition and physical degeneration even once!.
Please Please Please read it, and read Dentinal Fluid Transport by Clyde Roggenkamp.
Medical science should look forward constant improvement and open minded research, it is useless to keep digging in the same tunnel, there are many out there.
Oh gosh, after four years, you still have he cavity? Has it gotten smaller? Have you use demineralization toothpaste?
typo: REmineralization
Doesn’t anyone else see that the photos are taken at an increasingly forward tilt to the tooth in question??? I would strongly suggest that if the final photo was taken in the same plane as the first that it would look exactly the same. I take intra oral photos of teeth all day long and can verify that pits can look entirely different depending on the angle of the camera to the occlusal plane. please show us a photo from the direct occlusal.
I agree with this last comment. As a dentist, I can promise you this tooth is not “healed” The stain is gone, but I’d bet my lunch there is still a caries. Too bad for this child. It is true that a cavity or caries can be reversed, this is only possible if the caries is not through the enamel and into the dentin. MI paste from GC America does reverse “incipient caries”. This is no secret. And so does fluoride, sorry.
My two nieces were raised in the same household, eating the same diet. The older of the 2 sisters had a mouthful of cavities. The younger, nothing. To me, this suggests genetics. The father had few if any cavities, the mother, many. Just my assessment.
caries are caused by a bacteria, if you have few bacteria in your mouth, you will not have a caries issue. Typically, the child has the same flora as the mother, so I usually see caries “run in families” But remember that the bacteria that cause tooth decay also protect us from the bacteria that cause gum disease and also protect us from the HPV virus. The HPV virus is responsible for 85% of the head and neck cancers. So don’t use a mouth wash that kills the friendly bacteria because you may end up with a bigger problem with the HPV virus.
I’ve used oil pulling to treat my abcess and it just flat out WORKS! The other thing that really works well on a sore tooth or gum is OREGANO OIL. It’s pretty strong but one drop, three times per day, rubbed directly into the soreness, clears it up in about a week.
Interesting. I had a dentist tell me one time that a small cavity I had filled itself in, and he was very surprised!