Skip to main content

Cavity Healing Diet Six-Month Update

Back in mid-March, my last dentist told me I needed a bunch of fillings. I declined to get them, embarking on a cavity-healing diet instead. Today, I saw a new dentist--the one my best friend saw when she lived here in Colorado. Since he never gave her a filling, I assume he's not a drill-and-fill eager beaver.

The 16 x-rays he took (yes, sixteen) didn't show decay on the teeth the last dentist wanted to fill. He also said I had a good jaw and more than enough room for all my wisdom teeth--something he said he rarely sees. As he went about cleaning my teeth as if my mouth were the Sistene Chapel, he remarked that my teeth didn't seem sensitive to cold despite some roots showing. Yes, I've observed that too: my teeth are no longer sensitive to temperature or vinaigrette, as they once were. And my TMJ problems and nighttime tooth grinding unexpectedly disappeared since I started the cavity healing diet. So even though Dr. Michelangelo (not his real name) insisted that cavities don't heal, my teeth and gums feel remarkably better than they did. My teeth look a lot better than they did, too--they were a lot whiter even before the cleaning.

He did find two tiny cavities between my front teeth and the teeth next to them: they showed up as two tiny dark fuzzy spots between the teeth. I put off having them filled, wanting to see how they look in six months. Thanks to Dr. Michelangelo, I now know enough about reading x-rays to see the results for myself.

Since vitamin D is important to cavity healing, I've ordered another mail order test from ZRT Laboratories to check my level.

I've checked my dog's cavity lately, and I really can't tell if it's made any progress.

If you'd like to see photos of good teeth on primitive diets v. bad teeth on modern diets, see Nutrition and Physical Degradation by Weston Price, DDS. You can read it online here.
Labels:

Comments

Angel said…
It's good to hear you are doing so well. Thanks for the update. :)
October 04, 2011
Lori Miller said…
Thanks, Angel.
October 04, 2011
Anonymous said…
I just experienced something that may be relevant for you as well ... (long story to follow)

I've had a quite restricted diet (candida + elimination after being diagnosed with hashimoto's for about 1,5 years ago) for about 6 months. That resulted in me going completely gluten free. I now follow a paleo-/Primal blueprint-inspired diet.

After first starting calcium supplements and second starting eating milk again I noticed
- some cramping in my feet (which I ignored even though I knew it was a sign of a slight magnesium deficiency)
- headaches
- aching jaw
- "stress"
- receding gums(!!!)
- a much weaker and more brown enamel

Then I started googeling – and realized at the main mineral for enamel is: magnesium. Our main source of magnesium is whole grains… and that stress and headaches and muscle soreness (the jaw-problem) all ties together with magnesium. In a diet such as mine it's quite difficult to reach enough magnesium unless eating a lot of nuts and seeds. So I started supplementing and al my symptoms (except for de gums – yet) are improving.

It turns out that the increased ratio of calcium in my diet may have increased the problem as calcium is an antagonist (?) for magnesium. Anyway – at least my teeth are getting less brown again!

And - excuse me for my clumsy English - I'm a Norwegian. ;)
October 19, 2011
Lori Miller said…
Glad you're doing better. I find I need to supplement Mg as well. It's an important mineral that doesn't get enough attention.

Your English isn't clumsy at all.
October 19, 2011
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This Just In: Yogurt Doesn't Improve Health

A recent study from Spain finds "In comparison with people that did not eat yogurt, those who ate this dairy product regularly did not display any significant improvement in their score on the physical component of quality of life, and although there was a slight improvement mentally, this was not statistically significant," states López-García. Most yogurt is pretty much pudding with a little bacteria . Pudding is a sugar bomb. Hard to believe the stuff doesn't improve health outcomes, isn't it? But as usual, researchers are calling for...more research. "For future research more specific instruments must be used which may increase the probability of finding a potential benefit of this food."
23 comments
Read more

Robert F. Kennedy shows up at the FDA

 
Post a Comment
Read more

Paleo Diet: Eating Differently from Everyone Else is Fine!

I've been seeing more and more articles by women (it's always women) whose heads have exploded trying to figure out life without yogurt and cupcakes. Oh, the shenanigans they get up to: bathroom problems from stuffing themselves with vegetables, paleo baked goods that don't taste the same as ones from the bakery, and especially the irresistible urge to eat "normally." The technical problems aren't hard to sort out: substitutes like baked goods will taste different because they are different, but an adjustment period of a few months will make those foods taste normal. And whatever you eat, don't stuff yourself. First, though, read a book by Loren Cordain or Mark Sisson to learn about the paleo diet before diving in. The articles I keep reading, though, have more to do with attitude: the urge to be exactly like everybody else or the urge to be helpless. If you're in the second category, I can't, by definition, help you. If you'd rather be Lu
19 comments
Read more

Decongestant Ineffective; Vibration Plate Works

A common ingredient in many cold medicines has been shown so ineffective that the FDA recently proposed taking it off the market. The ingredient, phenylephrine, "failed to outperform placebo pills in patients with cold and allergy congestion," say researchers from the University of Florida. "The same researchers also challenged the drug's effectiveness in 2007, but the FDA allowed the products to remain on the market pending additional research," according to CNBC .  Mostly placebos. Photo from Pixabay . I can attest that phenylephrine doesn't work. Before I stopped eating wheat, I constantly had nasal and sinus congestion. I helped keep Sudafed in business when the active ingredient was pseudoephedrine, but I noticed the PE (phenylephrine) variety didn't work at all. The only other decongestants I've found helpful are guaifenesin (Mucinex) and spicy food. Mucinex is expensive because it works! (The cheaper store brands work just as well, though.) Su
Post a Comment
Read more

Palpitations Gone with Iron

Thanks to my internet friend Larcana, who alerted me to the connection between iron deficiency and palpitations, I doubled down on my iron supplements and, for good measure, washed them down with Emergen-C. It's a cold medicine with a mega-dose of vitamin C, plus B vitamins and minerals. I don't think vitamin C does anything for a cold (a friend bought the stuff and left it at my house the last time she visited), but vitamin C does help iron absorption. After doubling up on iron in the last three days, I feel back to normal. (I'd already been taking quite a bit of magnesium and potassium, so I probably had sufficient levels of those.) How did I get so low on iron? Maybe it was too many Quest bars instead of red meat when I had odd cravings during my dental infection recently. Maybe because it's too hard to find liver at the grocery store and I haven't eaten much of it lately. Maybe the antibiotics damaged my intestines . And apparently, I'm a heavy bleeder .
18 comments
Read more