Healthy Teeth, Healthy Life

A Dentist? No, Thanks!

I am sure that anyone reading this article firmly believes that the best way to avoid caries is a prolonged and meticulous brushing of teeth after taking every meal. It is quite probable that you are an enduring follower of the torturing practice of dental flossing and even of the use of antiseptic rinse of flamboyant colors. But, certainly you know that despite your efforts, quite surely your dentist will find new caries in your next annual visit. And surely, there are thousands or millions of people just like you! If not, you would not find it natural to come across neat devices in many restaurant toilets that for a Euro offer us a sterilized disposable toothbrush to avoid the inexcusable mistake of escaping your hygiene routine.

Then you will wonder why you still have caries when you follow rigorously the precepts of the most modern dentistry and even the wise advice long ago given by your parents. You have even changed the toothbrush model and the toothpaste brand every time you were convinced by a smiling dentist on the TV who suggests-commands you what you should do to have teeth whiter than his immaculate robe!

You surely have verified in your own neighborhood or your city that there are ever more dental practices and clinics. All at once, we find in the supermarkets more sophisticated toothpastes, more design toothbrushes (electric, rotating, water jet …); still, everyone has more caries, too.

Perhaps you would feel relieved if you knew that the authors of this article and the book “Dientes Sanos, Vida Sana” (“Healthy Teeth, Healthy Life”) were victims, as well, of the institutionalized belief that in order to be able to keep a spotless set of teeth it is enough to fight the dental plaque.

The prevailing paradigm built over the theory that our teeth have no defense at all against the voracious oral bacteria is wrong. The dental plaque theory is obsolete and has proved, after 125 years of existence, to be useless except for making richer dentists as well as laboratories that have created all the chemical-aesthetic paraphernalia taking several meters of shelves in supermarkets and chemists.

Some 80 years ago, a group of authentic and honest professionals realized that something was not working well in their daily odontological practice and, therefore, it was about time to investigate what was really happening. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Dr. W. Price and a numerous group of dentists gave up their medical practices and discovered that hundreds of peoples and cultures on the planet enjoy an excellent set of teeth while totally ignoring the existence of the toothbrush and not even knowing the word “dentist”. Actually, it could not be otherwise, for as all the other tissues forming our body, our teeth are alive and have the same defense mechanisms against pathogens than any other organ has. Furthermore, like in the rest of the body, the vital function of the teeth is regulated by hormones; hormones that, as the great majority of them do, depend upon the regulative centre of the hypothalamus! And this has been known for more than 40 years! The well-known American endocrinologists, Dr. Leonora and Dr. Steinman, were the ones who discovered that the parotid hormones regulate the dentinal fluid—a kind of saliva that flows inside the teeth and that not only re-mineralises them, but also protects them from a potential bacterial attack.

Sugar is not the enemy of our teeth because it nurtures bacteria, as it is considered by the obsolete dental plaque theory, but because the excessive level of glucose in blood inhibits the secretion of the parotid hormone. And naturally, without the stimulation of this hormone, the minieralising dentinal fluid flow gets stopped and the tooth goes ill. But it is not only because of sugar that the teeth get ill, but also because of an excessive industrial carbohydrate-based diet which our body rapidly transforms into glucose. What a coincidence! The modern Western diet is responsible for both the obesity and diabetes epidemic and our caries. In this way, we find the last piece of our puzzle: the primitive folks who had no caries did not enjoy our diet full of bread, pizzas, pasta, cookies, sweets and more sweets. As Stanley and Livingstone, the medical eminences Dr. W. Price and Dr. Leonora now shake hands—the circle is closed.

Now we understand how the diets in the pre-industrial societies helped people to keep their teeth sound without the need of any toothbrush or a dentist and why when the members of the same cultures turned to occidental food got their teeth full of caries.

But not all the blame falls on the excess of industrial refined carbohydrates, for periodontal illnesses can originate in deficient diets, as well. Here we are not referring to scurvy and to vitamin C shortage, but to diets deficient in vitamin D and K, in zinc and iodine and other fundamental elements, as well.

Saliva is an amazing fluid comprised of various antibiotics, growth stimulants, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents, and minerals related to dental re-mineralization, all of which is synthesized by our own body. In clear contrast to the obsolete theory of dental plaque, the complex dental microbiota contains hundreds of species of bacteria which more than attacking our teeth, protect them and help them to remain sound.

Then, what to do to avoid caries, maintain a healthy set of teeth, and free ourselves from periodically going to the dentist? Just the same we are advised to do to keep a healthy life and avoid all kinds of sicknesses: keep a healthy diet based on natural, non-processed, non-industrialized, non-refined food—exactly what our grandparents used to eat: lots of vegetables, pulses, meat and organs (liver, marrow, etc.) of grass fed animals, lots of fish, and shellfish rich in essential minerals, taking processed carbohydrates only at parties and celebrations.

In this way, we avoid blocking the parotid hormone secretions coming from the hypothalamus, and we make sure that the dentinal fluid flow keeps our teeth healthy and well mineralized, thus being able to defend themselves from any bacterial attack.

The present medical cosmetic philosophy is based on a wrong theory: the dental plaque. This paradigm is centered on the principle that our teeth and saliva are useless when it comes to defending themselves from the voracious bacteria, and that dentists are only able to extend for a couple of years the unavoidable end: the loss of our teeth. However, there are many peoples and cultures who have never brushed their teeth and they have had quite no caries. Research found that their excellent dental health was due to their natural eating habits, i.e. a diet that neither includes sugar nor any other processed food.

What is being ignored (or silenced) by official dentistry is that our teeth are a living entity and have defense and regeneration mechanisms. Many are the scientists who have proved through the years that the dentinal fluid flowing via the dentinal tubules is in charge of keeping our teeth alive, healthy, mineralized, and bacteria-proofed.

Pictures taken form Shutterstock