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A compelling book on tooth care is Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye by Ellie Phillips. It advocates for: - Using flouride toothpaste. - Using a combo of bad-bacteria
by tbran 4y ago
A compelling book on tooth care is Kiss Your Dentist Goodbye by Ellie Phillips.
It advocates for:
- Using flouride toothpaste.
- Using a combo of bad-bacteria-killing mouthwash and flouride mouthwash (especially before bed).
- Eating or finishing meals with tooth-protective foods.
- Chewing xylitol [0] gum or mints. Xylitol is a sugar-replacement (with a lower insulin response) found in plants . I think Epic Dental has the most reasonably priced stuff that I would trust.
Her routine is here [1]. I think her suggestions are reasonable. She has a product line, but you can use generic products that fit her guidelines. Just match up the ingredients.
Also, a couple good points in the book Breath by James Nestor:
- We have malformed mouths and teeth because we don't do enough serious chewing. Think bread/mac and cheese/peanut butter vs carrots/steak/celery.
- Mouth breathing is bad. Your mouth dries out and this assists tooth problems. You can solve this while sleeping by taping your lips together.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol
[1]: https://issuu.com/zellies/docs/zellies-cmcsbooklet?mode=window https://issuu.com/zellies/docs/zellies-cmcsbooklet?mode=wind...
- jordanpg 4y agoI would also add electric toothbrush to this list. This has been transformative for me. I wish I could hand one to my 6 year old self. They are cheap and you can use them in the shower.
- InCityDreams 4y agoA revelation for myself was the purchase of a water-based toothbrush. Then use a regular brush. Then water-based again. Then an electric.
- rashkov 4y agoWhat did you learn
- Joeri 4y agoSame for me. I used to have cavities nearly every time I went to the dentist, and none after switching to electric brushing a decade ago.
- smn1234 4y agoever since I started using a water floser (e.g. Waterpik).... my experience with dental hygienists has been much more pleasant
- JoshTko 4y agoDaily mouthwash is a horrible idea. Mouthwash contains Corsodyl which has been shown to increase blood pressure. Regularly blasting any part of your body with a harsh antiseptic is probably a bad idea. It took us decades to realize that antibiotics messes up our gut floura, I'm sure we'll see similar consequence for mouth bacteria with mouthwash.
- tbran 4y agoThis is wrong. You didn't read the linked resources. I just checked, and neither of the mouthwashes I use have Corsodyl as active or inactive ingredients. Also, uh, don't drink your mouthwash, spit it out. Since everything we do has tradeoffs, I'm okay with using an antiseptic that is spit then rinsed (per the routine) if I'm going to eat ice cream and bread.
- throwawash 4y ago>Also, uh, don't drink your mouthwash, spit it out. doesn't cut it for me. someone I know who doesn't smoke or drink and was sub-40 years old got diagnosed with tongue cancer. Cancer specialists were miffed at the cause. The only thing that stood out: he was a meticulous user of mouthwash 3x a day since he was a teenager.
- jghn 4y agoSometimes people just get unlucky and there's not some direct causal factor. Yes, it could have been the mouthwash. It also could have been a combination of their germline genome having some unfortunate mutations and/or a series of unlucky somatic mutations.
- throwawash 4y agoIf mouthwash has harmful ingredients keeping it in your mouth for a prolonged duration and spitting it out instead of drinking it will not solve your problems, contrary to the quoted line. If an patient who is an outlier exhibits an extreme habit related to the affected cancerous organ, it seems advisable to take note even if it is possible there are undiscovered more serious contributing factors.
- floppydiskette 4y ago> You can solve this while sleeping by taping your lips together. Uh...what? Nobody is going to do that.
- sickcodebruh 4y agoI know someone who does. We were sharing a hotel on a work trip and he told me about it.
- floppydiskette 4y agoWell...I stand corrected.
- anonporridge 4y agohttps://www.sleepfoundation.org/snoring/mouth-taping-for-sleep https://www.sleepfoundation.org/snoring/mouth-taping-for-sle...
- mrmuagi 4y agoIf you enter the world of sleep apnea treatments its kind of actually quite common. The alternative sometimes is using head gear apparatus and look like darth vader. I mean even for fighting mouth breathing during sleep its been recommend.
- ryanklee 4y agoI do this
- guerrilla 4y agoYou forgot two big ones: 1. avoid as much sugar as possible 2. [deleted]
- aleksandrh 4y ago#2 is terrible advice. Acidic food weakens your enamel. Brushing after eating will make things worse. It's actually recommended that you wait after eating acidic foods to brush. Rinsing (with water) is totally safe, though.
- guerrilla 4y agoInteresting, I'd always heard the opposite but I do see a lot supporting what you say, so I removed that for now... Hmm.
- bombcar 4y agoHeh I thought you were going for a 2. "there is no step 2" joke, or suggesting that you could just remove all your teeth and then have no tooth problems anymore.
- guerrilla 4y agoI mean yeah the solution is pretty much to eat zero sugary and acidic things... but that'd be a hard life these days.
- bombcar 4y agoI'd love to see a section of the store or even a whole store dedicated to "no added sugar/sweeteners". It is really hard to find a surprisingly large amounts of food that don't come with sugar or corn syrup.
- Tozen 4y agoMany argue that pushing flouride on the public is an outright scam and lie. Fluoride is a known toxic substance that damages the body and can compromise one's health. It was being dumped in the water by factories, and the industry helped pull off a con by paying for studies to show that their industrial waste was actually "good" for people. The public fell for it, and here we are today. All these people drinking in and brushing with the so-called miracle of flouride, yet so many cavities (and other health problems).
- wing-_-nuts 4y agoThere are multiple studies showing how flouride in toothpaste and drinking water prevents cavities, and is non toxic. Where is your evidence to the contrary?
- Tozen 4y agoFlouride is toxic, period. The argument that you are likely trying to make, to oppose my statement, is how much of it can a person ingest before having negative health effects and is it really good for your teeth. It might be better to read about its history of usage, and that many countries do not allow flouride in their drinking water, and have a cavity rate that is equal or less than that of the U.S. https://www.primallifeorganics.com/blogs/primal-life-organics-blog/is-fluoride-bad-for-you https://www.primallifeorganics.com/blogs/primal-life-organic... (The Neurotoxin Lurking in Medicine Cabinets Around the Globe) https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-transformation-industrial-waste-public-health-miracle?language_content_entity=en https://origins.osu.edu/article/toxic-treatment-fluorides-tr... (Fluoride's Transformation from Industrial Waste to Public Health Miracle)
- jessaustin 4y agoSome communities have a naturally-occurring fluoride level higher than the amount that is added in other communities for tooth health. (As described at your link, these places see some cases of fluorosis, but no one dies of cancer.) That is, only very small non-toxic amounts of fluoride are ever added. These amounts have radically improved the oral health of children in those communities. Poor children, who have little access to dentists in red states, would be especially harmed if cranks have their way and fluoridation ceases. Let me guess, you also don't want iodine to be added to salt? https://www.ada.org/resources/community-initiatives/fluoride-in-water https://www.ada.org/resources/community-initiatives/fluoride...
- quantumduck 4y agoI've read reports that say the mouth bacteria develop Xylitol resistance in about 9 months. So I'm not sure how sustainable it is in long term https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22218085/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22218085/