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Anecdote time: My great grandmother lived to be 102 and never had a cavity. Kept all her teeth to the end. One time, an orderly who thought she was just being

Anecdote time: My great grandmother lived to be 102 and never had a cavity. Kept all her teeth to the end. One time, an orderly who thought she was just being senile tried to reach into her mouth to take out her teeth (thinking she had dentures). My great grandmother bit that person; hope they learned not all old people are senile! I’m 40% of the way there. No cavities and rave reviews from my dentist. I brush—-best case —-once a day. I’d not be surprised if it’s a genetic lottery of tooth enamel, tooth size (small) and mouth biome.

shmde 3y ago
What is your diet ? I am assuminf there is no processed sugar or refined wheat/gluten ?
- mikk14 3y ago
  Not OP, but in a similar situation. I'm 39, the last time a dentist looked in my mouth I was probably 16 or so* and I brush only once a day (after breakfast, which is the least effective over doing it before going to sleep). Never had a cavity. I don't think I have halitosis, at least the people I have kissed over the years never complained to me. Being Italian, I eat pasta literally every day, and my daily breakfast is chocolate chip cookies. My impression is that mouth health is 100% genetics and biome lottery. * I have extreme mistrust in their profession, due to bad experiences. When I was a kid, I injured a milk tooth which turned black. The dentist shrugged and said that it would fall normally. It didn't and it fucked up all permanent teeth that sprouted in random directions in the area. Every single dentist surveyed to fix the problem requested gigantic payments (to the tune of tens thousands of dollars, this was in the 90s in Italy, so adjust for inflation and cost of living to know how crazy this was) without providing any result guarantees, so I kept my crooked teeth. It doesn't help dentistry in Italy is that profession where you mainly do tax evasion, and occasionally look into people mouths to pass the time.
  - Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
    41 here, and also not seen by a dentist since I was around 16. No cavities for now, that I know of. If I have any, they don't hurt, at least for now. Fingers crossed. My diet is rather unremarkable, I don't consume a lot of sugar or sweets but don't refrain from them either. I brush 3 times a day. I do have occasional halitosis but it seems to be related to acid reflux, my breath seems to be fine when I have no reflux.
    - globular-toast 3y ago
      37 and same here. I brush twice a day with an electric toothbrush. I also brush my tongue well and rinse and gargle vigorously with water afterwards. I find I need to an electric toothbrush or I can't brush my wisdom teeth properly. Last time I went to the dentist they removed 4 teeth because my mouth was crowded. Then I had braces. They came out when I was 16 or so and haven't been since. I also spit several times a day. I don't know if this is relevant, but it seems to me it might be. At some point in my life I developed a habit, whenever I go to the toilet, I spit. My mouth actually salivates to get ready for it. I feel like it might do something to keep my mouth fresh. I don't eat fruit. Very little sugar. I only eat within an 8 hour window each day. Lots of cheese. Every meal is balanced (plenty of fat to accompany any carbs, protein is incidental, I don't think about it).
  - anjel 3y ago
    Anecdata: all members of my nuclear family have crowded, crooked teeth. We all have a penchant for sweets across the day. My mom is 93 and has no cavities, but her A1c started reading for 6 in the last few years. I'm 61 and have one filling. FWIW, offer the years, lots of dentists have found other cavities in my mouth, but no two dentists have ever found the same cavities... Between the four of us in my family, there aren't even 5 fillings in our ugly teeth.
- lm28469 3y ago
  Diet doesn't do much if you have bad genetics, I eat and brush the same as my gf, we don't smoke/drink, exercise the same, we basically have the same exact lifestyle. She has teeth issues multiple times a year, I never had a single problem
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    Are you sure? My girlfriend says one thing but I observe the daily unaccounted for consumption of fruit and sweets. Fair enough if you also consume lots of sweets, though.
    - lm28469 3y ago
      100% sure, first because I trust her and second because there is no way I wouldn't notice given our current work/life situation
      - globular-toast 3y ago
        Sorry to say but you're naive to think you can trust someone when it comes to diet. There's a reason human diet studies are considered very difficult if not impossible (given ethical requirements, although of course it can be done unethically like making people afraid of saturated fats for no good reason). Fair enough on the second point, though, I believe you.
        lm28469 3y ago
        idk what kind of relationships you have but I can assure you this isn't a problem here
- rubidium 3y ago
  Nothing that severe. I have beer, toast, sandwiches and burgers. I don't do a ton of sweets / soda but I do some (and if I do my teeth definitely get a fuzz that motivates brushing!). My great grandma loved jello “salad”s (eg jello with fruit in it). It’s just genetics.
fastball 3y ago
How's your breath? Frequently you either have a mouth microbiome that ends up acidic and prone to cavities, or you end up with a high pH mouth which lends itself to tartar buildup and halitosis. Of course if your teeth are decaying due to cavities and this is left untreated, halitosis is also a common result.
- rubidium 3y ago
  I don’t get negative reviews to my knowledge :) Maybe it’s the balance of regular coffee intake for lowering pH but a naturally higher pH?
- depressedpanda 3y ago
  Not OP but this is how it is for me. Also, anecdotally, from people I've spoken to, it seems they get either caries or tartar. It's a decent sample size, more than a dozen. Yet the last time I went to a dentist, 2010 or so, she claimed to have never heard of this, and I couldn't find any good studies either. Do you know of any?
bzykubd 3y ago
You should start a company providing kissing therapies
renewiltord 3y ago
It would be cool if you would submit your DNA to a public database. It could be useful at some future time.
_ah 3y ago
I'm very similar. I have excellent oral health... brush 2x/day, don't floss. Two interesting datapoints: 1. I changed jobs a few times, and for various reasons I neglected to see a dentist for 10 years. When I finally went back, had perfect oral health and no cavities. My hygienist still remembers me because this event was so far outside her experience + expectations. 2. My wife had "normal" tooth decay problems throughout her life, until we started dating, at which point she's had no further cavities. ;) To answer the normal questions: I don't do anything particularly special with my diet except a general avoidance of sweetened drinks - no soda pop, no sweeteners in my coffee. If anyone wants to swab my mouth and pay me a small licensing royalty for commercialization please get in touch. Heh.
zo1 3y ago
One suggestion/theory I'd like to posit about this. There may be a third factor, and that is our "awareness" of what's in our mouth. After I eat food, I can't stand for any food that is lingering or stuck anywhere on my teeth. It gets picked out with my tongue, water, or something else. It could be that a lot of people that have bad oral "health" are unaware of the amount of food they're letting float around in their mouth because they never became aware or able to "sense" the insides of their mouth.

shmde 3y ago

What is your diet ? I am assuminf there is no processed sugar or refined wheat/gluten ?

mikk14 3y ago
Not OP, but in a similar situation. I'm 39, the last time a dentist looked in my mouth I was probably 16 or so* and I brush only once a day (after breakfast, which is the least effective over doing it before going to sleep). Never had a cavity. I don't think I have halitosis, at least the people I have kissed over the years never complained to me. Being Italian, I eat pasta literally every day, and my daily breakfast is chocolate chip cookies. My impression is that mouth health is 100% genetics and biome lottery. * I have extreme mistrust in their profession, due to bad experiences. When I was a kid, I injured a milk tooth which turned black. The dentist shrugged and said that it would fall normally. It didn't and it fucked up all permanent teeth that sprouted in random directions in the area. Every single dentist surveyed to fix the problem requested gigantic payments (to the tune of tens thousands of dollars, this was in the 90s in Italy, so adjust for inflation and cost of living to know how crazy this was) without providing any result guarantees, so I kept my crooked teeth. It doesn't help dentistry in Italy is that profession where you mainly do tax evasion, and occasionally look into people mouths to pass the time.
- Al-Khwarizmi 3y ago
  41 here, and also not seen by a dentist since I was around 16. No cavities for now, that I know of. If I have any, they don't hurt, at least for now. Fingers crossed. My diet is rather unremarkable, I don't consume a lot of sugar or sweets but don't refrain from them either. I brush 3 times a day. I do have occasional halitosis but it seems to be related to acid reflux, my breath seems to be fine when I have no reflux.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    37 and same here. I brush twice a day with an electric toothbrush. I also brush my tongue well and rinse and gargle vigorously with water afterwards. I find I need to an electric toothbrush or I can't brush my wisdom teeth properly. Last time I went to the dentist they removed 4 teeth because my mouth was crowded. Then I had braces. They came out when I was 16 or so and haven't been since. I also spit several times a day. I don't know if this is relevant, but it seems to me it might be. At some point in my life I developed a habit, whenever I go to the toilet, I spit. My mouth actually salivates to get ready for it. I feel like it might do something to keep my mouth fresh. I don't eat fruit. Very little sugar. I only eat within an 8 hour window each day. Lots of cheese. Every meal is balanced (plenty of fat to accompany any carbs, protein is incidental, I don't think about it).
- anjel 3y ago
  Anecdata: all members of my nuclear family have crowded, crooked teeth. We all have a penchant for sweets across the day. My mom is 93 and has no cavities, but her A1c started reading for 6 in the last few years. I'm 61 and have one filling. FWIW, offer the years, lots of dentists have found other cavities in my mouth, but no two dentists have ever found the same cavities... Between the four of us in my family, there aren't even 5 fillings in our ugly teeth.
lm28469 3y ago
Diet doesn't do much if you have bad genetics, I eat and brush the same as my gf, we don't smoke/drink, exercise the same, we basically have the same exact lifestyle. She has teeth issues multiple times a year, I never had a single problem
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Are you sure? My girlfriend says one thing but I observe the daily unaccounted for consumption of fruit and sweets. Fair enough if you also consume lots of sweets, though.
  - lm28469 3y ago
    100% sure, first because I trust her and second because there is no way I wouldn't notice given our current work/life situation
    - globular-toast 3y ago
      Sorry to say but you're naive to think you can trust someone when it comes to diet. There's a reason human diet studies are considered very difficult if not impossible (given ethical requirements, although of course it can be done unethically like making people afraid of saturated fats for no good reason). Fair enough on the second point, though, I believe you.
      - lm28469 3y ago
        idk what kind of relationships you have but I can assure you this isn't a problem here
rubidium 3y ago
Nothing that severe. I have beer, toast, sandwiches and burgers. I don't do a ton of sweets / soda but I do some (and if I do my teeth definitely get a fuzz that motivates brushing!). My great grandma loved jello “salad”s (eg jello with fruit in it). It’s just genetics.

fastball 3y ago

How's your breath? Frequently you either have a mouth microbiome that ends up acidic and prone to cavities, or you end up with a high pH mouth which lends itself to tartar buildup and halitosis. Of course if your teeth are decaying due to cavities and this is left untreated, halitosis is also a common result.

rubidium 3y ago
I don’t get negative reviews to my knowledge :) Maybe it’s the balance of regular coffee intake for lowering pH but a naturally higher pH?
depressedpanda 3y ago
Not OP but this is how it is for me. Also, anecdotally, from people I've spoken to, it seems they get either caries or tartar. It's a decent sample size, more than a dozen. Yet the last time I went to a dentist, 2010 or so, she claimed to have never heard of this, and I couldn't find any good studies either. Do you know of any?

bzykubd 3y ago

You should start a company providing kissing therapies

renewiltord 3y ago

It would be cool if you would submit your DNA to a public database. It could be useful at some future time.

_ah 3y ago

I'm very similar. I have excellent oral health... brush 2x/day, don't floss. Two interesting datapoints: 1. I changed jobs a few times, and for various reasons I neglected to see a dentist for 10 years. When I finally went back, had perfect oral health and no cavities. My hygienist still remembers me because this event was so far outside her experience + expectations. 2. My wife had "normal" tooth decay problems throughout her life, until we started dating, at which point she's had no further cavities. ;) To answer the normal questions: I don't do anything particularly special with my diet except a general avoidance of sweetened drinks - no soda pop, no sweeteners in my coffee. If anyone wants to swab my mouth and pay me a small licensing royalty for commercialization please get in touch. Heh.

zo1 3y ago

One suggestion/theory I'd like to posit about this. There may be a third factor, and that is our "awareness" of what's in our mouth. After I eat food, I can't stand for any food that is lingering or stuck anywhere on my teeth. It gets picked out with my tongue, water, or something else. It could be that a lot of people that have bad oral "health" are unaware of the amount of food they're letting float around in their mouth because they never became aware or able to "sense" the insides of their mouth.