More Preventative Measures For Your Teeth

Flossing is uncomfortable and awkward, but electric vibrating flossers work great. They’re worth the $35 they usually sell for.

Use a soft bristle toothbrush. Firm (”hard”) bristles scratch and scrape gums helping infect gums and spread the germs that cause gingivitis. Firm toothbrushes also don’t clean teeth as well as soft bristle toothbrushes because stiff bristles don’t spread out like pliable, soft bristles do. Try to find the widest brush you can.

Electric tooth brushes are pretty good at shining teeth and also good for cleaning back teeth and for removing the white line of plaque that settles along the gum before it hardens. (If the white line has hardened, you’ll have to have it scraped off by a dentist.) An electric toothbrush does not replace your regular toothbrush. Electric toothbrushes do not have the swiping motion to push food particles out from between teeth like regular toothbrushes do.

If you can afford it or have insurance coverage for periodontal scaling (pictured), have it done at least once in your life, preferably every few years. The dentist scrapes out buildup on teeth below the gum line between the gums and teeth. It’s not painful, but it is expensive. If you call for a price, make sure you ask if the price is for all your teeth or for a fourth of your teeth (per quadrant). Usually prices are given per “quadrant” - the real price may be 4 times the price you’re given.

Xylitol has a synthetic chemical sounding name but is actually a natural chemical found in certain trees and tastes just as sweet as sugar. Xylitol breaks up plaque and prevents bacterial infection. Xylitol also prevents ear infections. If you like to chew gum, make sure it’s sweetened only with Xylitol. Xylitol causes dogs seizures. Do not feed you dog anything with Xylitol.

Soda is really bad for teeth and gums. Soda has a pH between 2.5 and 5.5, while healthy saliva pH is between 6.8 and 7.2. Soda is so acidic it causes chemical breakdown of tooth enamel, which leads to cavities. The low pH of soda is caused by the carbonation of soda. The carbon dioxide gas (the inside of the bubbles) of carbonation reacts with water forming carbonic acid. Soda is the number one most unhealthy food product.

Gingivitis and Losing Teeth

Healthy gums are pink and do not bleed. Tooth loss is most often caused by the the bacteria that causes gingivitis due to poor dental hygiene. Long term vitamin C deficiency also causes tooth loss. Vitamin C deficiency is usually caused by lack of fruits and vegetables (or juices of fruits and vegetable), pregnancy, drug use, alcohol abuse, and some medications. There’s no one specific kind or species of bacterium that causes gingivitis; there are over 500 different species that cause gingivitis. Bacterial levels can reach more than 100 billion bacterium per mg of dental plaque.

The main reason why hydrogen peroxide works so well is because the body runs on aerobic (with oxygen) respiration and friendly bacteria are also aerobic. But harmful bacteria (like the germs that cause gingivitis) run on anaerobic (without oxygen) respiration. Since hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer, it kills anaerobic bacteria by suffocating anaerobic bacteria with oxygen.

If infected gums are not assisted in healing, gums will pull away from teeth, a level of deterioration called periodontitis. Food particles and bacteria collect between the teeth and gums providing plenty of food and space for bacteria to thrive. Periodontitis weakens and removes bone, gums, and the tissue that supports teeth, causing tooth loss.

Gingivitis and Heart Disease

Believe it or not, the bacteria that causes gingivitis and periodontitis can move to other places in the body including arteries, causing or accelerating the atherosclerosis form of heart disease. It’s estimated that people with poor dental hygiene lose about 10 years of life to dental bacteria spreading to the rest of the body.

The blood is normally a sterile environment. Bacteremia is bacterial infection of the blood. It is the principal means by which local infections spread to distant organs.” The incidence of bacteremia following dental procedures … was observed in 100% of the patients after dental extraction, in 70% after dental scaling, in 55% after third-molar surgery, in 20% after endodontic treatment….“. Ask your dentist to use hydrogen peroxide during these dental procedures.

Hydrogen Peroxide Not Always Needed For Cuts and Scrapes

For cuts, scrapes, and minor burns, especially sunburns, Aloe works best for helping the body heal these sort of injuries, whereas hydrogen peroxide kills germs but slows the healing process a little. For things like bug bites, animal bites, brother bites, sister bites, dirty water in a cut, etc., forget about wound healing for a moment and use some hydrogen peroxide first. Aloe is well known as Aloe Vera. Aloe aids the healing process and has been used for many types of wounds of the skin for over 3000 years. Works on pets too. Every home should have a tube of aloe. “Fruit of the Earth” makes a pretty good aloe product. Of course if you don’t see some healing in a day or two, you should see a doctor. If you have a target shape (a circle with a dot in the center) you should see a doctor as soon as you can. The symptom is caused by Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection (first found in Lyme, Connecticut).