Quick update here on James' teeth. Yesterday we had to go and get the first cavity filled. Unfortunately the cavity was right through the nerve, exposing it. There was no infection present, but can still happen. The dentist ended up doing a pulpectomy (baby root canal?) and then filling the remaining area open. I wasn't too happy to have to have this done, but didn't know of any other options. Having an exposed nerve is not a good thing, nor is an infection/abscess. So, that's that.
Anyhow, the dentist was wondering a few things. All of his cavities are on the back sides of his first molars (top and bottom, both sides). She said that she's never seen that before. She said that most often cavities randomly show up here and there, without a consistent pattern. These are all in the exact same spot on 4 different teeth. The other weird thing is that the newer molars that are touching these ones are completely healthy, no decay at all. She said that often doesn't happen either. If a molar has a cavity between it, then the touching molar often is decayed as well.
It got me to thinking and I came up with 2 different theories.
1) His health problems began with jaundice at birth along with his allergies and eczema. We did elimination diets and tried all kinds of creams, but didn't actually get any real information on what was wrong nor what to do about it until he went to the Herbalist when he was 18 months old.(Read about it here) These first molars would have been in by then, and because his digestion was so poor, he likely wasn't absorbing near enough vitamins and minerals to maintain healthy teeth. Thus the cavities in his 4 major molars. He also wasn't nursing anymore, so didn't have that back up easy-to-digest nutrition either. By the time those second molars came in, we were doing lots of specific diet changes, probiotics and digestive enzymes which helped him get a lot more nutrients out of his food.
2) He may have had silent acid reflux as I wrote about in part 1, and we didn't know about it. Being his digestion was so poor, this very likely could have been true, since the decay is on the back side of each molar. Many people have silent reflux, causing stomach acid to come up their throat in the night and causing it to eat the enamel on their teeth. Adding in the above changes may have very well taken care of it. (better digestion)
The third thing (this was mentioned to me by a friend) was to look into a Tooth Meridian Chart. This is kind of like reflexology, in that each tooth corresponds to a body organ. On James, his cavities are in the "liver" area. Hmmm. I haven't looked into this any further, and our dentist had never heard of it, but makes me wonder.
Our bodies are simply amazing, and this tells me how much we think we know about how they work, and how much we really don't know. What I do know is this- cavities aren't caused by brushing/flossing or lack of it. This isn't the main cause anyhow. We are faithful at brushing, in yet he got these 4 and the other kids have none. Does that make sense? This tells me that it is an internal factor in the health of the teeth. I know sugar is a main component in many ways (bacteria decaying on the outside, calcium/magnesium/phosphorus balance from the inside (link here) ) I've quoted this before too, but it's worth repeating, from Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions, "Last,
but not least, sugar consumption is the cause of bone loss and dental
decay. Tooth decay and bone loss occur when the precise ratio of
calcium to phosphorus in the blood varies from the normal ratio of 4
parts phosphorus to 10 parts calcium. At this proportion, all blood
calcium can be properly utilized. Dr. Melvin Page of Florida
demonstrated in numerous studies that sugar
consumption causes phosphorus levels to drop and calcium to rise.
Calcium rises because it is pulled from the teeth and the bones. The
drop in phosphorus hinders the absorption of this calcium, making it
unusable and therefore toxic. Thus, sugar consumption causes tooth decay
not
because it promotes bacterial growth in the mouth, as most dentists
believe, but because it alters the internal body chemistry.
Orthodox nutritionists admit that sugar causes tooth decay, although
they may be mistaken about just why this is so, but their warnings to
avoid tooth decay by limiting sweets are disingenuous. Most people would
be willing to pay the price for bad teeth as long as they did not have
to stop eating sugar. After all, teeth can be repaired or replaced.
But poor teeth are always the outward sign of other types of degeneration in the body, degeneration that cannot be repaired by mechanical means."
I also know what I'm going to focus on now. Getting healthy new adult teeth for these kids so that they can have healthy teeth for life. Greg & I have decided to try to stay as much as we can on the diet we've been doing. We are allowing a few grains in here and there, but have also upped our sauerkraut intake because probiotics->better digestion->better absorption of all those important vitamins and minerals. (Sauerkraut blog post soon to come!) Also, when the adult teeth come in, ages 12-16 are the most critical for focusing on healthy diet to avoid cavities. This is the time when the adult teeth do the most hardening (of enamel), and if you can avoid cavities/decay during this period, you are pretty much good for life unless your nutritional status is totally low. Greg recalls that was the age was when his eating habits were the worst, and also when his cavities all showed up too.
I regret not getting those first 2 cavities filled when they were tiny (it's a long story why we didn't), but have learned a lot about teeth since then!
How about you? What have been your experiences?
