Why Baking Soda & Fermented Foods Provide the Best Dental Care

In my first post titled "Most Powerful Medicine #1", I shared the great results I have enjoyed because I switched from commercial toothpaste to baking soda. I thought I would follow up with excerpts from an article by Dr. Mercola in which he shares information from Dr. Tim Rainey, a pioneer in biological dentistry.

Remember in my first post I wrote: your saliva contains all the necessary elements to heal cavities before they require drilling, crowns, root canals, etc. ?

Here's an excerpt from the article referencing that:

Understanding Tooth Structure

The tooth is covered with a layer of lipoprotein, laden with calcium phosphate that comes and goes — eating and drinking, especially acidic foodstuffs and beverages, remove it, while saliva puts it back. Beneath that is an extremely hard and dense layer of enamel, which is about 0.2 millimeters, or 200-400 microns thick. Inside of that hard layer, the tooth structure becomes much softer. These parts all form the structural integrity of the tooth.  

Why Decay Occurs

Tooth decay is primarily driven by the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and acidity, which creates a pathogenic bioflora in your mouth. If you’re continually lowering the pH in your mouth, you start losing calcium, which is necessary for strong healthy teeth. Calcium deficiency leads to porosity in the teeth, which allows plaque that has turned pathogenic to attack the tooth more thoroughly. Once certain types of bacteria are able to penetrate the enamel, they put out enzymes that begin to break down the collagen of the inner structure of the tooth.

“That’s where you get cavitation, which is the loss of tooth structure to the point where you have a hole in that tooth,” Dr. Rainey explains.

One of the most important things Dr. Rainey instructs his patients to do is to use nothing but baking soda on their teeth at night.

“The pathogenic bacteria must have an acidic environment. Then you have the bacteria – the probiotic bacteria – that live in a neutral environment. You’re going to have X number of bacteria regardless of what you do. So, why not promote the non-pathogenic bacteria by neutralizing the acidity with baking soda at night, which has profound effects on the overall oral health of the individual?” Dr. Rainey says.

You can brush with it, use it as a mouth rinse, and even dissolve a little in the water you use in your WaterPik or HydroFloss.

• To brush: Wet your toothbrush and dip it into the baking soda. Brush as usual. Your teeth should feel smooth when finished
• To rinse: About a teaspoon in a small glass of water is sufficient. Just swish it around in your mouth and spit out
• To floss: Dissolve a small amount of baking soda in water and fill your irrigation instrument. Make sure not to let it dry inside your water pik as it will cause buildup and eventually render the tool useless. So, always keep water in your irrigation tool, and instead of storing it standing up, store it upside-down in a glass of baking soda and water, as the baking soda will prevent harmful bacteria from proliferating. Once a week, drain it all out and rinse it thoroughly with water.

I also wrote about the benefits of fermented foods in my post titled "Most Powerful Medicine #3 - Fermented Foods."

Take a look at this excerpt from Dr. Mercola's article referencing how probiotics play an important role even in maintaining healthy teeth:

Promote Beneficial Oral Bacteria with Fermented Foods

To promote a beneficial oral bioflora, he also recommends taking Evora tablets while you’re trying to change the bacterial balance in your mouth. Eating fermented foods, such as cultured yogurt made from raw organic milk (AVOID store-bought yogurts as they are worthless in terms of probiotics. Most are loaded with sugars and other detrimental ingredients, and all of them are pasteurized), or fermented vegetables, which you can easily and inexpensively make at home.

According to Dr. Rainey, any type of probiotics will naturally help get rid of harmful Strep mutans. This includes Lactobacillus and bacteria that are bioactive in high concentrations of lactic acid.

If you haven't tried baking soda or fermented foods, I hope you will reconsider. Great health awaits you!