Dental Health

One of the great things about the plant-based lifestyle is all the illnesses and diseases that it can reverse, but the one thing that I haven't heard of healing once the damage is done is our teeth! If you know if some holistic healing therapy for teeth, I would love to hear about it.

I went to the dentist today because a back tooth has been bothering me. About ten years ago a dentist told me that I had a hairline crack in my back tooth. He wanted to do a root canal and crown. I asked him to just fill it instead. Well, it has progressively gotten worse over the years.

When I went to a new dentist today, he said he would try to work around having to put a crown on it or doing a root canal, but he said the tooth beside the one that is bothering me is cracked too! I asked him what causes teeth to crack and I was totally surprised by his answer. MERCURY FILLINGS! He said the mercury expands and contracts in response to hot and cold temperatures which causes these hairline cracks.

His response made me curious about mercury fillings so I looked it up when I got home. The list of complications from mercury fillings (some people call them silver fillings but it's only silver in color) is quite long. I had no idea these type of fillings could cause so much trouble. I remember going to a dentist several years ago who wanted to change out the mercury fillings. I said OK to a few, but as always I wanted to keep the cost down so I didn't do them all. Now I wish I would have let the dentist change them.

I also have bone loss in my gums which the hygienist said can be hereditary but can also be caused by tarter build up which creates pockets for bacteria to get in and damage the bone. Interestingly, I had a bone regeneration procedure done several years ago and the side that was done had more bone loss than the side that was left alone. I had no idea what the dentist was doing at the time I had the oral surgery done, I was just told they were going to do a procedure to eliminate pocketing that could lead to gum disease. Had I known what all was involved with doing that I would have never agreed to the procedure. It was like something from a horror movie when I got done. I had stitches all in my gums. It was incredibly painful and scared me away from dentists for a long time.

I take good care of my teeth. I brush and floss every day, OK, sometimes I skip the floss, but I never skip brushing. I need to adopt that same habit with working out and eating clean!

It just made me think today about how important dental health is and how much that affects how we feel and our overall health.

How long has it been since your last visit to the dentist?

Kathy G
www.afilgo.com