Good news at my most recent dental visit

[Projectile Vomit]

Prior to recent visits to have a cracked filling replaced, I had not been to the dentist in almost 12 years. I had gotten the filling back in 2004, before I was as learned about dental health as I am now and before I had the confidence to ask to see x-rays and challenge a dentist's or doctor's diagnosis.

At any rate, I noticed the filling was cracked when it frayed my dental floss starting a few weeks ago. After asking for recommendations from various friends, I chose a local holistic dentist who is Weston Price-friendly and made an appointment to have them look at the filling. They did a fairly comprehensive exam as part of their new-patient on-ramping, which included many x-rays and a thorough look around my mouth. I am happy to say that aside from a very small amount of decay that had started beneath the cracked filling, they found no other dental decay in any of my teeth, and no signs of gum disease. The filling was replaced last week, and this morning I went in for a cleaning mainly so they could scrape some built up plaque off a few of my teeth.

I figure that our teeth are our canary in the coal mine, so to speak. When our health is poor for whatever reason, dental health problems are one way that poor health manifests. It feels good to know that the diet I am eating (mostly raw, about 50/50 animal/plant by calories) seems to work well for me.

Also, does anyone have any resources they can recommend about which foods to eat or avoid to reduce plaque build up?

[PaganGoy]

In my experienced plaque like candida is caused solely from eating carbs.

[Projectile Vomit]

That has been my experience too, as back when I ate solely animal foods plaque and tarter was not much of an issue. But even animal foods have carbs in them. Milk has lactose, while organs and muscle meats have glycogen. But the glycogen in muscle meat is obviously far less than the glucose and other sugars in ice cream, for example, or potato chips.

[NuclearKnight]

Crustaceans and mollusks contain carbs too in the form of chitin.

As for dental, I find swishing with dissolved epsom salt has done my mouth more favors than oil pulling has.

[Projectile Vomit]

I have never gargled Epsom salts, but that sounds like something worth trying. I definitely gargle sea salt with good results. That is a standard in my dental health regime.

[NuclearKnight]

Magnesium is the most abundant mineral in epsom salt and the 3rd most abundant in seawater. If using sea salt, I would use seawater if you live near a water source because it is unrefined, has trace minerals, and it's free. It's bothersome how many store brands remove the 80+ minerals and add only one, iodine, back in an inorganic form and calling it "iodized". That's like someone taking 80 dollars/euros from you then giving you back one counterfeit and calling you enriched. I know it's because they get more money selling the minerals separately, much like the soy, corn, sugar industry and so on make more by selling the oil, starch, sugar, molasses, and protein separately.

[van]

find the same with teeth since going low carb,, no decay.  Now on zero carb, and my dogs too, ( too early to tell ) but at least with the dogs they have much whiter teeth, even without having bones to scrub their teeth.  They've been raw since birth.  My early opinion is that any sort of carbs feeds the bacteria that then turn into plaque and then tartar.    But again, too early to say for sure.  But any gum sensitivity at all usually is a sign that there are some non helpful bacteria present.

[norawnofun]

Until recently I noticed the build up of tartar on the inside of my teeth. I ate quite a lot of fruits (including dried) and dairy. I limited both (will now cut totally) and added coconut oil pulling every morning and the tartar is vanishing. I´m on a cooked aip diet with low carbs. I think in your case u should have no problem to remineralize your teeth and even regrow them. Meaning that the cavities should fill up naturally and the existing ones pop out. There are accounts on the internet were broken teeth regrew by dietary changes and adding certain vitamins (like D) and minerals (like magnesium) plus other regiments that helped speeding up the process. And these people are mainly on a cooked paleo. I´m sure on a raw paleo it would go much faster. One example (read comments) would be here: https://wellnessmama.com/3650/remineralize-teeth

[Qondrar_The_Redeemer]

Cooked foods gave me a lot of tartar/plaque back when I ate them, most plants (potentially dairy, I haven't been eating it so I don't know) also give me tartar/plaque. I haven't been eating either for some time, and 95% of my tartar/plaque has disappeared (albeit I have a lot amalgams from my high carb days). I didn't get any cavities on a cooked ketogenic diet either, but I had a very large amount of plaque/tartar. And if any food gets stuck in your teeth, you should obviously still brush your teeth so it doesn't create plaque/tartar.