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I have never had many dental problems.  In fact, overall, I’ve been pretty fortunate as far as my teeth are concerned. I have only had two cavities so only have two fillings.

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Over the years my dentists’ have commented how fortunate I was to have so few cavities.  That comment is almost always followed by something on the order of  “I bet you had fluoride in your water.”

Yes I did.

Until recently I was super happy that I was fortunate enough to live in a town that fluoridated the water. After all, look how wonderful my teeth turned out. They were practically cavity free and, according to every dentist, very strong.

Then a few years ago I started reading about the problem with adding fluoride to the water.  I have to say that I was surprised that something I had always thought to be a “good thing” and essential for good dental health wasn’t what I had been led to believe.

Spending a few minutes reading at Fluoride Action Network shows some disturbing risks from swallowing fluoride including bone problems, stomach problems, infertility in men, diabetes, cancer and more.

When my children were young we did not live in place with fluoride added to the water but because of my ‘excellent’ experience with fluoride water (and because I didn’t know any better) they had fluoride drops as infants, fluoride tablets when older, used fluoride toothpaste and had a fluoride treatment twice a year at the dentist.  They still had cavities.

When we started learning about the dangers of fluoride we stopped all of it. We had also changed our diet around that same time to a real/whole/traditional foods style of eating. Since that time we have had very few cavities in comparison.

A couple of years ago my ‘perfect’ teeth began having problems.  I started having a pain in one of them occasionally when I would bite down on something. My new dentist (we had just moved to Wyoming) said I had a very small crack in my tooth. I was surprised and told him I’d always had excellent teeth. Then he said the same thing I’d always heard in response to my excellent teeth “I bet you had fluoride in your water.”

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Apparently the fluoride in the water that helps children have strong teeth can backfire as an adult. My teeth are now brittle. From that first little crack things have went downhill. I’ve ended up with several chipped teeth and now have not one but two teeth with cracks in them.  My dentist had been hesitant to do anything so we have been in a ‘wait and see’ mode.

Last month my dentist retired. A new dentist took over his practice. The new dentist says we should no longer wait and see. The crack in one of my teeth has become much worse.  The pain when I chew happens much more often and I’ve even been experiencing some sensitivity to cold.

The new dentist would like to put a temporary crown on my tooth. He would leave it there for several weeks and see if the problems stop. If not he wants to do a root canal. Yikes. I do not want a crown. I certainly do not want a root canal since those also carry their own problems. He says that without the crown there is a good chance I will bite down on something and the tooth will completely fall apart. And since I have cracked teeth on both sides of my mouth I can’t avoid chewing in the affected area.

Essentially, my teeth are falling apart.

I am also concerned that if my teeth are so brittle are my bones also as brittle?

My Plan

I do not plan to move forward with the temporary crown at this time.

Instead I’m going to read again a couple of books available from Amazon Nutrition and Physical Degeneration  by Weston A. Price again. While I don’t recall anything specific about brittle teeth in there, it is a good reminder of what I should be eating and what I should not. I hate to admit that sometimes the “should not” items happen more than they should.

Also, Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. I had borrowed this book from a friend a couple of years ago but think it is time to get my own copy.  This article (from a website about the book) talks about cracks in teeth. In all honesty, it doesn’t sound good for me when reading it. But a crown and root canal doesn’t sound good either!

I’m also trying to be diligent about taking my cod liver oil. I have a jar (cod liver/butter oil) in the fridge but I often forget about taking it. In fact, until the dentist said ‘root canal’ I hadn’t had any for a couple of months. I sure wish it tasted better. I ordered chocolate flavored last time and that was a mistake!

Milk

I’m going to focus on drinking more raw milk. Raw milk from cows on grass contains calcium of a higher quality. My goal is a quart of milk each day.  Not just for my teeth but also for my bones.

Avoiding non-soaked bread items is also something I am doing. I can’t explain this but biting down on bread causes the most tooth pain for me. The worst pain I’ve had (it lasted for days) was the result of eating a hamburger and I am sure it was from the bun not anything else.  Nagel recommends avoiding all flour and grain products (along with several other things).

Hopefully my children did not receive enough fluoride over the years to end up with the problems I now have.

 

Have you tried repairing or remineralizing teeth? I’d love to for you to share your results. 

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Photo Credits: Tough Teeth, Tooth

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