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Wow, this is fabulous! Thanks so much for posting it, Laura!!!

 

Judy

 

In a message dated 1/5/2005 10:46:30 PM Eastern Standard Time,

iamdunroamin writes:

 

How To Enjoy Healthy Teeth & Gums - In Spite Of Your

Dentist

 

ROBERT O. NARA, D.D.S. Speaking at Total Health '87

 

The dental profession has the public pretty well

boondoggled into thinking that we have to go to the

dentist & get our teeth cleaned & checked every six

months & we've been conditioned to believe that

somehow or other this has something to do with our

having healthy teeth & gums.

 

I don't particularly believe that that's true. In

fact, I believe that you could very easily live out an

entire lifetime & never see a dentist. Every time you

have your teeth cleaned, about 2 to 3 microns of your

enamel goes away. It's a very abrating kind of

process, this business of having your teeth cleaned.

 

In fact, I believe that there are a lot of detrimental

things that happen in the cleaning process & the

scraping of the roots. Even in dental professional

literature, they state that there is probably some

damage to the root surfaces when they scrape with

these scalers.

 

CALCULUS OR TARTAR:

 

I want you to think about another thing. At some time

or other you've had a tea kettle or some kind of a pot

on your stove that boils water & , over a period of

time, a scale forms on the bottom. If you've ever

looked carefully at that scale, you will find that

it's kind of dark brown in color, kind of brittle

looking & , in fact if you scrape at it a little bit,

some of it may come off in chunks. If you look inside

your mouth & you have a large number of deposits on

your teeth, what dentists call calculus or tartar,

you'll find that it's going to look

just about the same as that stuff that collects on the

bottom of your tea kettle. The reason that it looks

like it's the same stuff, is because it is the same

stuff.

 

Now, once every six months or so you could scrape the

bottom of the tea kettle & try to get that stuff off,

which would be a tough job as you can appreciate, or

you could put a little bit of vinegar in your tea

kettle & the calcium hydroxide salts that are stuck on

the bottom of your tea kettle would go back into

solution, because the acetic acid from the vinegar,

working with the calcium hydroxide, which is a base,

neutralize each other & you can dissolve the deposits.

 

 

So if I suggested that, instead of having all that

scraping all the time that we just dissolve the tartar

off of the teeth, that would make a whole lot of

sense, wouldn't it?

 

STRUCTURE OF THE TOOTH:

 

Now, let's take a look at the tooth structure. The

hard structure of a tooth is the enamel & the dentin

is underneath it.

 

What is the tooth made of? Well, it's primarily made

of calcium & phosphorus, the same stuff our bones are

made of except there is a little more calcium &

phosphorus in the teeth than there is in the bones.

That's why they are harder. If you fall down & break a

leg & the doctor puts the two pieces of the bone back

together & puts a cast over the whole affair so that

it can't move; in about six weeks your leg is healed.

 

How did it heal? Did the Doctor put some super glue in

there? No, you grew some brand new bone. In order for

the bone to heal, for the two pieces to heal back

together, you grew brand new bone. If you have a

cavity, why don't we grow some brand new enamel? Now,

there is no reason to believe that if we can grow new

bone, that we can't grow new tooth structure. There's

no reason to believe that if a substance comes out of

solution & deposits on your teeth, that it can't go

back into solution & get off of your teeth.

 

BIOLOGICAL BALANCE IN THE MOUTH:

 

I would like to talk to you about a hypothetical

situation which can take place inside of a person's

mouth, let's call it biologic balance.

 

Let's pretend that we have a condition inside of your

mouth which is identical to the first few hours after

you were born. Now, when you were first born, your

body was completely sterile - there was no bacteria

anywhere in your system. All the bacteria that your

body takes on, where do you get it from?

 

Your body gets it from your environment. But, at the

time that you were first born, you had saliva in your

mouth. There was no bacteria in your mouth. The saliva

at that time was, for all practical purposes, for

several days or even longer, sterile. No bacteria. The

saliva has a high concentration of calcium &

phosphorus ions, the same stuff our teeth are made of.

Our blood also has a high concentration of calcium &

phosphorus ions floating around in it. So you see, the

basic building blocks of the body are all around.

They're in the blood, they're in the saliva, & if you

have something going wrong later on, there is no

reason that these building blocks are not available.

 

They're there & they can work for you. But only under

the right conditions. Saliva is a very good first-aid

type fluid that helps us. It has very beneficial

effects. It also contains calcium & phosphorus ions

which are available at any time. If you have a decent

diet, you will have a pretty high concentration of

these calcium & phosphorus ions in your saliva.

 

If your diet is not good, you're going to have a lower

concentration of them. So obviously, diet is very

important to

good dental health. Diet is important to all health.

If we don't eat right, we're not going to be healthy

no matter what.

 

BACTERIA CAUSES DECAY!

 

The dental profession has been telling us all these

years that sugar is the thing that raises all the

ruckus with our teeth. Most people that I have talked

to have said that they have a friend, or relative, who

seldom brushed, didn't clean their teeth very well &

ate candy bars till they were coming out of their

ears, & never got a single cavity.

 

How come? The environment wasn't right. That

particular person was immune to the types of bacteria

that cause decay. & , there are about 3 or 4 main

decay-producing types of bacteria, the two primary

ones really are the strep-mutanes, which are the big

ones & then after that comes lacto-bacillus.

 

These bacteria, the 3 or 4 main types which attack our

teeth, do it by producing toxic waste products in the

form of

acids that literally eats holes in the enamel. If you

want to stop that process, the first thing you have to

do is get rid of the infection.

 

You all know what appendicitis is. That's inflammation

or infection of the appendix. You may also have

" molaritis " or " bicuspiditis " , infection of the tooth.

Dentists just refer to these things as cavities to be

filled. If you're a dentist every cavity looks like a

filling, not a healing, but a filling.

 

My wife & I have 3 children, the oldest one is a

dentist, the next oldest one is a medical doctor & the

next daughter is a physical therapist. None of our

children have ever had a cavity. They never will, any

more than there's every going to be grass growing in

this room; because the environment is not right. Now,

you can create this. It takes a little effort.

 

REMINERALIZATION OF CAVITIES:

 

Modern research has shown in the past several years

that almost every human being walking around today,

even people whose mouths are in good condition, has on

the average about 20 cavities in their mouth at all

times. & these cavities are either getting bigger or

getting smaller, & the availability of the calcium &

phosphorus ions from our saliva depositing in these

areas is the thing that keeps the teeth healthy

enough.

 

Now, if the deposits are coming back onto the tooth

structure

about as fast as they are leaving, then your teeth

stay healthy. If the reverse is true, then a hole

starts to develop. People have asked me what they can

do about some of these things? Well, let me offer just

one idea about this business of speeding up the

remineralization of cavities.

 

If you have a hole in the tooth, it's nothing more

than soft

tooth structure; earlier it had more calcium &

phosphorus ions in it. If you want to strengthen it &

harden it, there is a mouth spray called Zero-lube.

Zero-lube was originally designed & produced by a

laboratory in the United States called Scheer Labs, in

Dallas, Texas.

 

This product is very unique. It was designed

originally for people who had severe radiation of the

head & neck regions. What radiation does is, it

atrophies the saliva glands in the floor of the mouth

& on the side of the cheeks. & as these saliva glands

atrophy, they don't produce saliva anymore & , if they

do, it's a very small amount. The average human being

produces about a litre of saliva every day.

 

Without it, however, people have a very dry condition

because their salivary glands have atrophied & any

dentist will tell you that the roots of the teeth, the

root surfaces, the gum areas that protect the roots,

deteriorate at an extremely rapid rate. So, this

product was originally designed to help these people

who had had excessive radiation & didn't have enough

of their own saliva to even keep their teeth wet.

 

All you have to do is spray with this stuff a few

times a day &

you are adding a very high concentration of the

calcium & phosphate ions in your mouth, & if you swish

with it for several minutes before you spit it out,

you are actually helping to heal these areas that have

softened up. Your saliva contains these same ions on

its own & , if your teeth are perfectly clean & your

mouth is in biologic balance, you do not need this

product. In fact, when you achieve biologic balance

you don't need hardly any products except just a

toothbrush, some dental floss & maybe an irrigator.

(See also: Demineralization & Remineralization)

 

GUM & NECK OF THE TOOTH PROBLEMS:

 

Now, most of the people in this room are already doing

a pretty good job with a toothbrush & with floss or

tape, but the serious problem that exists today is gum

tissue problems. Once they have started, there is a

little space down between the neck of the tooth & the

tooth itself. For all practical purposes, let's call

it the neck of the tooth disease.

 

This is the area of the biggest amount of problem, &

it seldom gets cleaned properly because food &

bacteria collect in this

space, on the outside of the tooth & on the tongue

side, & we don't really clean there very well. The

dental floss is designed to clean in between the

teeth, & the brush cleans the outside, the biting

surface & the inside, but this little space between

tooth & gum, unfortunately does not get cleaned, or in

most places not very well.

 

Now, if you are using a brush in a very unique manner,

& if you are young & you have used that solculus

brushing method very carefully, you can probably get

by without every using an oral irrigator. But, if you

have any dental problems, or any amount of disease or

any amount of dental recession, then it is highly

advisable that you use some form of irrigation to

clean around the neck of the tooth.

 

The pattern of gum tissue disease is that it is

basically a problem of not getting the neck of the

tooth clean, & that is why the disease process starts

marching down the tooth.

 

From the time I graduated from dental college I had

figured out that the Water-Pik was a pretty handy

device, because you could remove a lot of debris from

the mouth with it. In fact, the people that we have on

Water-Piks, especially with the special tips to flush

out pockets, tell me, all of them, that after their

evening mean they brush well, they use their dental

floss, they clean very well, they do everything right.

Then they use the Water-Pik with the special tip, with

their head in the sink

in the bathroom, & the food & the debris & the

particles that come out is unbelievable to them. They

say, " Wow, no wonder I have been having these

problems. " So about twenty-some years ago, with the

help of my dental staff, my wife & a couple of other

people, we took the conventional Water-Pik tip, which

is kind of like a shotgun tip, it just squirts water

in every direction, it's not very directional. We made

it very directional by adding a section of stainless

steel surgical tubing, so that instead of it squirting

in every which direction, it would squirt in a very

specific place.

 

It's kind of like a garden hose with a blunt end on

it, that just squirts all over the place & if you put

a nozzle on it & tighten it down & it squirts in a

specific place, you can get more pressure & you can

get a better cleansing action, & you

can flush out dental pockets.

 

Pockets are nothing more than the same little space we

started off with earlier which was normal, & which has

now gotten deeper & this is called a periodontal

pocket. It's nothing more than a space between the

tooth & the gum, & the deeper they get, the more food

& the more bacteria pack down in there. & the deeper

it gets, the more it ruins the attaching fibers.

 

If you want to know how your gum tissue sticks to your

teeth & bone, all I want you to do is think about the

Velcro that we have on clothing & wallets, because

that is how your gum tissue sticks. There are little

attaching fibers, & the minute that there is some

irritation in the depth of that first crevice which is

only about a millimetre deep when we are a young child

& a millimetre or two deep when we get to be a

teenager.

 

If it starts to get to three or four millimetres you

have a

pocket & you cannot clean the depth of that pocket.

So, this little space that keeps getting deeper &

deeper, you can't clean it with a toothbrush, you

can't clean it with dental floss, you can go to the

dentist & have it scraped out & , generally speaking,

the dentist is going to tell you that instead of

coming back every six months for a scraping, to come

back every three months for a scraping.

 

I call it " Scrapeodontics. " & after it gets very bad

they might tell you to come back every one or two

months for a scraping. This isn't doing any good.

 

The net result is that, not only is it not stopping

the cause, but it is damaging the roots of the teeth

besides. So it is up to you to decide which way you

want to go, if you want to pay a little attention &

put on a little effort, you can enjoy a state of what

is called biologic balance in your mouth. & if the

depth of the pocket is not enjoying the same state of

biologic balance, then that " neck of the tooth

disease " is marching way down the neck of the tooth

headed right for the tip of the tooth & , by the time

it gets about two-thirds of the way down there, your

teeth are going to start wobbling around. There is not

enough bone left to hold the teeth in place. But, you

can grow new bone, & grow it right back up the neck of

the tooth again.

 

In October, 1977, the Journal of the American Academy

of Dentists, tells all about the bone growing right

back up the necks of the teeth.

 

When my wife & I were young & met at Michigan State

University, her mother had, at that time, five teeth

in her mouth, two on the bottom & three on the top.

She had suffered a lot of gum disease over the years &

dentists had done all of the things which they could

do. These five teeth were so wobbly that you could

move them around with your fingers, in fact, she was

already scheduled to have those removed & have upper &

lower dentures made.

 

Her soon to be son-in-law dentist said, now wait a

minute. At least those five teeth will help stabilize

partial dentures. It is better to have partial

dentures than a full denture. & these teeth were so

loose that they were practically ready to come

out on their own. We put her on the program of

cleaning the neck of the tooth. We eliminated the

" neck of the tooth disease " in her mouth & the bone

grew back. My wife & I will celebrate our 30th wedding

anniversary this summer, & her mother still has the

five teeth. So, when dentists tell me that you can't

do these things, I just say, " Well, Doctor, it is kind

of like if you believe that you can't do them, then

you can't. "

 

VIADENT:

 

A company in Switzerland by the name of Viadent, who

consulted with me by the way, built some special tips

for their unit which is similar to the Water-Pik. It

is different in several ways & the Viadent unit comes

with four tips, two conventional tips which are good

for young people, particularly small children because

it will flush away the food & bacteria that collects

below the neck of the tooth, & the other two (sulcus)

tips that come with it are designed to flush out

pockets.

 

Now, those of you who heard Reverend Willhelm, heard

him tell you just how effective hydrogen peroxide was

in killing bacteria. (this should be pharmacuetical

grade if possible)

 

If you want to get hydrogen peroxide down into the

space between the tooth & the gum, if you just rinse

your mouth with it that is partially beneficial, but

if you have pockets & spaces down along the necks of

the teeth & someone has recommended surgery for you or

whatever, then I would highly advise you to get a unit

like this & use it initially two or three times per

day & squirt the hydrogen peroxide or salt water or

salt & soda or a variety of other rinses that are

mentioned in that Issue No. 9.

 

The Gum Tissue Issue of the No. 9 (People's Dental

Association) newsletter has a whole page on rinses &

the different variety of rinses that are available. If

you are going to stop your own gum disease, you have

to stop the bacteria.

 

So, I just want you to think about these things.

They're your teeth. They're going to be either with

you or not with you for the rest of your life. The

person that is in control is you. You are in charge of

your own dental destiny. The more you rely on the

dentist & the less you rely on yourself, the more

likely you will wind up with teeth at a ripe old age.

 

You're going to have to do a little homework, you're

going to

have to study a little bit, you're going to have to

change your frame of reference, & you're going to have

to say, well maybe there is a better way.

 

THE PEOPLE'S DENTAL ASSOCIATION:

 

The biggest problem that this whole situation faces is

the lack of knowledge. In the first place, the public

does not have this knowledge, but that's not really

where the problem lies. An organization in the United

States called Opinion Research Corporation did a very

extensive study to find out just why it is that

prevention & the knowledge that has been produced in

the past 20, 30, 40, 50 years, is not being practiced.

 

 

Dentists practice with drills, doctors practice with

forceps, they don't practice with knowledge. & Opinion

Research

Corporation set out to figure out why. Why is this

existing knowledge not being put to use? Why is it not

being taught to the public?

 

Opinion Research found out that the dentists don't

know. There is a big block & no communication between

the scientific world of dentistry & the delivery

system of dentistry out in the field. Also, the

practicing dentist today is not practicing much

different than the dentist practiced 25 years ago or

even 50 years ago. I graduated, in essence, number one

in my class from the University of Michigan in 1959 &

my son graduated from the same University with the

same position in his class 25 years later, & the

courses were all the same.

 

There wasn't one course that had been appreciably

changed in the 25 years between the time that I had

left there & the time my son left there. Nothing has

been changed. They are taught the same old mechanics.

 

So, you have a choice, you people that are the public

can decide. Your dentist that you have seen in the

past, or even in the future, if they choose to think

in the old way, I guess there is not much we can do

about that.

 

But you can certainly choose to think in a new way.

That is your

decision to make. I think that it is very possible to

live for a

lifetime without seeing a dentist, as long as you have

this knowledge & you break up the bacterial colonies

that collect around the teeth & gums.

 

If you don't believe that these things can work, if

you don't want to understand how they work, if you're

not willing to deal with an open mind & learn that

there may be some other ways to think about this, well

then your best bet is to just continue what dentists

have been preaching for a long time; see your dentist

twice a year, brush your teeth twice a day, & don't

eat sweets.

 

You will then have a typical pattern of a lot of

cavities & gum problems & root canals & all different

kinds of things.

 

I guess there is not a whole lot I can do to change

the profession anymore, because I spent about 15 years

of my life travelling around the Dental Schools

teaching these same concepts. These same things I am

presenting to you, I have presented to over 15,000

dentists in a period of several years' time.

 

I wrote a thick textbook about it published by

Prentice Hall in the United States, & sold all kinds

of them. I'm sure the dentists, at least some of them

read it, but I can assure you none of them practice

it. Or if so, very, very few.

 

That's unfortunate. I finally decided instead of

talking to dentists & trying to reason with them, I

turned it all into a program which can be done

directly for the public, either in the form of

lectures like this & even more effectively through the

mail.

 

Everything which I am saying to you about learning &

doing is

included, & there are about 15 or 20 different modern

day products listed that will help you, in addition to

some old ones, like salt & soda & peroxide & all of

these things. There is no one exact answer for any

given person.

 

So, we reduce the whole thing down to a four-page

description which is now published in a newsletter

called " The People's

Dental Association Network News " Issue No. 7. Issue

No. 7 is an

overview of everything I am saying to you here this

evening. It is a synopsis of the entire Oramedics

Program that has been developed by myself & other

people, to bring people's mouths back to a state of

biologic balance.

 

Now, if you have gum tissue problems, then there is

another issue which is a condensation of about 450

research articles, all put into a four page newsletter

called " Issue No. 9 " which has to do with gum disease.

 

 

I see part of my job on the face of this earth these

days as answering the problem that Opinion Research

Corporation found out; that the scientific world & the

dental practitioner world don't communicate. So I see

my role as being a source. I can't expect you all to

go out & read a half dozen different dental journals

each month & analyze what they say & try to figure

what that means to the health of your mouth.

 

So, I have assumed that responsibility. I read the

Journals &

determine what I think is important for the public to

know, &

periodically we condense it into an issue of a

newsletter & we mail it out to the people that belong

to this organization called " The People's Dental

Association " .

 

We do issues of the Network News when we have

something important to say, if there is a breakthrough

in the field of dentistry or the health of the mouth,

we will come out with a special issue & it will be off

the presses in a matter of days. We have tried to

design this whole process so that you can conquer your

own dental disease, at home without the benefit of a

dentist.

 

I used to worry about the fact that dentists are not

going to practice prevention. (At least probably for

the rest of my life, but I don't worry about that

anymore>) By condensing these important preventive

types of knowledge into books, pamphlets, materials, &

tapes under the label of " Oramedics, " we have made

available through the " People's Dental Association " an

inexpensive way of self-help & learn at home to

conquer your own dental problems.

 

QUESTIONS:

 

Q: Will irrigation with the appropriate solution

remove the calculus that builds up around the teeth?

 

A: Well, let's reverse that question, because if you

were doing this already, no calculus would build up

around the teeth. Now, if you do have calculus there,

& if it is large deposits, you might think about going

one last time to the dentist & have them scraped off.

If they are really big deposits I would suggest that

you do that. You could dissolve it all, but it would

probably take you a better part of a year.

 

Q: Can anything be done to reverse gum recession?

 

A: What causes recession in the first place? If there

has been

recession, anywhere in the mouth, I can pretty much

assure you that it's there because there was an

episode in which the " neck of the tooth disease " went

on there earlier. If there is bacteria of any kind in

your mouth, whether it's in the bone or around the

neck of the tooth or below the gum tissue or whatever,

I know of no way to get it out of there without

squirting it out.

 

You cannot get it out with a toothbrush & you can't

get it out with dental floss. My morning's program

covered about six different research projects or

research papers that I quoted

from, that prove to me & I think anybody who will

listen, that surgery is not the answer.

 

DEMINERALIZATION & REMINERALIZATION

 

Demineralization & Remineralization have a vital

impact on the

strength & hardness of dental enamel.

 

WHAT IS DEMINERALIZATION? Demineralization is the

process of removing minerals, in the form of mineral

ions, from dental enamel. " Demineralization " is

another term for " dissolving the enamel. " Dental

enamel is a crystalline latticework composed of

various minerals, the principal component of which is

a complex calcium phosphate mineral called

hydroxyapatite ( " hi-drox-e-appetite. " )

 

A substantial number of mineral ions can be removed

from hydroxyapatite latticework without destroying its

structural integrity; however, such demineralized

enamel transmits hot, cold, pressure & pain much more

readily than normal enamel. For example, if you feel

something like a toothache, but the dentist says you

don't have a cavity, chances are good you are feeling

the results of a severely demineralized spot on your

tooth that hasn't yet formed a cavity.

 

Your dentist may also tell you that your enamel is

soft at that spot, & that s/he can actually penetrate

your enamel with

a probe. Dentists frequently recommend brushing with a

prescription high-dose fluoride gel to retard

demineralization. When too many minerals are dissolved

from an area of the hydroxyapatite's latticework, you

have a cavity.

 

Cavities are the loss of the hydroxyapatite's

crystalline latticework structure. Fortunately, the

latticework can be

strengthened & restored through the process of

remineralization.

 

WHAT IS REMINERALIZATION?

 

Remineralization is the process of restoring minerals

- again, in the form of mineral ions - to the

hydroxyapatite's

latticework structure. Remineralization is like

replacing the missing rungs in a rickety ladder to

make it strong & stable again – except that

remineralization is three-dimensional, & the lost

" rungs " (i.e. different mineral ions) must be replaced

with " rungs " having the exact same shape, size & the

same electrical charge as those lost from the lattice.

 

 

Both remineralization & demineralization occur on the

surface

of the tooth. If you examine the cross-section diagram

of a tooth, you will see there is no connection

between the bloodstream & the enamel.

 

Therefore, taking mineral supplements has virtually no

impact on

remineralizing the teeth. (It's also worth noting that

this is true in reverse too: An event that draws on

minerals in the blood, such as pregnancy or healing a

broken bone cannot extract minerals from the teeth, as

is widely believed.)

 

WHAT CAUSES DEMINERALIZATION?

 

Strong, stable acids, mostly: To a certain extent,

these are found in acid foods, such as tomatoes or

oranges; but they're also formed by oral bacteria that

feed on starches & sugars in

your mouth, especially refined sugars, secreting acids

as by-products.

 

WHY DO STRONG STABLE ACIDS CAUSE DEMINERALIZATION?

 

Dental enamel is mineral, a " living stone. " In your

mouth, as in the rest of nature, acids dissolve

minerals, transforming them from solid mineral

molecules into mineral ions that exist only in

solution. Strong stable acids do not break down

easily, so very small quantities can keep on

dissolving the minerals in your enamel. In the

presence of these acids, millions, even billions, of

calcium & other mineral ions are removed from the

hydroxyapatite latticework. Eventually, the enamel

loses its structural integrity.

 

HOW DOES THE BODY FIGHT DENTAL DEMINERALIZATION?

 

To counter demineralization, the body had to solve an

interesting problem: If dental minerals are only

soluble in acids, how can it create replacement

mineral ions in a way that also doesn't dissolve

enamel, as strong stable acids do? The solution is so

elegant, so simple, & so invisible that you don't even

realize it's happening! Th is natural mechanism is

enhanced be eating unprocessed foods, rich in

minerals, including trace

minerals, such as natural & organic foods.

 

WHAT IS THIS NATURAL REMINERALIZATION MECHANISM?

 

Our bodies utilize carbon dioxide from our breath &

water from our saliva to create a mild, unstable acid,

carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is the heart of the

natural remineralization process. Like all acids,

carbonic acids can dissolve minerals in our saliva

(present from our food); however, unlike strong stable

acids, carbonic acid quickly & easily converts to

carbon

dioxide & water.

 

When this happens, the mineral ions that are dissolved

in I,t precipitate out as solid mineral ions again -

but not necessarily as the original mineral molecules:

If a particular mineral ion is near a demineralized

portion of the hydroxyapatite crystal that requires

that ion, the ion is incorporated into the dental

enamel!

 

Though natural remineralization is always taking

place, the level of activity varies according to

conditions in the mouth. In fact, for remineralization

to proceed, six conditions or events must occur at the

same time:

 

FIRST, sufficient minerals must be present in the

saliva. Since foods are the principal source of

minerals for the teeth, an adequate diet, or

insufficient time chewing foods (which transfers

minerals to the saliva) may result in mineral-poor

saliva. (Cooking changes these minerals into a form

our bodies can’t use, as does the heat processing into

Vitamin supplements.)

 

SECOND, a molecule of carbonic acid must be produced.

Only a miniscule fraction of the carbon dioxide from

the breath is converted to carbonic acid.

 

THIRD, the carbonic acid molecule must be produced in

proximity to a mineral molecule, which it then

dissolves into its ionic components.

 

FOURTH, this all has to occur in proximity to a

demineralized spot in the hydroxyapatite latticework

that requires that exact mineral ion.

 

FIFTH, that spot of the tooth has to be clean, so that

the

mineral-deficient spot is accessible. If it is, then

the mineral ion is attracted to the " hole " in the

lattice by the opposite electric charges of the ion &

the " hole. " Many different ions have the correct

charge, but only the correct ion has the correct shape

& size to fit into the " hole. "

 

FINALLY, the carbonic acid must convert to carbon

dioxide & water before any of the above circumstances

change! When all this happens, a mineral ion is

precipitated out of solution into the structure of the

enamel. All mammals (dogs, monkeys, lions, mice, etc.)

utilize this same carbonic acid remineralization

mechanism.

 

In the wild, animals generally have strong enamel, so

we know that with a natural diet, this subtle &

invisible process really is able to maintain the

strength of enamel! This also indicates that with a

pre-modern diet, humans probably also had strong

enamel naturally. For strong enamel in today's world,

though,

the natural remineralization process needs to be

augmented.

 

TODAY, WHY IS NATURAL REMINERALIZATION FREQUENTLY

INADEQUATE TO MAINTAIN STRONG ENAMEL?

 

As you can see, natural remineralization is a pretty

" iffy " occurrence. In contrast, demineralization is

enormously

accelerated by the refined sugars & cooked/processed

foods in most of our diets. The destruction caused by

the strong stable acids abundantly present in our

mouths is constant & unremitting.

 

TO RESTORE THE BODY'S NATURAL EQUILIBRIUM, EITHER

REMINERALIZATION MUST BE ENHANCED OR DEMINERALIZATION

MUST BE RETARDED. EFFERVESCENT ACTION ENHANCES

REMINERALIZATION; FLUORIDE RETARDS DEMINERALIZATION.

 

http://www.holisticmed.com/dental/prevent.html

 

=====

Peace, Joy and Good Health

 

Laura

 

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How To Enjoy Healthy Teeth & Gums - In Spite Of Your

Dentist

 

ROBERT O. NARA, D.D.S. Speaking at Total Health '87

 

The dental profession has the public pretty well

boondoggled into thinking that we have to go to the

dentist & get our teeth cleaned & checked every six

months & we've been conditioned to believe that

somehow or other this has something to do with our

having healthy teeth & gums.

 

I don't particularly believe that that's true. In

fact, I believe that you could very easily live out an

entire lifetime & never see a dentist. Every time you

have your teeth cleaned, about 2 to 3 microns of your

enamel goes away. It's a very abrating kind of

process, this business of having your teeth cleaned.

 

In fact, I believe that there are a lot of detrimental

things that happen in the cleaning process & the

scraping of the roots. Even in dental professional

literature, they state that there is probably some

damage to the root surfaces when they scrape with

these scalers.

 

CALCULUS OR TARTAR:

 

I want you to think about another thing. At some time

or other you've had a tea kettle or some kind of a pot

on your stove that boils water & , over a period of

time, a scale forms on the bottom. If you've ever

looked carefully at that scale, you will find that

it's kind of dark brown in color, kind of brittle

looking & , in fact if you scrape at it a little bit,

some of it may come off in chunks. If you look inside

your mouth & you have a large number of deposits on

your teeth, what dentists call calculus or tartar,

you'll find that it's going to look

just about the same as that stuff that collects on the

bottom of your tea kettle. The reason that it looks

like it's the same stuff, is because it is the same

stuff.

 

Now, once every six months or so you could scrape the

bottom of the tea kettle & try to get that stuff off,

which would be a tough job as you can appreciate, or

you could put a little bit of vinegar in your tea

kettle & the calcium hydroxide salts that are stuck on

the bottom of your tea kettle would go back into

solution, because the acetic acid from the vinegar,

working with the calcium hydroxide, which is a base,

neutralize each other & you can dissolve the deposits.

 

 

So if I suggested that, instead of having all that

scraping all the time that we just dissolve the tartar

off of the teeth, that would make a whole lot of

sense, wouldn't it?

 

STRUCTURE OF THE TOOTH:

 

Now, let's take a look at the tooth structure. The

hard structure of a tooth is the enamel & the dentin

is underneath it.

 

What is the tooth made of? Well, it's primarily made

of calcium & phosphorus, the same stuff our bones are

made of except there is a little more calcium &

phosphorus in the teeth than there is in the bones.

That's why they are harder. If you fall down & break a

leg & the doctor puts the two pieces of the bone back

together & puts a cast over the whole affair so that

it can't move; in about six weeks your leg is healed.

 

How did it heal? Did the Doctor put some super glue in

there? No, you grew some brand new bone. In order for

the bone to heal, for the two pieces to heal back

together, you grew brand new bone. If you have a

cavity, why don't we grow some brand new enamel? Now,

there is no reason to believe that if we can grow new

bone, that we can't grow new tooth structure. There's

no reason to believe that if a substance comes out of

solution & deposits on your teeth, that it can't go

back into solution & get off of your teeth.

 

BIOLOGICAL BALANCE IN THE MOUTH:

 

I would like to talk to you about a hypothetical

situation which can take place inside of a person's

mouth, let's call it biologic balance.

 

Let's pretend that we have a condition inside of your

mouth which is identical to the first few hours after

you were born. Now, when you were first born, your

body was completely sterile - there was no bacteria

anywhere in your system. All the bacteria that your

body takes on, where do you get it from?

 

Your body gets it from your environment. But, at the

time that you were first born, you had saliva in your

mouth. There was no bacteria in your mouth. The saliva

at that time was, for all practical purposes, for

several days or even longer, sterile. No bacteria. The

saliva has a high concentration of calcium &

phosphorus ions, the same stuff our teeth are made of.

Our blood also has a high concentration of calcium &

phosphorus ions floating around in it. So you see, the

basic building blocks of the body are all around.

They're in the blood, they're in the saliva, & if you

have something going wrong later on, there is no

reason that these building blocks are not available.

 

They're there & they can work for you. But only under

the right conditions. Saliva is a very good first-aid

type fluid that helps us. It has very beneficial

effects. It also contains calcium & phosphorus ions

which are available at any time. If you have a decent

diet, you will have a pretty high concentration of

these calcium & phosphorus ions in your saliva.

 

If your diet is not good, you're going to have a lower

concentration of them. So obviously, diet is very

important to

good dental health. Diet is important to all health.

If we don't eat right, we're not going to be healthy

no matter what.

 

BACTERIA CAUSES DECAY!

 

The dental profession has been telling us all these

years that sugar is the thing that raises all the

ruckus with our teeth. Most people that I have talked

to have said that they have a friend, or relative, who

seldom brushed, didn't clean their teeth very well &

ate candy bars till they were coming out of their

ears, & never got a single cavity.

 

How come? The environment wasn't right. That

particular person was immune to the types of bacteria

that cause decay. & , there are about 3 or 4 main

decay-producing types of bacteria, the two primary

ones really are the strep-mutanes, which are the big

ones & then after that comes lacto-bacillus.

 

These bacteria, the 3 or 4 main types which attack our

teeth, do it by producing toxic waste products in the

form of

acids that literally eats holes in the enamel. If you

want to stop that process, the first thing you have to

do is get rid of the infection.

 

You all know what appendicitis is. That's inflammation

or infection of the appendix. You may also have

" molaritis " or " bicuspiditis " , infection of the tooth.

Dentists just refer to these things as cavities to be

filled. If you're a dentist every cavity looks like a

filling, not a healing, but a filling.

 

My wife & I have 3 children, the oldest one is a

dentist, the next oldest one is a medical doctor & the

next daughter is a physical therapist. None of our

children have ever had a cavity. They never will, any

more than there's every going to be grass growing in

this room; because the environment is not right. Now,

you can create this. It takes a little effort.

 

REMINERALIZATION OF CAVITIES:

 

Modern research has shown in the past several years

that almost every human being walking around today,

even people whose mouths are in good condition, has on

the average about 20 cavities in their mouth at all

times. & these cavities are either getting bigger or

getting smaller, & the availability of the calcium &

phosphorus ions from our saliva depositing in these

areas is the thing that keeps the teeth healthy

enough.

 

Now, if the deposits are coming back onto the tooth

structure

about as fast as they are leaving, then your teeth

stay healthy. If the reverse is true, then a hole

starts to develop. People have asked me what they can

do about some of these things? Well, let me offer just

one idea about this business of speeding up the

remineralization of cavities.

 

If you have a hole in the tooth, it's nothing more

than soft

tooth structure; earlier it had more calcium &

phosphorus ions in it. If you want to strengthen it &

harden it, there is a mouth spray called Zero-lube.

Zero-lube was originally designed & produced by a

laboratory in the United States called Scheer Labs, in

Dallas, Texas.

 

This product is very unique. It was designed

originally for people who had severe radiation of the

head & neck regions. What radiation does is, it

atrophies the saliva glands in the floor of the mouth

& on the side of the cheeks. & as these saliva glands

atrophy, they don't produce saliva anymore & , if they

do, it's a very small amount. The average human being

produces about a litre of saliva every day.

 

Without it, however, people have a very dry condition

because their salivary glands have atrophied & any

dentist will tell you that the roots of the teeth, the

root surfaces, the gum areas that protect the roots,

deteriorate at an extremely rapid rate. So, this

product was originally designed to help these people

who had had excessive radiation & didn't have enough

of their own saliva to even keep their teeth wet.

 

All you have to do is spray with this stuff a few

times a day &

you are adding a very high concentration of the

calcium & phosphate ions in your mouth, & if you swish

with it for several minutes before you spit it out,

you are actually helping to heal these areas that have

softened up. Your saliva contains these same ions on

its own & , if your teeth are perfectly clean & your

mouth is in biologic balance, you do not need this

product. In fact, when you achieve biologic balance

you don't need hardly any products except just a

toothbrush, some dental floss & maybe an irrigator.

(See also: Demineralization & Remineralization)

 

GUM & NECK OF THE TOOTH PROBLEMS:

 

Now, most of the people in this room are already doing

a pretty good job with a toothbrush & with floss or

tape, but the serious problem that exists today is gum

tissue problems. Once they have started, there is a

little space down between the neck of the tooth & the

tooth itself. For all practical purposes, let's call

it the neck of the tooth disease.

 

This is the area of the biggest amount of problem, &

it seldom gets cleaned properly because food &

bacteria collect in this

space, on the outside of the tooth & on the tongue

side, & we don't really clean there very well. The

dental floss is designed to clean in between the

teeth, & the brush cleans the outside, the biting

surface & the inside, but this little space between

tooth & gum, unfortunately does not get cleaned, or in

most places not very well.

 

Now, if you are using a brush in a very unique manner,

& if you are young & you have used that solculus

brushing method very carefully, you can probably get

by without every using an oral irrigator. But, if you

have any dental problems, or any amount of disease or

any amount of dental recession, then it is highly

advisable that you use some form of irrigation to

clean around the neck of the tooth.

 

The pattern of gum tissue disease is that it is

basically a problem of not getting the neck of the

tooth clean, & that is why the disease process starts

marching down the tooth.

 

From the time I graduated from dental college I had

figured out that the Water-Pik was a pretty handy

device, because you could remove a lot of debris from

the mouth with it. In fact, the people that we have on

Water-Piks, especially with the special tips to flush

out pockets, tell me, all of them, that after their

evening mean they brush well, they use their dental

floss, they clean very well, they do everything right.

Then they use the Water-Pik with the special tip, with

their head in the sink

in the bathroom, & the food & the debris & the

particles that come out is unbelievable to them. They

say, " Wow, no wonder I have been having these

problems. " So about twenty-some years ago, with the

help of my dental staff, my wife & a couple of other

people, we took the conventional Water-Pik tip, which

is kind of like a shotgun tip, it just squirts water

in every direction, it's not very directional. We made

it very directional by adding a section of stainless

steel surgical tubing, so that instead of it squirting

in every which direction, it would squirt in a very

specific place.

 

It's kind of like a garden hose with a blunt end on

it, that just squirts all over the place & if you put

a nozzle on it & tighten it down & it squirts in a

specific place, you can get more pressure & you can

get a better cleansing action, & you

can flush out dental pockets.

 

Pockets are nothing more than the same little space we

started off with earlier which was normal, & which has

now gotten deeper & this is called a periodontal

pocket. It's nothing more than a space between the

tooth & the gum, & the deeper they get, the more food

& the more bacteria pack down in there. & the deeper

it gets, the more it ruins the attaching fibers.

 

If you want to know how your gum tissue sticks to your

teeth & bone, all I want you to do is think about the

Velcro that we have on clothing & wallets, because

that is how your gum tissue sticks. There are little

attaching fibers, & the minute that there is some

irritation in the depth of that first crevice which is

only about a millimetre deep when we are a young child

& a millimetre or two deep when we get to be a

teenager.

 

If it starts to get to three or four millimetres you

have a

pocket & you cannot clean the depth of that pocket.

So, this little space that keeps getting deeper &

deeper, you can't clean it with a toothbrush, you

can't clean it with dental floss, you can go to the

dentist & have it scraped out & , generally speaking,

the dentist is going to tell you that instead of

coming back every six months for a scraping, to come

back every three months for a scraping.

 

I call it " Scrapeodontics. " & after it gets very bad

they might tell you to come back every one or two

months for a scraping. This isn't doing any good.

 

The net result is that, not only is it not stopping

the cause, but it is damaging the roots of the teeth

besides. So it is up to you to decide which way you

want to go, if you want to pay a little attention &

put on a little effort, you can enjoy a state of what

is called biologic balance in your mouth. & if the

depth of the pocket is not enjoying the same state of

biologic balance, then that " neck of the tooth

disease " is marching way down the neck of the tooth

headed right for the tip of the tooth & , by the time

it gets about two-thirds of the way down there, your

teeth are going to start wobbling around. There is not

enough bone left to hold the teeth in place. But, you

can grow new bone, & grow it right back up the neck of

the tooth again.

 

In October, 1977, the Journal of the American Academy

of Dentists, tells all about the bone growing right

back up the necks of the teeth.

 

When my wife & I were young & met at Michigan State

University, her mother had, at that time, five teeth

in her mouth, two on the bottom & three on the top.

She had suffered a lot of gum disease over the years &

dentists had done all of the things which they could

do. These five teeth were so wobbly that you could

move them around with your fingers, in fact, she was

already scheduled to have those removed & have upper &

lower dentures made.

 

Her soon to be son-in-law dentist said, now wait a

minute. At least those five teeth will help stabilize

partial dentures. It is better to have partial

dentures than a full denture. & these teeth were so

loose that they were practically ready to come

out on their own. We put her on the program of

cleaning the neck of the tooth. We eliminated the

" neck of the tooth disease " in her mouth & the bone

grew back. My wife & I will celebrate our 30th wedding

anniversary this summer, & her mother still has the

five teeth. So, when dentists tell me that you can't

do these things, I just say, " Well, Doctor, it is kind

of like if you believe that you can't do them, then

you can't. "

 

VIADENT:

 

A company in Switzerland by the name of Viadent, who

consulted with me by the way, built some special tips

for their unit which is similar to the Water-Pik. It

is different in several ways & the Viadent unit comes

with four tips, two conventional tips which are good

for young people, particularly small children because

it will flush away the food & bacteria that collects

below the neck of the tooth, & the other two (sulcus)

tips that come with it are designed to flush out

pockets.

 

Now, those of you who heard Reverend Willhelm, heard

him tell you just how effective hydrogen peroxide was

in killing bacteria. (this should be pharmacuetical

grade if possible)

 

If you want to get hydrogen peroxide down into the

space between the tooth & the gum, if you just rinse

your mouth with it that is partially beneficial, but

if you have pockets & spaces down along the necks of

the teeth & someone has recommended surgery for you or

whatever, then I would highly advise you to get a unit

like this & use it initially two or three times per

day & squirt the hydrogen peroxide or salt water or

salt & soda or a variety of other rinses that are

mentioned in that Issue No. 9.

 

The Gum Tissue Issue of the No. 9 (People's Dental

Association) newsletter has a whole page on rinses &

the different variety of rinses that are available. If

you are going to stop your own gum disease, you have

to stop the bacteria.

 

So, I just want you to think about these things.

They're your teeth. They're going to be either with

you or not with you for the rest of your life. The

person that is in control is you. You are in charge of

your own dental destiny. The more you rely on the

dentist & the less you rely on yourself, the more

likely you will wind up with teeth at a ripe old age.

 

You're going to have to do a little homework, you're

going to

have to study a little bit, you're going to have to

change your frame of reference, & you're going to have

to say, well maybe there is a better way.

 

THE PEOPLE'S DENTAL ASSOCIATION:

 

The biggest problem that this whole situation faces is

the lack of knowledge. In the first place, the public

does not have this knowledge, but that's not really

where the problem lies. An organization in the United

States called Opinion Research Corporation did a very

extensive study to find out just why it is that

prevention & the knowledge that has been produced in

the past 20, 30, 40, 50 years, is not being practiced.

 

 

Dentists practice with drills, doctors practice with

forceps, they don't practice with knowledge. & Opinion

Research

Corporation set out to figure out why. Why is this

existing knowledge not being put to use? Why is it not

being taught to the public?

 

Opinion Research found out that the dentists don't

know. There is a big block & no communication between

the scientific world of dentistry & the delivery

system of dentistry out in the field. Also, the

practicing dentist today is not practicing much

different than the dentist practiced 25 years ago or

even 50 years ago. I graduated, in essence, number one

in my class from the University of Michigan in 1959 &

my son graduated from the same University with the

same position in his class 25 years later, & the

courses were all the same.

 

There wasn't one course that had been appreciably

changed in the 25 years between the time that I had

left there & the time my son left there. Nothing has

been changed. They are taught the same old mechanics.

 

So, you have a choice, you people that are the public

can decide. Your dentist that you have seen in the

past, or even in the future, if they choose to think

in the old way, I guess there is not much we can do

about that.

 

But you can certainly choose to think in a new way.

That is your

decision to make. I think that it is very possible to

live for a

lifetime without seeing a dentist, as long as you have

this knowledge & you break up the bacterial colonies

that collect around the teeth & gums.

 

If you don't believe that these things can work, if

you don't want to understand how they work, if you're

not willing to deal with an open mind & learn that

there may be some other ways to think about this, well

then your best bet is to just continue what dentists

have been preaching for a long time; see your dentist

twice a year, brush your teeth twice a day, & don't

eat sweets.

 

You will then have a typical pattern of a lot of

cavities & gum problems & root canals & all different

kinds of things.

 

I guess there is not a whole lot I can do to change

the profession anymore, because I spent about 15 years

of my life travelling around the Dental Schools

teaching these same concepts. These same things I am

presenting to you, I have presented to over 15,000

dentists in a period of several years' time.

 

I wrote a thick textbook about it published by

Prentice Hall in the United States, & sold all kinds

of them. I'm sure the dentists, at least some of them

read it, but I can assure you none of them practice

it. Or if so, very, very few.

 

That's unfortunate. I finally decided instead of

talking to dentists & trying to reason with them, I

turned it all into a program which can be done

directly for the public, either in the form of

lectures like this & even more effectively through the

mail.

 

Everything which I am saying to you about learning &

doing is

included, & there are about 15 or 20 different modern

day products listed that will help you, in addition to

some old ones, like salt & soda & peroxide & all of

these things. There is no one exact answer for any

given person.

 

So, we reduce the whole thing down to a four-page

description which is now published in a newsletter

called " The People's

Dental Association Network News " Issue No. 7. Issue

No. 7 is an

overview of everything I am saying to you here this

evening. It is a synopsis of the entire Oramedics

Program that has been developed by myself & other

people, to bring people's mouths back to a state of

biologic balance.

 

Now, if you have gum tissue problems, then there is

another issue which is a condensation of about 450

research articles, all put into a four page newsletter

called " Issue No. 9 " which has to do with gum disease.

 

 

I see part of my job on the face of this earth these

days as answering the problem that Opinion Research

Corporation found out; that the scientific world & the

dental practitioner world don't communicate. So I see

my role as being a source. I can't expect you all to

go out & read a half dozen different dental journals

each month & analyze what they say & try to figure

what that means to the health of your mouth.

 

So, I have assumed that responsibility. I read the

Journals &

determine what I think is important for the public to

know, &

periodically we condense it into an issue of a

newsletter & we mail it out to the people that belong

to this organization called " The People's Dental

Association " .

 

We do issues of the Network News when we have

something important to say, if there is a breakthrough

in the field of dentistry or the health of the mouth,

we will come out with a special issue & it will be off

the presses in a matter of days. We have tried to

design this whole process so that you can conquer your

own dental disease, at home without the benefit of a

dentist.

 

I used to worry about the fact that dentists are not

going to practice prevention. (At least probably for

the rest of my life, but I don't worry about that

anymore>) By condensing these important preventive

types of knowledge into books, pamphlets, materials, &

tapes under the label of " Oramedics, " we have made

available through the " People's Dental Association " an

inexpensive way of self-help & learn at home to

conquer your own dental problems.

 

QUESTIONS:

 

Q: Will irrigation with the appropriate solution

remove the calculus that builds up around the teeth?

 

A: Well, let's reverse that question, because if you

were doing this already, no calculus would build up

around the teeth. Now, if you do have calculus there,

& if it is large deposits, you might think about going

one last time to the dentist & have them scraped off.

If they are really big deposits I would suggest that

you do that. You could dissolve it all, but it would

probably take you a better part of a year.

 

Q: Can anything be done to reverse gum recession?

 

A: What causes recession in the first place? If there

has been

recession, anywhere in the mouth, I can pretty much

assure you that it's there because there was an

episode in which the " neck of the tooth disease " went

on there earlier. If there is bacteria of any kind in

your mouth, whether it's in the bone or around the

neck of the tooth or below the gum tissue or whatever,

I know of no way to get it out of there without

squirting it out.

 

You cannot get it out with a toothbrush & you can't

get it out with dental floss. My morning's program

covered about six different research projects or

research papers that I quoted

from, that prove to me & I think anybody who will

listen, that surgery is not the answer.

 

DEMINERALIZATION & REMINERALIZATION

 

Demineralization & Remineralization have a vital

impact on the

strength & hardness of dental enamel.

 

WHAT IS DEMINERALIZATION? Demineralization is the

process of removing minerals, in the form of mineral

ions, from dental enamel. " Demineralization " is

another term for " dissolving the enamel. " Dental

enamel is a crystalline latticework composed of

various minerals, the principal component of which is

a complex calcium phosphate mineral called

hydroxyapatite ( " hi-drox-e-appetite. " )

 

A substantial number of mineral ions can be removed

from hydroxyapatite latticework without destroying its

structural integrity; however, such demineralized

enamel transmits hot, cold, pressure & pain much more

readily than normal enamel. For example, if you feel

something like a toothache, but the dentist says you

don't have a cavity, chances are good you are feeling

the results of a severely demineralized spot on your

tooth that hasn't yet formed a cavity.

 

Your dentist may also tell you that your enamel is

soft at that spot, & that s/he can actually penetrate

your enamel with

a probe. Dentists frequently recommend brushing with a

prescription high-dose fluoride gel to retard

demineralization. When too many minerals are dissolved

from an area of the hydroxyapatite's latticework, you

have a cavity.

 

Cavities are the loss of the hydroxyapatite's

crystalline latticework structure. Fortunately, the

latticework can be

strengthened & restored through the process of

remineralization.

 

WHAT IS REMINERALIZATION?

 

Remineralization is the process of restoring minerals

- again, in the form of mineral ions - to the

hydroxyapatite's

latticework structure. Remineralization is like

replacing the missing rungs in a rickety ladder to

make it strong & stable again – except that

remineralization is three-dimensional, & the lost

" rungs " (i.e. different mineral ions) must be replaced

with " rungs " having the exact same shape, size & the

same electrical charge as those lost from the lattice.

 

 

Both remineralization & demineralization occur on the

surface

of the tooth. If you examine the cross-section diagram

of a tooth, you will see there is no connection

between the bloodstream & the enamel.

 

Therefore, taking mineral supplements has virtually no

impact on

remineralizing the teeth. (It's also worth noting that

this is true in reverse too: An event that draws on

minerals in the blood, such as pregnancy or healing a

broken bone cannot extract minerals from the teeth, as

is widely believed.)

 

WHAT CAUSES DEMINERALIZATION?

 

Strong, stable acids, mostly: To a certain extent,

these are found in acid foods, such as tomatoes or

oranges; but they're also formed by oral bacteria that

feed on starches & sugars in

your mouth, especially refined sugars, secreting acids

as by-products.

 

WHY DO STRONG STABLE ACIDS CAUSE DEMINERALIZATION?

 

Dental enamel is mineral, a " living stone. " In your

mouth, as in the rest of nature, acids dissolve

minerals, transforming them from solid mineral

molecules into mineral ions that exist only in

solution. Strong stable acids do not break down

easily, so very small quantities can keep on

dissolving the minerals in your enamel. In the

presence of these acids, millions, even billions, of

calcium & other mineral ions are removed from the

hydroxyapatite latticework. Eventually, the enamel

loses its structural integrity.

 

HOW DOES THE BODY FIGHT DENTAL DEMINERALIZATION?

 

To counter demineralization, the body had to solve an

interesting problem: If dental minerals are only

soluble in acids, how can it create replacement

mineral ions in a way that also doesn't dissolve

enamel, as strong stable acids do? The solution is so

elegant, so simple, & so invisible that you don't even

realize it's happening! Th is natural mechanism is

enhanced be eating unprocessed foods, rich in

minerals, including trace

minerals, such as natural & organic foods.

 

WHAT IS THIS NATURAL REMINERALIZATION MECHANISM?

 

Our bodies utilize carbon dioxide from our breath &

water from our saliva to create a mild, unstable acid,

carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is the heart of the

natural remineralization process. Like all acids,

carbonic acids can dissolve minerals in our saliva

(present from our food); however, unlike strong stable

acids, carbonic acid quickly & easily converts to

carbon

dioxide & water.

 

When this happens, the mineral ions that are dissolved

in I,t precipitate out as solid mineral ions again -

but not necessarily as the original mineral molecules:

If a particular mineral ion is near a demineralized

portion of the hydroxyapatite crystal that requires

that ion, the ion is incorporated into the dental

enamel!

 

Though natural remineralization is always taking

place, the level of activity varies according to

conditions in the mouth. In fact, for remineralization

to proceed, six conditions or events must occur at the

same time:

 

FIRST, sufficient minerals must be present in the

saliva. Since foods are the principal source of

minerals for the teeth, an adequate diet, or

insufficient time chewing foods (which transfers

minerals to the saliva) may result in mineral-poor

saliva. (Cooking changes these minerals into a form

our bodies can’t use, as does the heat processing into

Vitamin supplements.)

 

SECOND, a molecule of carbonic acid must be produced.

Only a miniscule fraction of the carbon dioxide from

the breath is converted to carbonic acid.

 

THIRD, the carbonic acid molecule must be produced in

proximity to a mineral molecule, which it then

dissolves into its ionic components.

 

FOURTH, this all has to occur in proximity to a

demineralized spot in the hydroxyapatite latticework

that requires that exact mineral ion.

 

FIFTH, that spot of the tooth has to be clean, so that

the

mineral-deficient spot is accessible. If it is, then

the mineral ion is attracted to the " hole " in the

lattice by the opposite electric charges of the ion &

the " hole. " Many different ions have the correct

charge, but only the correct ion has the correct shape

& size to fit into the " hole. "

 

FINALLY, the carbonic acid must convert to carbon

dioxide & water before any of the above circumstances

change! When all this happens, a mineral ion is

precipitated out of solution into the structure of the

enamel. All mammals (dogs, monkeys, lions, mice, etc.)

utilize this same carbonic acid remineralization

mechanism.

 

In the wild, animals generally have strong enamel, so

we know that with a natural diet, this subtle &

invisible process really is able to maintain the

strength of enamel! This also indicates that with a

pre-modern diet, humans probably also had strong

enamel naturally. For strong enamel in today's world,

though,

the natural remineralization process needs to be

augmented.

 

TODAY, WHY IS NATURAL REMINERALIZATION FREQUENTLY

INADEQUATE TO MAINTAIN STRONG ENAMEL?

 

As you can see, natural remineralization is a pretty

" iffy " occurrence. In contrast, demineralization is

enormously

accelerated by the refined sugars & cooked/processed

foods in most of our diets. The destruction caused by

the strong stable acids abundantly present in our

mouths is constant & unremitting.

 

TO RESTORE THE BODY'S NATURAL EQUILIBRIUM, EITHER

REMINERALIZATION MUST BE ENHANCED OR DEMINERALIZATION

MUST BE RETARDED. EFFERVESCENT ACTION ENHANCES

REMINERALIZATION; FLUORIDE RETARDS DEMINERALIZATION.

 

http://www.holisticmed.com/dental/prevent.html

 

=====

Peace, Joy and Good Health

 

Laura

 

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Laura,

What a great article. Did you get the book? If so, what did you think!

Thanks,

Vegigran

 

> How To Enjoy Healthy Teeth & Gums - In Spite Of Your

> Dentist

> ROBERT O. NARA, D.D.S. Speaking at Total Health '87

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Wow, thanks for this post, I really appreciate it.

 

 

On Jan 5, 2005, at 7:15 PM, Laura Haddaway wrote:

 

>

> How To Enjoy Healthy Teeth & Gums - In Spite Of Your

> Dentist

>

> ROBERT O. NARA, D.D.S. Speaking at Total Health '87

>

> The dental profession has the public pretty well

> boondoggled into thinking that we have to go to the

> dentist & get our teeth cleaned & checked every six

> months & we've been conditioned to believe that

> somehow or other this has something to do with our

> having healthy teeth & gums.

>

>

 

...

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