So, most people who come into contact with me on a regular basis would probably say I have pretty good teeth. I'd have to agree...they aren't too shabby, as long as I keep them nice n' bleached. :)
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| See? They look alright to me!? |
Well, what most people don't know is that I have HORRIBLE teeth. I have the mouth of a 90 year old, or a crack smoker. Seriously. Most of my life I've had multiple cavities. As of right now, I have two root canals, four crowns, and maybe 5-6 fillings...I've lost count on those actually.
I've asked dentists over the years why my teeth are so bad. I brush and floss everyday, I rarely chew sugar gum anymore (I lived on the stuff for maybe 10 years though), and I still get smacked with a giant "treatment plan" every time I see the dentist. I'm scared of the dentist as well. I've had a dentist catch the tissue under my tongue with the drill, cutting a thumb-sized hole under there, I've had painful root canals, painful drilling, double vision from the local anesthetic shot...so yeah, I hate going. It got so bad actually, that the last time I went to my dentist was when I was three months pregnant, around June 2010, and I put off any treatments until after having Kyle. Then, I finally got the courage to go a couple of weeks ago. This was the prognosis:
1 root canal
2 crowns
4 fillings
REALLY?? I almost died of course. This is why I don't go. The only thing I can blame this on is perhaps too much diet coke. I go through stages...I'll drink water for weeks then three diet cokes a day. Anyhow, I'm rushed to an endodontist to check out this root canal business on tooth #4. This is actually an incisor...a tooth that shows when I smile. Oh, it gets better.
Yesterday I roll up to this endodontist, and they do all these little tests on my teeth. She pops up, leans back and announces" Well Sarah, you don't need a root canal on tooth #4!" I'm like, really?!? YAAAY! She says "Nope! You need an extraction, and a dental implant."
WHAT? WHT? I literally said "what, like a meth mouth? like a drug addict? I'm 32 and I need a tooth pulled and an implant?! You've got to be joking?!?!"
She continued to show me the x-ray, talk about the bone in the root, some shadow, and how there's not quite enough there to hold up a root canal properly, yada yada yada, so extraction and a dental implant would be best.
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| NOT cool! |
Okay people...have you ever seen a dental implant? Check this crap out...
Uhhhh NO. I'm not about to set off airport security due to a giant bolt in my mouth! She hands me the brochure and tells me it's completed in stages, and this whole process may take 3-6 months.
WTH!?!?! Ooooh hell no.
So, as usual when I'm dealt with news I just refuse to accept, I research. I immediately start researching articles, actual research journals (because I've learned how to do that the correct way now, with this insane research course), books, message boards, everything, on alternative options.
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In a nutshell, like everything else I've obsessively read about over the past 6/7 years, it boils down to my nutrition. I know much more about nutrition and talk about it more than I practice, but I study it everyday nonetheless. Anyhow, it boils down to having deficiencies in my diet. I need a lot more vitamin d, vitamin a, fat soluble vitamins, phosphorous, along with a few other things, and I need to completely cut out wheat, flour, and sugars (even fruit), stat. My mouth is crazy acidic...I need major alkaline pronto! My chart rocks...
Dentists all say that cavities and decay are irreversible. I beg to differ. If you do a bit of research, you learn that teeth are able to to heal themselves. And why wouldn't they? If good nutrition can correct heart disease, diabetes, digestive problems, allergies, etc., than why wouldn't our teeth improve with proper changes in nutrition?
So here's my experiment...not for the benefit of weight loss, detoxing, allergies, whatever, but for the simple benefit of halting and hopefully reversing my ridiculous decay. I don't expect the gaping hole in tooth #4 to disappear, but if it, and all of my other current cavities can stop, possibly improve and harden/remineralize, I'll take that over a freaking extraction! For the next 2-3 months I'm going to load up on fermented cod liver oil, high vitamin butter oil, healthy fats, veggies to no end, grass-fed only meats and raw dairy. I'm totally avoiding sugar, white flour and denatured grains. I've detoxed several times before, sometimes for weeks at a time, but this time the though of a gaping hole in my mouth and a giant bolt in my jaw has given me insane motivation to stick to it.
Now, before my mother freaks out while reading this, I'm getting a second opinion soon to discuss my alternative "plan" with another endodontist, but I'm putting off all dental work for about three to four months, at which time I'll return to my dentist, get another round of x-rays, and we'll see if my little experiment has worked, and helped any of my sad little teeth. (I will however return asap to fix the chip on one of my front teeth...I'm not hating on cosmetic procedures!) I would love to surprise the hell out of my dentist and tell her and her giant drills to stick it. :)
This awesome book, Cure Tooth Decay, by Ramiel Nagel, is SO imformative, and it's a great addition to my collection of holistic/nutritional texts. This book, along with several websites, message boards, reviews, testimonies and blogs (1 2 3 for example!) has been extremely helpful, and I wish I would've looked into this matter much sooner. I'm especially interested in this matter now that I have a son with eight teeth. I'll do anything to keep him out of a dentist chair!
Anyhow, I'll try to keep up with my progress and post blogs to keep myself accountable. I've been a pretty terrible eater this semester, with homework sucking my soul and my cutie pie toddler running me ragged. We'll see! If my teeth don't stop decaying, at least I'll be much less fluffy. :)
Trading diet cokes for pearly whites,
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