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Cavities, Fillings, Root Canals Deep Dive: Evidence-Based Ways to Prevent Them · Doctor Turned Health Coach

0:21
So if you've been dealing with cavities, if you have had a lot of root canals,
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a lot of dental fillings, this episode is for you.
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So all we're going to talk about today is actionable steps, things that you
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can do on a daily basis to turn around your dental health or improve it wherever it is at.
0:43
So the teeth have
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a lining and that lining is very important to
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the integrity of the tooth inside it
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there are blood vessels and so yeah our teeth
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are alive and inside that there is nerve roots and those nerve roots can be
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affected by the infection on the surface of the tooth so that's where everything
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starts the infection usually starts on the enamel starts eating its way inward,
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and then it creates a lot of problems.
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Now, sometimes you'll have a small dental caries or cavity that is starting on the surface.
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So you get a little indentation, you get a little darkening, a little black mark.
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That can still be reversed. If you do the right things, that can be reversed,
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it can heal itself, and the tooth will go back to normal. But if that.
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Cavity continues eating inward, once it gets past a certain stage,
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it's impossible for it to heal because now it's an open sore.
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And that open sore is going to have to be closed up. Otherwise,
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more bacteria will get in, food will get stuck in there, and it can cause a lot of problems.
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It could be minute, it could be tiny, impossible to see,
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unless you have magnifying or x-ray,
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but it's there and most of us probably have some
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level of cavities the point is to help
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reverse it fix it heal it so that it doesn't
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get to the next stage of needing either such a big filling that you need a crown
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or an onlay or inlay as they're called or well sometimes you'll also have to
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get rid of the nerve because the infection is there the infection is eaten all the way to the nerve.
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You have to remove the nerve. You have to fill in, backfill that nerve,
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which is called a root canal.
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Not only are these things very expensive, also very painful,
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and they will put your tooth at risk.
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Your tooth has a much higher risk of breaking in the future. Your.
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Crown can also break in the future. So the most important step is that you brush every day.
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When it comes to brushing, you got to brush lightly.
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That's probably the most important way that you can prevent things sitting,
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like food particles sitting in your mouth and creating problems.
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However, even if you brush every day,
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If you're eating a diet that's very high in sugar, there's no way.
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You cannot keep up. In fact, that high sugar is going to create a lot of acidity.
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That acidity is going to erode the enamel.
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And so every time you brush, you're also making the enamel even thinner.
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So brushing actually does create a little bit of irritation and damage to the
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enamel, which is why we always want to have a very light touch when we brush.
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And we don't want to brush with a very hard, bristled toothbrush.
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You want to use a soft or medium bristled toothbrush, especially if your gums are sensitive.
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When it comes to the brushing, we ideally want to do it after meals and in the
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morning when you wake up and before you go to bed at night because that's the
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time when already a lot of bacteria have been growing and because of the kind
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of foods that we normally eat, Unfortunately,
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these bacteria tend to be the more acidic type of bacteria that create dental
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problems, that put the enamel, that beautiful white porcelain-looking surface, at risk.
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Light brushing, at least two minutes, not more than three minutes.
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Of course, using toothpaste.
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Now, I know fluoride is a big debate, so I'll leave that up to you,
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but I'm going to get back to fluoride in a minute because it does have other purposes. Okay.
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Toothbrush toothpaste gentle brushing in the morning
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when you wake up set a timer i always recommend setting a
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timer unless you know you're consistently going over two minutes
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now i do a certain exercise routine when i do my brushing
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so i know exactly how much time it takes my exercise routine is always that
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long so now getting back to the food part because it is very intimately related
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to the brushing if you're eating a lot of sweets especially if you're eating
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sweets and not brushing afterward,
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you're going to create a lot of acidity on the surface of the enamel,
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and that's eventually going to lead to cavities. It's pretty much impossible.
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Now, some people genetically have bulletproof teeth. They will never get cavities
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like my mom, but guess what?
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Now with age, her actual gums are becoming the problem, and so her teeth are
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slowly falling out because she has gum problems.
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So even though she had incredibly bulletproof enamel, they never got any cavities,
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she does have gum problems because she didn't brush well, because she didn't
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take care of her teeth very well.
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When it comes to eating, of course, as always, we want to focus on a lot of fiber.
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We want to focus on healthy fats. We want to minimize the
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And carbs that are just simple carbs or easily digestible carbs,
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these are worse than complex carbs.
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So think brown rice versus white rice.
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And things that are sweet like candy, dates, chocolate, things that are very
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sugary like gummy bears, those are always going to get stuck in the worst places
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in our teeth and cause a lot of problems.
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The best way, if you're going to consume that stuff, it's good to first have
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your regular meal and then you can consume something kind of sweet. No problem.
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You can have something sweet because now the lining of the teeth is coated with
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a little bit of fiber, with the complex carbs, with the protein, with the fat.
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And so the sugar is not going to be able to go directly there.
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But let's say you haven't eaten
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for two hours or four hours and you immediately go for something sweet.
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Well, that can cause a little bit of a problem. So if you do have it,
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make sure you just swish some water around in your teeth, in your mouth, to get that surface off.
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You can even have a hot tea afterwards, that can be very helpful.
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And just swish and spit, or swish and swallow in your mouth.
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And essentially what you're doing is you're moving the water around and it's
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forcing it into those little cavities, sucking out that sweet stuff that's going
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to turn into something acidic.
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Because that sweet stuff is going to feed the acidophilic bacteria,
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the acid-producing bacteria, and that acid that they produce is going to erode or corrode the enamel.
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So food and brushing, these two are really closely tied to each other.
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When it comes to brushing after meals, you really have to wait about 30 minutes
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before you brush. And when you brush, just very gently.
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It's not like you're going to brush in the morning and at night when you do
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two or three minutes. you just need about 30 seconds 15 seconds 20 seconds just
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get into all the little cavities use a very light brush you don't need to put
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toothpaste on if you want you can,
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and you're good to go. Now, if you're already dealing with cavities,
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it kind of goes back to what I said in the beginning.
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You want to start healing your teeth. So, it means you got to go on a little bit of a sugar fast.
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You got to cut out all of the sugary sweet stuff.
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You got to make sure that you're brushing regularly, that you're flossing in between.
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And don't worry, we're going to get to flossing as well.
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But one option that you have right now is you can get a high fluoride content
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toothpaste and that can actually help.
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Remineralize the surface where some of the cavities had started.
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These are sometimes available by prescription. Many times they're available
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over the counter, but it just has a higher fluoride content than other toothpaste.
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And you can look at the back of it to see.
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For the very high content fluoride, you do have to get that from a pharmacist.
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Even using something like Sensodyne, which is helpful for also remineralizing the teeth,
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that can also be effective so you can use that but again just anything that
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has a little bit of a higher fluoride content is usually very effective at also
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helping get rid of this excess,
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acidity and this corrosion layer on the tooth and you can just use that at night
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you know you just use that once a day and the rest of the time you can brush
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with your regular toothpaste so the reason i said about thing about fluoride
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is that fluoride is kind of like a big debate topic some people say fluoride is bad for you.
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Well, there's no data to show that fluoride is bad for you.
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But at the same time, there's no data to show that you need to use fluoride
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every single day, all day, in every toothbrushing session.
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No, but fluoride does have a lot of great properties, especially when you're dealing with cavities.
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So this is cavities we're talking about. We're not talking about the kind of
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cavity that has led to an infection of the root or the pulp of the tooth.
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When that happens, the inflammation will track to the lymphatic system in the jaw.
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Usually you're going to get quite a lot of swelling on that side and constant throbbing pain.
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By that time, unfortunately, the only option is to go to the dentist and either
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extract that tooth or to have a root canal done.
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And sometimes that infection can be removed without giving you oral antibiotics
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like amoxicillin and a few other antibiotics that we give for tooth-related
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stuff if you're allergic to it.
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That's really the only option. And you're going to have to take it for a few
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days until the infection calms down.
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That's maybe sometimes the only time a dentist will even see you because they're
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like, no, I'm not going to touch you until this infection is under control.
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So that's a separate problem. When that happens, unfortunately,
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we do have to get a little bit more aggressive.
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Other important topics to discuss is dry mouth. So if you sleep at night and
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you had alcohol at night or you ate something sugary or sweet or very carb-heavy at night,
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if you got dehydrated at night for other reasons, if you tend to be a mouth
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breather, you can get a lot of dry mouth.
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When you get dry mouth, that dry mouth creates a very...
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Hospitable surface for those bad bacteria. And so those bad bacteria will grow.
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It just means that before you go to bed at night, try to drink a little bit
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of water, try to avoid drinking alcohol or caffeine before going to bed.
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Don't have anything with a lot of sugar or carbs because that's going to dry out your mouth.
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Anything even with a lot of salt is going to dry out your mouth.
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So there is a little bit of dietary precautions you have to take and the style
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of eating that you have if you're dealing with dry mouth issues.
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And of course, one very important thing about having a good dentist is you go see them regularly.
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I'm not a big believer in having a dental cleaning every three months,
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every six months. I think a dental cleaning should be done when it's needed.
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So a dental cleaning should be done when you start developing a lot of plaque
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that you cannot get rid of with your own toothbrush.
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Usually, some toothpastes have a little bit of an abrasive material in it,
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and it can get rid of some of that plaque when you're brushing.
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You do have to brush for a little bit longer, and you do have to have a good
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technique with your toothbrush, which is kind of like a circular motion up and down.
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In that regard, those toothpastes can help get rid of some of that plaque.
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So when you go to your dentist, they might say, well, you don't really need
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a tooth cleaning right now because a cleaning is just essentially a very targeted approach with a.
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Rapid scraper that moves
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in a circle or manually they're scraping away the
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plaque that they can actually visibly see so what can help with that again is
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a more abrasive toothpaste for a little while not all the time and you can also
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get electric toothbrush and an electric toothbrush can be a lot more effective
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if you hold it gently because if you press hard it's not going to work well.
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A good quality electric toothbrush can be a little bit more effective,
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especially if you tend to zone out when you brush, because you really have to
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actually be focused when you're brushing.
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So I know this is a deeper dive than maybe you were ready for when it comes
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to your teeth, but it's really important.
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When you're brushing your teeth, you really got to pay attention.
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How are you holding your hand? Are you really getting, are the bristles getting
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into underneath the gum and coming out?
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So watch a lot of YouTube videos on it. That's the only way that I've learned.
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That's the way I've taught my patients.
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But remember, the goal is to have you keep your teeth for as long as possible,
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minimize pain, minimize antibiotics, and minimize any procedures you need for your teeth.
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And the next topic is really the...
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Protecting the enamel with the foods you eat so i
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already mentioned that high carb high sugar
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foods are problematic but here are a few other things to consider if
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you drink a lot of wine drink a lot of coffee have a lot of sweets tend to be
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dry have a dry mouth all day tend to talk a lot all day and don't drink a lot
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of water you will have a bit of a dry mouth one trick with that is to chew xylitol gum.
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But remember, this is now a secondary solution to the primary problem.
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So the primary problem is dry mouth, for which you should really be drinking
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more water and avoiding the alcohol, avoiding the caffeine, avoiding the wine,
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avoiding the sweets, right?
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Even dates, even figs, not so much fruits because they tend to be very water saturated.
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But those are the ways that you can also further protect the enamel to prevent
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you from developing any kind of cavities.
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I do like the idea of having a good dentist, as I mentioned,
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that you can go to regularly to just give you an assessment.
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X-rays are necessary every once in a while, not a lot, definitely not every cleaning visit.
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But again, this is my personal opinion on the matter.
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Pretty much every dentist will disagree, so you're going to have to make your own choice.
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I make my own health decisions based on what I think my teeth need.
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If I don't have a lot of cavities, if I am taking care of my teeth,
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I'm less likely to go get an x-ray.
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Because an x-ray can show us small cavities that are hiding between the teeth
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that the dentist can't see or even further underneath the gums.
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And so that's usually the reason an x-ray is done. But a good dentist can take
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a look and say, yeah, we got some problems here. You got a pocket here.
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That pocket is constantly collecting food.
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If you don't go to a dentist, you'll never know that. And so a dentist can see
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that and say, look, either you're going to figure, I'm going to teach you this
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new brushing technique and flossing technique there, or we're going to have
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to fill this spot so that you don't get any more food in there.
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And that's also a good trick, just having them fill it.
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They put a little bit of a filler in there, which takes us to flossing.
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Flossing is incredibly important. Now, you can do a water pick.
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Water picks are messy and flossing is still usually a little bit better.
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But you have to do it regularly. So for flossing to work, you really want to do it at least once a day.
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Sometimes if you eat something that is very chewy, gummy, that's going between
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your teeth, you might even have to floss two or three times a day.
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But you really want to get stuff out from between your teeth.
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A water pick is nice because it just pushes water in through those areas and
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just kind of cleans it out.
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If you're noticing when you pull out your floss and it smells bad,
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well, guess what? but that means that you got food particles stuck there.
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And so sometimes, or if you notice that a lot, you may have to also do a little
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bit of water picking to really get between those spots.
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Okay, that's it. That is the masterclass on taking care of your teeth. Brush regularly.
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Floss. Avoid the foods that are going to cause you dental cavities.
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And when you are noticing any cavities or your dentist has said,
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hey, you've got some problems, you can use a little bit of a higher fluoride
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toothpaste to try to reverse it and also cutting back on some of the sugary stuff, on alcohol,
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on acidic stuff, and that can help your teeth recover.