Healthy teeth are a reflection of a balanced body and strong ancestry.
Here are ten of the best ways to build strong, healthy teeth and naturally repair weak, damaged teeth for both yourself and your future generations to come:
Consume foods rich in vitamin K2
Ensure fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, K are replete
Eat an ancestral diet without any sugar or flour
Balance the microbiome and heal leaky gut
Identify and address micronutrient deficiencies
Daily oil pulling upon rising
Sunlight exposure and proper hydration every day
Reduce stress and phytic acid to avoid mineral loss
Increase chewing to strengthen bone
Breathe through your nose (try mouth taping)
The connection between diet, nutrition, nutrients and well-developed teeth and jaws was identified by dentist Weston A. Price through his exhaustive and comprehensive study of various cultures around the world in the 1930s.
His 1939 book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is essential reading for anyone interested not only in oral health, but overall health.
Consuming abundant healthy fats, meat and organs from animals, while abstaining from sugar, flour and the unhealthy processed foods of a modern Western diet are central to his research and teachings.
Vitamin K2 is particularly pivotal, in that it helps to direct calcium away from the tissues where it can cause damage and into the bones and teeth where it supports regeneration and strength.
Inadequate vitamin K2 can cause calcium to accumulate in the tissues, leading to adverse outcomes like atherosclerosis and heart disease.
Specifically, adequate vitamin K2 levels lower the risk of vascular damage by activating matrix GLA protein, which inhibits the deposit of calcium on the walls.
Foods rich in vitamin K2 include fermented soybean called natto (the highest K2 concentration of any food), goose liver, pastured egg yolks, the pancreas and kidneys of pastured animals, sauerkraut and other fermented plant foods.
Bacteria in our gut can also synthesize homologs of vitamin K2 (menaquinone 7), making a balanced microbiome an essential component for strong, healthy bones and teeth.
If you don’t have a healthy gut and you’re not getting enough vitamin K2 in your diet, your bones and teeth will eventually suffer.
Oil pulling is the ancient Ayurvedic practice of swishing oil in your mouth first thing in the morning to reduce harmful bacteria strains and decrease oral inflammation. Try swishing coconut oil in your mouth every morning for 15 minutes and then spitting it out. Do not swallow.
Exposing your body to midday sunlight for 15 minutes each day will help support vitamin D levels, which are critical for overall immunity, disease and cancer prevention, and of course strong bones and teeth.
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium and phosphate, both of which are critical to building strong tooth enamel.
Breathing through your nose has a number of health benefits, one of which is preventing a dry mouth. Saliva is both protective and remineralizing to the teeth, without it pathogenic bacteria are able to cause damage.
Mouth taping is an option to help practice nasal breathing. It’s exactly what it sounds like, simply place tape over your mouth (there is tape available specifically for this) to eliminate mouth breathing as an option. This is particularly useful during sleep when we may not be able to control the way we breathe.
Chewing your food more not only benefits digestion, it will increase saliva flow that is protective to the mouth and promote growth factors in osteocytes that enhance bone formation in the jaw to help support healthy teeth.
A healthy gut and intestinal wall are the foundation of all health and crucial to ensuring a lifetime of strong teeth.
Fixing a leaky gut and balancing the microbiome will help reduce systemic inflammation, support optimal digestion and absorption of essential nutrients, and provide a diverse spectrum of beneficial bacteria vital to long-term, optimal health.
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