For many people, especially children and the elderly, a good diet isn’t sufficient to maintain excellent health. What’s often missing is one or more of the four vitamins responsible for named human dietary deficiency diseases. These are vitamin C (scurvy), vitamin D (rickets), niacin (pellegra) and thiamine (beriberi).

Unfortunately, it is difficult to feel these four vitamins working. People feel the same with or without supplements. There are no obvious benefits. There are, however, obvious side effects at doses above the upper limits (UL’s) set by the Food and Nutrition Board.

Getting out into the sun regularly with minimal clothing and taking vitamin supplements requires considerable effort. People need an incentive.

Many people with bad teeth fear the dentist for good reason. Cleaning sensitive teeth, filling cavities, extracting teeth, and operating on gums is painful and expensive. People with bad teeth have an incentive to improve the health of their teeth.

A good diet and optimal doses of vitamin D, thiamine, niacin, and vitamin C prevent cavities. Read more here. If you’re just looking for good doses to try, click here.

Dentists are revolutionizing preventative care by bringing digital monitoring tools into their offices. They are regularly using three analytical tools: x-rays, lasers, and photographs. The laser is a fantastic new tool that measures the density of the tooth and detects surfaces in teeth that are vulnerable to cavities before they form. My dentist has an electronic file full of photographs, x-rays, and laser measurements of my teeth.

If you don’t get extra vitamin D, thiamine, niacin, and vitamin C, the odds are high that problems will develop with the teeth as they age. These problems are accurately quantified by the dentist’s tools. Optimal doses of vitamins will stop many of these problems and the measurements provide the proof.

Cavities prevention is more important for children than for adults. Cavities are associated with other health problems. Children with cavities are at elevated risk. The most common risks are reduced height, weight, speed, endurance, and intelligence. They are also at higher risk of disease.

The vast majority of children should never get a cavity because cavities are caused by vitamin deficiency. Today, dentists can detect vulnerability to cavities in the teeth of children before operable cavities even emerge. Parents who respond to the data with vitamins will find that the progression of a tooth from vulnerable to a cavity to actually having a cavity can be halted.

Cavities are an early warning of general poor health. The painfulness of cavities may turn out to be a blessing. Fear of cavities may motivate people to take vitamins in a way that no amount of lecturing can. Fear of cavities, and the dental tools developed to monitor and treat them have the potential to dramatically reduce the prevalance of the many epidemic conditions associated with cavities. These include anorexia, sleep apnea, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

If you or the children you care for don’t regularly see a dentist, I recommend reconsidering that decision. I recommend finding the best dentist in town and separately tracking the health of each tooth with x-rays, laser scans, and photographs. Vitamins are not for everyone. The lucky few will live 100 years without vitamin supplements and with perfect teeth. The unlucky few will have bad teeth no matter what they eat and what supplements they take. What’s important to you is your own health care. What’s important to you is whether taking vitamins helps your teeth (or the teeth of your children). Your dentist will help you take control. Take the supplements and go to your dentist to track the health of your teeth. The data speaks for itself.