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.
If your dentist is like mine, he's a prisoner of the "fluoride-prevents-cavities" mind-set. My dentist is good at what he does…filling cavities…but he is completely ignorant of the role nutrition plays in dental health; even in the face of obvious Vitamin C deficiency symptoms like bleeding gums. My hygienist told me that he said that even though she has pockets that are 4mm deep, since they don't bleed, its OK(!). Excuse me, 4mm pockets, bleeding or not, represent BONE LOSS. I know someone who has bleeding gums. When he asked his dentist what he could do about it, the dentist said to him…I kid you not…"not much"!!! And no, that is not a joke.
p.s. I just kills my dentist that although I don't use fluoride (I make my own tooth powder), I don't get cavities.
It is recommended a child sees a children dentist at an early age to develop good dental hygiene habits and treat any problems in the early stages.
Indeed, cavities is associated with disease and it is not a good indication. So, it is better to have prevention than anything else.
All you need is regular check-up. This is to prevent further problems with your dental health.
The problem nowadays is people tend to self-medicate for every health issue that they experience. They think they can just Google everything and save money from medical costs. Little do they know that these practitioners still know the best regarding your health.
Indeed, cavities is associated with disease and it is not a good indication.