Hah I felt this same way when I discovered you can change your diet to basically completely remove all dental problems. I doubt society can possible change quickly enough for us to see the downfall of the profession.
When I was two years old -- apparently, I only heard it from the obvious source -- my mother went to a doctor and asked when she could start giving me candy. I'm dating myself but this was before 1990. Anyways, he said, "Never! Never give him candy. He'll develop a sweet tooth and it's game over for his teeth!".
Again paraphrasing and dramatizing, but you get the idea.
So my mom never gave me anything with sugar. To this day I don't eat any sweets and I have no cavities or tooth problems. I eat ice cream once a year, and mostly because people seem to like shaming me for not liking it. I always just have a couple of bites.
sugar doesn't cause cavities, acids do. some bacteria which is not uniformly present in people eats carbs and deposits acids. this is covered in great detail ina good book, "kiss your dentist goodbye" that i just read. ive seen improvements in my awful teeth after giving the free regimen a try
I sure hope your stomach acid isn't finding it's way into your mouth!
The point is to raise the pH in the mouth so your teeth, since acidity causes calcium to leach out of your teeth
It's sort of the opposite of a probiotic. In many organisms, including many non-human mammals, it short-circuits normal metabolic processes. Xylitol-sweetened products will easily sicken, and frequently kill cats and dogs, for instance.
> Conclusions: The results suggest that chewing gum with xylitol or sorbitol/maltitol can reduce the amount of dental plaque and acid production in saliva in schoolchildren, but only the xylitol-containing gum may also interfere with the microbial composition.
There are Xylitol sprays also, advertised for moisturizing a dry mouth. Spray, swish, and spit it out and little will reach your intestinal microbiome. Best done right before a time when you won't be eating or drinking so the residue has some time to act on the bacteria on the teeth (e.g., right before a shower or before bed).
I have a friend with extreme food restrictions, they can mostly only eat animal products (plus white rice and very few other things). They also cannot brush their teeth regularly due to disability - yet their teeth look fantastic!
I remember in Sub-Saharan Africa, they all chewed on this stem (can't remember what it was), and everyone I knew had incredible teeth. Their diet was probably also fairly simple. I wasn't really a fan of the local cuisine.
When I lived in Morocco, however, it was the opposite.
Moroccan food is some of the best in the world, but they have sugar in everything. Their mint tea is something that should come with an insulin injector. They buy these giant bricks of sugar, wrapped in blue paper, and just drop them in the pot.
When many Moroccans smile, it looks like a brown picket fence.
"Diet = dental health" is bullshit. My partner was raised sugar-free and has horrible teeth with many cavities. So does their entire family. I was raised on a diet which included many forms of sweets, and I have never had a cavity. Same for my entire family. Genetics or other biological predisposition seems to be a major factor. Diet might help a bit, but don't expect any magical effects.
Eliminate things bacteria can efficiently metabolize, consume things that humans can efficiently metabolize. Namely, eliminate saccharides (sugar, plant starches, etc.) and get your calories from fat instead. Improved dentition is only one of many benefits.
The goal is to starve the streptococcus mutans bacteria in your mouth. Since that lives off sugar and starch, you both (a) rinse your mouth with a bactericidal (b) brush teeth, tongue, and gums after ingesting any sugar or starch.
The downside is excessive bactericidal use or brushing can damage your mouth tissues and teeth.
Another approach I had heard about but have no further info was to be vaccinated against S. mutans, so presumably your saliva would attack it somehow. I don't understand the mechanism here.
In the meantime, I use a prescription dose of fluoride toothpaste daily to harden the hydroxyapatite in my mouth.
You can also just quit eating saccharides. Incidentally (or perhaps not), this has a lot of positive effects besides improving dental health. It's a first line treatment for many metabolic disorders like diabetes and even many cases of epilepsy. It resolves many digestive issues, as it reduces or eliminates most things humans can't easily metabolize (plant fiber, large sugar molecules, etc.). It helps with weight management because most human groups have not yet evolved an appropriately tuned satiety response to saccharides.
