Tag Archive for: nutrition
Happy New Year, everybody!
No matter what your dental hygienic history is, there is always room to improve upon how you care for your teeth and overall health. If you’re setting any goals for this year, why not add a manageable habit to your daily dental care? Not that I intend to sound cliche, but since getting a fresh start is the prevailing attitude this week, I’m going to take advantage of it.
Incorporate these small habits that yield big improvements:
- Brush at least twice a day — once in the morning and once before bed (after all food and beverages).
- Floss at least once a day, preferably at the end of the day before you go to sleep
- Take a few minutes to irrigate if you have an irrigator. Irrigation staves off the vast majority of disease and infection and promotes fast healing. Irrigation keeps your gums healthy, wards off canker sores, and provides relief from more painful infections like pericoronitis.
- Cut out refined sugar, flour, and processed foods from your diet, and eat fresh foods and green things. A lack of oral cleanliness is not the only cause of oral disease; your diet, exposure to and storage of toxins, hereditary susceptibilities, and poor lifestyle habits all contribute to disease.
You might even set goals that are a little more major in that they require more time and money. The long-term investment pays off greatly, however. Why not:
- Invest in a better toothbrush (such as a Rotadent, the best you’ll ever find)*
- Invest in an irrigator*
- Replace the chemicals in your bathroom cabinet — mouthwash, commercial toothpaste, commercial ointments, gum or breath fresheners, etc. — with natural options or alternatives*. Also, examine the cause behind the need for these items. Have bad breath all the time? Get checked out!
- Save up for and schedule that surgery you’ve been putting off. I’ve been doing many more implants lately, so if you need them, call us.
- Have your amalgam dental work replaced. Mercury is poisonous and it slowly leaks into your body’s tissues for as long as it is bonded to your teeth. However, if you are pregnant or nursing, it would be best to delay the process until you’re done. If you are trying to get pregnant, get the amalgam replaced immediately and let your body detox before you continue trying to conceive. I will write more about that soon. For now, I use the safest protocols for mercury removal, and getting that replaced, in my opinion, should certainly be done as soon as possible.
- Consult a nutritionist and find out how you can build the health of your teeth back up through proper nutrition. By the way, if your nutritionist thinks you can’t help your teeth by changing what you eat, find a different nutritionist!
So how are you going to take better care of your teeth this year?
Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles
www.dentalwellnessarts.com
*You can ask me about the hygienic and natural dental care products I supply.
There is way too much information about nutrition’s role in dentistry to cram into one little blog post. However, maybe I can introduce a little more information to you that maybe you’ve never considered before.
Dentistry is all about teeth and oral health. Patients don’t usually show up expecting to hear dietary advice other than “Stay away from sugar. It will rot your teeth.” Yes, sugar is the number one preferred cuisine for the bad bacteria dwelling in your mouth, and it will definitely cause those bacteria to excrete acidic waste that causes cavities and infections. But that, in addition to brushing and flossing every day, surely isn’t the only thing to consider when looking out for the health of your teeth.
Your teeth are bones. How do you keep the rest of your bones healthy? Your teeth have nerves and blood vessels running through them. How do you maintain healthy nerves, blood, and nutrient levels? Your gums are soft tissues serving as protection and support. How do you take care of your skin and the rest of your organs and muscle tissue?
Endless cleaning and dental visits can actually do very little to build and preserve strong, healthy teeth that last well into old age. It’s like taking care of a car. You don’t merely wash it over and over again and expect that to keep it functioning for a long time. You have to go under the hood, getting to the machinery and the mechanics “behind the scenes.” That’s where you can ensure the car will run well.
Back to your teeth: what makes the biggest difference is nutrition! A healthy, strong body will give you healthy, strong teeth. Likewise, malnourishment will give you crooked, weak, painful, and vulnerable teeth. Thus, poor tooth health is an indication that the rest of your body is not faring well, either, and no amount of diligent cleaning will ensure lifelong resilience.
So the main idea to focus on is the fact that food itself coming into direct contact with your teeth is not what you should worry about (but don’t go munching on lemons every day, now). Rather, be mindful about everything you consume because you’re now looking out for your whole body, not just your teeth.
Dr. Boyajian, West Los Angeles
www.dentalwellnessarts.com
Contact Us
Dental Wellness Arts
6206 West 87th Street
Westchester, CA 90045
Office: (310) 670-6944
Office Hours:
Monday – Friday: 7am-4pm
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