Wisdom, Teeth (A Guide To Dental Health)

The depressed toothbrush

Disclaimer: The following information is based on real experiences and may or may not apply to you. While its always better to seek the opinion of your dentist, its even more important to do your own research regarding your dental health.

As an important orifice for nutrient ingestion.. (sorry too prosaic, I mean, wordy..)

REBOOTING…

MOSS IN MY MOUTH

We consume food through the mouth but spend very little thought on what goes inside – I am not saying you have to be a culinary saint but a little balance will go a long way in ensuring good health. The phrase “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” implies the health of the horse can be estimated by looking into its mouth – same goes for us homo sapiens also.

It was maybe 6 years ago that I was eating chana (salted Bengal grams) and quickly the inside of my cheeks became inflamed and soon spread to my gums. For a next few weeks found it very difficult to eat anything spicy. Initially I thought it was a allergic reaction to the something in the packaged chana but it just didn’t go away – so the chana was possibly when my immune system put its hands up..

Cut to the dentist’s chair. I hate doctors spouting morality.

The guy didn’t have a clue about the condition – by this time it was extremely painful to the touch too.

“Do you smoke ?” No.

“Do you drink ?” Sometimes.

He gave me a look as if he didn’t believe my first answer and sort of implied I am person with loose morals hence I have been punished. He sent me off with some dental cream which unsurprisingly did absolutely nothing to help and I suffered on.

So next stop, Manipal Hospital on Old Airport Road.

( I was hesitant to come here because of my previous experience some years before this inflammation.

That time, my teeth had become very sensitive after having too many raw mangoes and the eccentric head of the department took one look and said I have to go for root canal treatment.

To add insult to sensitivity he used some sort of electric prod which sends a small current to check tooth sensitivity.

He calls one trainee dentist No. 1.

“This is what sensitive teeth looks like..” and prods my teeth. “OOOWWWWW”

He call another (good looking) trainee dentist No. 2.

“This is what sensitive teeth looks like..” and prods my teeth. “OOOWWWWW”

Repeat treatment one by one for trainees 3 and 4. ” More O’s and W’s.

Why couldn’t he call all of them at once ??

It would have been extremely funny if I was watching this on a sitcom, maybe Scrubbs.

(I joke not, this is what happened)

Finally the pain loving sadistic idiot tells me we can start root canal treatment right away. I demur, saying I will come back the next day, even take a appointment for the next day to escape from Hotel California. Did some Googling, bought one of those toothpastes which fix tooth sensitivity – Sensodyne , in one week I was munching away like a cow. )

So you can imagine my trepidation this time.

This time he takes one look and says – Ha! Lichen Planus. Lichen!?? What is this.. some Amazon rain forest ? What kind of eccentricity is it this time around ?

But turns out the guy was spot on this time. He explained its a auto immune disorder which I could believe since I am sort of a walking, talking auto immune disorder disaster area.

The diagnosis was correct (biopsy confirmed it) but the treatment was topical steroids which will only remove the symptoms which may recur any time. And thats the only line of treatment with allopathy.. and I don’t care for steroids with a healthy disrespect for allopathic medication as a first line of treatment because of its side effects.

So next stop, a homoeopathy doctor with expertise in auto immune issues. He understood my life history including a detailed understanding of the body parts where I sweat the most.  Gave me some of those white pills and sent me off saying *don’t* brush the gums. Initially I felt that there was some improvement but possibly it was a placebo effect – there was no real improvement.

I suffered along for many months this way. Google told me Aloe Vera gel may help. Couldn’t get oral gel but tried aloe vera juice. No effect.

Some months later I noticed my ears were fully waxed up. Ignored it until it became irritating.

(Ears?? You ask. Wait, I say. Everything’s connected.)

So I go to a ear doctor, possibly the first time in my life. Initially she gives me a liquid to put in my ears every night to loosen it up. When I go back after a week, its so impacted because of those silly ear buds she is unable to yank it out. Well then, she puts H2O2 in each ear one by one which bubbled away like a hot spring brook after which the wax comes out like ear plugs.

Immediately after removing the wax everything became unnaturally loud – probably my brain had yanked up the master volume and it took a few months to adjust. You will not believe – the door bell and the main door latch were most irritatingly loud.

A few days later I went swimming. Water gushed in into ear canals which had been drier than the Atacama desert earlier. Which meant exactly 6 hours later I got my first ear infection ever.

So I visited this old fashioned doctor who confirmed the ear infection but the diagnosis was too quick for him and left him unsatisfied. “Let me take a look at your mouth”, he said. “Lichen Planus”, I said, and so did my screams when he was poking around my gums.  “Hmmmpff”, he said. “All these new fangled names . People don’t massage their gums causing these issues. Just use your finger to brush your gums. It will hurt, it will bleed but it will harden your gums. Now get lost”, he said, now satisfied that he had earned his keep.

I liked the idea. Simple and painful and no steroids. So for the next one week I brushed my gums morning and night. I bled. It hurt like hell. It really helped – The lichens retreated under my stern fingering. Gums felt better in months. Atleast 50% improvement.

Then I came across this simple, great concept called oil pulling. Less complicated than it sounds – its a very old Ayurvedic practice which involves using a vegetable oil such as coconut, sesame (til) or even olive oil and swishing it like mouthwash for atleast 15 minutes without swallowing it.

People claim it’s the panacea for many ills including skin glow, but all this in my opinion is fantasy. It helped me in these ways –

• Lichen Planus 99% gone after oil pulling for a month. I will not claim a cure, but this habit keeps LP completely away.
• Removes a lot of phlegm from my airways.
• A lot of people drink water or tea first thing in the morning – I believe that means you will ingest all the bad breath and bacteria- sounds logical that first thing should be to remove these out first – oil pulling reduces plaque and is supposed to round up all the bacteria
• Good excuse for not being able to talk to my wife in the morning 🙂

I started flossing regularly too – started with every night and then reduced to once a week.

So to consolidate:

• Oil pulling in the morning for 15 min with sesame (til) oil
• Brush teeth
• Brush gums with fore finger
• Floss once a week

In a month or so Lichen Planus was under control and ever since.

(Aside: once I took some NSAID drugs for an injury the LP flared up real bad – avoid NSAIDs like the plague if you have oral LP, atleast make sure you let the doctor know you have LP)

Which leads us to….

WHAT’S IN YOUR TOOTHPASTE??

Let’s start off with some self evident truths:

First off, based on what I know (happy to be corrected if wrong) there are exactly THREE inorganic food substances that we have consumed on a everyday basis for thousands of years..

• Water
• Salt
• Baking powder / baking soda, maybe?

meaning rest of all food we consume comes from (organic) other life forms – from grains to vegetables and fruits, spices to meat. Think – only water and salt are not from life forms, rest everything is.

Second – what the only TWO substances that we are told to put into our mouth, but not swallow ?

• Bubble gum / chewing gum
• Toothpaste

As far as gum is concerned – I have often swallowed it without any ill effects. And the wrapper does not say do not swallow.

Which leaves toothpaste as the only substance that we are supposed to put in our mouths but not swallow.

Why does toothpaste packaging say:

• Not for children less than 6 years old ?
• Use only pea sized amount
• Poison control warnings in countries such as USA ?

How is toothpaste ok for adults but not for small children ? Why only pea sized amount ? What will happen if I have maybe three pea sized portions ?

For this, let me relate the experience of a friend, lets call him VB. An extreme and rare situation, but important to understand.

VB bought and started using Colgate Total toothpaste which caused such a severe allergic reaction with rashes on his neck, face and body that he landed up in hospital in a pretty serious condition and doctors pumped him with steroids. An engineer and a logical thinker, he was able to eliminate alternatives and prove conclusively that it was the toothpaste that caused the allergic reaction to the incredulous and unbelieving doctors.

The lessons we can learn from VB’s experience are:

• Doctors don’t know everything
• Hell, if they know what they are supposed to know, that would be a good start
• Ultimately, you are responsible for your health
  • Do you own research and develop your own diagnostic skills
  • Don’t self medicate – use the doctor for that
  • Avoid unnecessary medication especially pain killers
  • Ask the doctor about the effect of the medication

Further down this article I have listed out the toothpaste brands and their ingredients as details, but let’s look at what I have discovered:

Analysis

• All “Herbal” toothpastes have a large non-herbal component. Should they be even called herbal?

• Vicco toothpastes may appear to be very “herbal” but out of 100g of toothpaste, exactly 20g only constitutes herbal extracts – so the rest of 80g is “excipients p.s.” which is the scientific term for – “this is herbal so I don’t care to inform you about the rest”. I was pretty surprised on getting a round 20g number for 18 herbal extracts !
• The most popular chemicals are for both herbal and non-herbal toothpastes are:
  1. Sorbitol – bad
  2. Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS)  – very bad
  3. Silica – somewhat bad
  4. Sodium Saccharin – bad

• Avoid Dabur Herbal toothpaste. It has Formaldehyde, which is poison even to breathe and they are putting this in toothpaste!

• People with asthma have to take more care in toothpaste choice, preferably go fully natural as described later.

Behind the scenes

 If you think what-you-see-is-what-you-get applies to toothpastes, you can think again..

Unfortunately, it’s not necessary that the manufacturer has stated all the ingredients of the toothpaste on the tube, more so with so called “herbal” toothpastes.

A specific case in point:

Himalaya Dental Cream mentions these as the ingredients, other than herbal:

• Sodium Benzoate IP
• Bronopol IP
• Saccharin Sodium IP 0.5%

None of these are “foaming” agents.. so how can this toothpaste foam at all ?

So I sent them an email:

—–Original Message—–
From: Jaimini Ram [jaiminixxxx@xxx.com]
Sent: Wednesday, Aug 29 2012 1:01AM
To: customer.service@himalayahealthcare.com [customer.service@himalayahealthcare.com]
Subject: ingredients in dental cream
Hi

I would like to know:

1. what is the foaming agent used in Himalaya dental cream.
2. Does it have Sodium Lauryl Sulphate or Sodium Laureth Sulphate.

regards,

Jaimini.

To which they replied as:

Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:43:50 +0530
From: customer.service@himalayahealthcare.com
Subject: RE:’HDC=826-876′ ingredients in dental cream
To: jaiminixx@xxx.com
Dear Jaimini

Thank you for your email.

We wish to clarify that Himalaya Dental Cream uses Sodium lauryl sulphate as a foaming agent.

Regards

Ms. Tara xxx xxxx

Manager – Customer Service
The Himalaya Drug Company
Makali, Bangalore 562 123, India
T +91 80 2371 4444 · F +91 80 2371 4474

Toll Free No: 1800-425-1930 (9.00 am – 5.00 pm Monday – Friday)

Atleast Himalaya is responsive – but there is a big gap in what is mentioned on the toothpaste versus reality – anyone who is sensitive to SLS or SLES is in big trouble if they believe what is printed on the tube.

I also sent an email to Patanjali regarding their Dant Kanti but I never received a response:

Hi
Wanted to know some details about Dant kanti toothpaste – does it contain SLS or SLES ?

Only sodium benzoate and calcium carbonate is mentioned.

I am asking since I am allergic to SLS and SLES. If you are not using this what substance are you using as your foaming agent ?

Regards,
JaimIni

which finally brings us to the climax..

SO WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE TO TOOTHPASTE ?

Firstly, not everyone is allergic or sensitive to these chemical found in toothpastes.

If you have a toothpaste that works for you, that’s great.

When your dentist is all smiles when they see you every month, that’s when you should start investigating what is happening and what you can do to improve the situation.

I found some good resources on the net for an alternative to toothpaste:

• http://familysponge.com/health/coconut-oil/homemade-toothpaste-coconut-oil/
• http://wellnessmama.com/8780/squeezable-homemade-toothpaste/
• http://www.diynatural.com/homemade-toothpaste/
• http://wellnessmama.com/2500/remineralizing-toothpaste/

The main ingredients being: coconut oil, baking soda and rock salt

What I have personally tried and found excellent is:

• mix these and add as required until you get a good semi solid consistency
  • (virgin) coconut oil
  • baking soda
  • rock/sea salt – grind it in a mortar
  • add peppermint oil for fresh breath
• add these as available:
  • turmeric
  • powdered clove
  • nutmeg seed– you can scrape it or powdered mace
  • cardamom, ground
  • star anise
  • powdered tulsi
  • powdered cinnamon
  • neem powder

  Keep in a glass jar at your sink, pour out a little on the toothbrush or into your mouth. In addition to the brush use your finger to brush your gums.

  Floss at least once a week.

  I found that plaque reduced dramatically than any standard toothpaste could have.

  But

  • It will make your sink dirty and messy which you will need to clean each time
  • It’s a real pain to make this each time unless someone can do it for you

  I have come to the conclusion that for toothpaste manufacturers “cleaning teeth” is just one of the requirements – not messing up the sink too much as well as thickness so that it can come out of the tube evenly is a much bigger requirement

  I am lazy in preparing this concoction each time.. so instead I keep a mix of baking soda and common salt in a glass jar and sprinkle it on the toothbrush along with the toothpaste.

  Toothpastes and ingredients

Now lets look at the (artificial) substances that are present in popular brands of toothpaste – both herbal and non-herbal, to delve a bit deeper

In the list below, Dabur Herbal, Dabur Meswak and Himalaya Active are branded as “Herbal” toothpastes.

• Bye, Bye

  Hopefully this was a comprehensive and an objective overview of toothpastes so that it helps others out there!

  I researched on the toothpaste ingredients by taking a photo of the toothpastes, reproduced below: