How to Truly Care for Your Oral Health: 4 Keys to Healthy Teeth and Gums
Oral health covers many areas, but here we focus on healthy teeth and gums, because the problems that affect them are the most common.
Four Main Causes of Tooth and Gum Problems
Most problems in these areas come from four main causes:
- Infection by Gram-positive bacteria
- A body overloaded with acid
- Poorly controlled diabetes in people living with diabetes
- Vitamin C deficiency
The Role of Gram-Positive Bacteria
Leftover food and drink in our mouths act like a magnet for these bacteria. They are the ones that bore into the teeth and cause cavities.
These same bacteria also infect the gums, making them inflamed, and eventually destroy the gum tissue.
The good news is that controlling these bacteria is very easy, because all it takes is a thoroughly clean mouth.
Ideally, we should brush after every meal and drink. Since daily life makes that hard, we should at least brush twice a day (morning and at night before going to bed), keeping in mind that brushing at night before bed is more important than brushing in the morning.
The Role of Acidity
More than 50% of our bodies is fluid.
Apart from the fluid inside the stomach, the fluids found throughout the body should be alkaline (technically, a pH above 7.0).
A pH of 7.0 is the pH of water, and a pH below 7.0 is acidic.
Unfortunately, these body fluids slowly turn acidic because of diets heavy in protein and starch, mental stress, and the body's own everyday activities.
An acidic body is bad news.
It causes harmful changes in many body systems, including bones losing their calcium.
Teeth are bones too, so when the body carries too much acid, they weaken and begin to crumble. This also makes it easier for Gram-positive bacteria to bore into them.
Eating for Healthy Teeth and Gums: The 80/20 Rule
To get out of this state, we need to pay close attention to our diet. The recommendation is to eat according to the 80/20 rule.
This rule says 80% of your plate should be mixed vegetables, and if possible 75% of those vegetables should be raw.
Vegetables and fruits are the only foods that contain the alkaline minerals so important for neutralising acid in the body before it causes harm.
Because fruits are high in sugar, which ferments easily if it stays in the stomach for a long time, it is best to eat fruit on its own, at least half an hour before a regular meal.
The Role of Diabetes
Uncontrolled diabetes does great damage to the circulatory system, leaving blood unable to reach some of the body's tissues.
Those tissues then suffer a serious shortage of nutrients and oxygen.
The gums are among the areas diabetes can hit hardest. Affected gums become weak, so teeth loosen and can even fall out.
The Role of Vitamin C
The tissues that make up the gums belong to the group called connective tissues, whose main job is to support, hold and connect other organs.
Connective tissues need a protein called collagen to form properly, and without vitamin C the body cannot make collagen.
With a serious vitamin C deficiency, connective tissues throughout the body weaken, including the gums. A sign that your gums are affected is bleeding.
Vitamin C is found in many vegetables and fruits. Eating citrus such as limes and lemons is an inexpensive way to keep enough vitamin C in your body at all times.
Haiiba Dental Guard for Toothache
If you have toothache and would rather not have the tooth pulled, you can contact us for a remedy called Haiiba Dental Guard.
It kills millions of Gram-positive bacteria on contact. It relieves toothache within 15 to 20 minutes, and in most cases the pain does not come back.
It also treats gum disease caused by infection, which makes it an excellent remedy for bad breath that comes from damaged gum tissue.
Would You Like to Try Haiiba Dental Guard?
Order online: payhip.com/b/hxvAR
Or call/WhatsApp +255 754 281 131 / +255 655 281 131
Or visit us at Herbal Impact, Mosque Street, Kitumbini, Dar es Salaam (opposite the Sunni Mosque).
Herbal Impact is a traditional and alternative medicine clinic licensed by Tanzania's Traditional and Alternative Health Practice Council. If you are on medical treatment, keep taking it and tell your doctor about any herbal products you use.