How to Heal Cavities Naturally

Most of us live with this wrong notion that tooth decay is caused by bacteria! Yes! This is a myth. Your cavities are not due to bacteria! Well, not exactly the way you think. Most of the times, cavities in your mouth are due to the deficiency of various nutrients in your body. This has been shown in various tests done on animals as well as in laboratories. Now when I say bacteria doesn’t cause tooth decay, what I mean is that stronger teeth are able to resist both acid and bacteria. Therefore, when your teeth become weak, like in the instance of nutritional deficiencies, it will have a cavity as it would not be able to fight off acid and bacteria. So, the first step towards healing cavities is to make your teeth stronger. According to one of the studies published in the British Medical Journal, cavities and tooth decay can be healed as well as reversed with diet. To heal cavities, you also need to control the acidity and bacterial invasion of your mouth, just to protect the weaker teeth.

What Causes Cavities and Tooth Decay?

We all know that tooth decay is caused when foods loaded with carbohydrates- the sugar and starches- are left within the mouth. Bacteria living in our mouth survive and grow on these food particles and produce acids. It doesn’t take longer for these acids to destroy the tooth enamel which in turn leads to cavities and tooth decay. But there are more causes of tooth decay as listed here.

1. A diet that lacks minerals like calcium, magnesium and phosphorus.
2. Deficiency of fat soluble vitamins including A, D, E and K. Lack of vitamin D particularly is damaging for teeth.
3. Eating too much amounts of foods rich in phytic acid.
4. And the one we discussed earlier, having too much of processed sugar (and starches too).

Can you Heal Cavities Naturally?

Yes is the answer. You can heal cavities naturally. In fact, you can reverse tooth decay and regenerate your teeth! For this, you need a diet that doesn’t lead to tooth decay and help in remineralization of your teeth. In brief, you will need a diet that fulfils the below requisites.

1. A diet having enough minerals.
2. A diet having fat soluble vitamins- A, D, E and K.
3. A diet that helps all the minerals and vitamins to get absorbed in your body. This depends on the level of Phytic acid in your diet.

Apart from diet, there are some more remedies that help heal cavities. These include oil pulling and using certain other natural ingredients to keep a check on your mouth bacteria.

So, how to heal cavities through diet, remineralization and other natural remedies? The next section of this article tells you all about healing cavities naturally.

Natural Ways to Heal Cavities

Don’t take up rigorous brushing and flossing sessions daily. This might in fact cause cavities, thanks to the excessive fluoride content in your toothpaste. There are various natural ways to help you reverse cavities and without the assistance of fluoride. Here is how to heal cavities naturally.

1. Avoid Sugar in your Diet

We know why! Because sugars are the food of bacteria that causes cavities. When you stop having sugar, you’ll help yourself like this:

• You will have a healthy flow of dental fluids within your mouth as there would be no bacteria to prevent this flow.
• You will save your teeth from getting decalcified and demineralized. Sugar leads to highly acidic environment which robs all calcium and minerals leading to cavities and tooth decay.

So, avoid all foods having sugars like sodas, candies as well as baked goods having sugar as an ingredient. You may instead take natural sugar substitutes like raw honey, stevia leaves and maple syrup. Don’t also depend upon artificial sweeteners as they too are not too good for your oral health.

2. Avoid Phytic Acid in your Diet

Studies have proved this, Phytic acid or phytate blocks minerals and enzymes to be absorbed by your body. A diet high in phytic acid not only leads to cavities and tooth decay but also cause osteoporosis. Why is Phytic acid such a hazard to your health? Lets know the reasons.

• Phytic acid blocks phosphorus availability in your body.
• It binds such minerals as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc that are essential for oral health. These minerals thus become unavailable to your body for proper utilization even if you have them in abundance.
• It decreases absorption of magnesium in your body by 60 percent and that of zinc by 20 percent.
• Not only does Phytic acid block minerals from being absorbed in body but it also leaches the available minerals out of your body such as from bones and teeth. This is really scaring.
• This anti-nutritional element phytic acid further causes digestive disorders, lack of appetite, and tooth decay leading to cavities.

What Foods to Avoid for Phytic Acid

Here is the list of foods that have high amounts of Phytic acid:

• Grains
• Nuts
• Seeds
• Beans
• Soy

That’s really sad to avoid all the above foods just because of phytic acid. After all, they contain many other very beneficial nutrients for your body. So, what to do if you don’t want to altogether discard these foods but also don’t want to have that phytic acid present in these foods? Here is the answer:

• Consume only limited amount of grain.
• Totally avoid unfermented soy products.
• Try to consume foods that are organic and GMO free. Phytic acid is much higher in those foods that are grown with the help of modern high-phosphate fertilizers. If natural compost is used to grow these foods, the amount of phytic acid is not so high in them.
• If you need to have grains or nuts, soak them and then sprout them before consuming.
• You may also do sourdough fermentation. Sourdough fermentation decreases the level of phytic acid by around 50 to even 100 percent!

3. Have a Diet Loaded with Nutrients

From the above discussion, it is clear like a crystal that your cavities are due to poor nutrition and abundance of Phytic acid in your body. How to deal with the Phytic acid factor is know known to you. The next step would be to supply enough minerals and vitamins to your body to help heal cavities. This includes the increased intake of fat soluble vitamins. Here is a list of foods to guide you as to what constitutes a good food habit if you really want to heal your cavities naturally.

• More of leafy green vegetables, raw as well as cooked.
• Fermented vegetables.
• Meat, fish, eggs and bone broth.
• Fruits, especially one of any fruits early in the morning.
• Healthy fats. You can start having good fats found in coconut oil, avocados, olives, fish and cod liver oil (fermented).
• Less of grains. Stick to fermented grains. For example, you may begin using sourdough bread.
• Less of nuts, seeds and beans. If having them, let them sprout first.
• No processed, packaged and fast foods.
• Raw dairy products such as kefir, butter (grass-fed), cheese. Why raw dairy is good for healing cavities is discussed next.

4. Have Raw Dairy Products to Heal Cavities

Contrary to the popular myth, dairy is good for teeth and you can make use of raw dairy to heal your cavities faster. This is because dairy is a very good source of the minerals calcium and phosphorous as well as fat-soluble vitamins A and D. There is this component called Activator X in dairy (Activator X is the name given by Dr. Price who found this component) which is important in tooth mineralization. Activator X occurs particularly in butter when cows eat rapidly growing green grass. Many people have healed their cavities by having grass fed raw milk and butter obtained from it. Grassfed dairy is also said to have some negative effects on toxins and anti-nutrients found in processed grain products.

What more, raw grassfed milk and all the products made from it like butter, cheese etc. give you an easily digestible form of calcium and phosphorous. Thus, it makes sense to have dairy products loaded with calcium, vitamin K2, vitamin D3, magnesium, phosphorus, and fat-soluble vitamins. Of course, this is not the option for people with lactose intolerance. They can then depend on the vegetable and animal sources of these minerals and vitamins. All the others should include the following dairy products in their diet.

• Raw milk
• Raw cheese
• Raw butter
• Milk kefir, preferably of goat’s milk

5. Get Vitamin D from Sunlight, Foods and Supplements

There is evidence in the form of a study conducted on 62 children with cavities where the importance of Vitamin D in healing cavities came into light. These children were divided into 3 different diet groups.

• Group 1- had a standard diet along with oatmeal. It is worth mentioning that oatmeal is rich in phytic acid.
• Group 2- had their normal diet but were given vitamin D supplement.
• Group 3- had a grain-free diet rich in vegetables, fruits, meat, milk and also took vitamin D.

And the result said the following:

• Group 1- increased cavities.
• Group 2- some improvement but got some new cavities too.
• Group 3- healed cavities and did not get new ones.

This shows how vitamin D can heal cavities and do wonders when you support it with a grain free diet, the one that includes minerals and vitamins loaded foods. To increase the level of Vitamin D in your body, you may do the following:

• Get plenty of sunshine
• When there is no sun, get Vitamin D supplement (5,000IU daily of D3). However, its better to consult your doctor before you take any supplement.
• Have foods rich in vitamin D. These include:
• Oily fish like Trout, Salmon, and Swordfish etc.
• Cod liver oil
• Mushrooms
• Caviar
• Dairy products
• Pork
• Beef liver
• Eggs

6. Use Coconut Oil Pulling Remedy to Heal Cavities

Oil pulling may be defined as oral detoxification technique used by Ayurvedic medicine of India since ages. Why oil pulling is so beneficial to heal cavities! For this, you should understand that our teeth are porous made up of minute passages just like a sponge. This type of structure helps teeth to deliver nutrients to the outer enamel. But for this, good nutrition needs to be present in your diet and that’s why so much emphasis is laid on good dietary habits. In the absence of nutrition, the teeth only get toxins from your body. Oil pulling helps draw out the toxins present in your teeth and the oral cavity as a whole. Oil pulling also strengthens your teeth along with reversing the flow of toxins and pulling bacteria out of your teeth.

Now why use coconut oil for pulling? Because coconut oil has excellent anti-bacterial properties. Additionally this oil is a good fat. As we discussed, healthy fats are also essential to be included in your anti-cavities diet. So, apart from pulling oil, you may also consume coconut oil!

How to do Oil Pulling to Heal Cavities?

Get this:

• Coconut oil, organic- 2 tsp
• Clove oil (optional)- 1-2 drops
• Tea tree oil (optional)- 1-2 drops

Do this:

• If using clove oil or tea tree oil, combine them with coconut oil. These essential oils have excellent anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties and thus they add more benefits to your oil pulling sessions. However, plain coconut oil is also enough for the purpose.
• Take the oil in your mouth. Coconut oil has the tendency to solidify in cold temperatures. If so, just hold it in your mouth for a few seconds and it will melt due to your body warmth.
• Now begin swishing the oil inside your mouth.
• Pull the oil back and forth and sideways too. Let it travel through all your teeth and gums.
• Swish oil for at least 20 minutes.
• Then spit it out and that’s it. You have finished pulling oil. You will be amazed to know that this oil pulling will not only heal cavities but may cure gingivitis, headaches and even systemic diseases like diabetes!

Some Tips for Oil Pulling

• Perform oil pulling first thing in the morning. Yes, replace this with your brushing and flossing sessions in the morning. If not comfortable with this initially, brush your teeth only after few minutes of oil pulling.
• Do this for a minimum of 20 minutes everyday in the morning. Initially, this would seem to be a lots of time but gradually you won’t realize when 20 minutes get over! You may do your other works while you swish oil in your mouth.
• You may also like to rinse your mouth with some warm water after pulling oil as it will take away that oily feel away from your mouth.
• Don’t get scared if the thing you spit out after pulling oil turns out to be milky white or yellowish in color.
• Thereafter you can proceed with brushing your teeth, preferably with the mineralizing toothpaste whose recipe is what comes next.

7. Make a Remineralizing Tooth Paste at Home

When you are on the mission called healing cavities, the first thing you do is buy a so called ‘natural’ toothpaste made up of herbs and natural ingredients. But did you know that these toothpastes also contain what can give you cavities. Yes, they too may have sweeteners, fluoride, and glycerin- all that you should avoid when you want to heal cavities naturally. While remineralizing your teeth needs a good diet and prohibition of certain ingredients, you may also make a mineralizing tooth paste, right at home!

Get this:

• Coconut Oil- 4 tbsp
• Calcium powder- 5 tbsp (you may use powdered calcium tablets or capsules)
• Baking Soda (aluminum free)- 2 tbsp
• Xylitol powder (optional)- 1tbsp Or stevia (optional)- 1/8 tsp (to keep the bitterness away)
• Clove/ peppermint oil/ grapefruit seed extract (optional)- 10-20 drops
• Diatomaceous earth (optional)- 1 tbsp – (for its trace minerals and silica)
• Trace minerals (optional)- 20 drops
• Small container or glass jar- to store the paste

Do this:

• Mix all the powdered ingredients -calcium, baking Soda, xylitol if using- in a bowl.
• Add coconut oil slowly till the time you get a paste like consistency.
• Now add any other ingredients like essential oils etc. That you may ne using.
• Mix well and store in a small container or jar.
• Take some of it on your toothbrush whenever you want to brush your teeth.

8. Use Activated Charcoal to Heal Cavities

Activated charcoal helps your body get rid of toxins. Many people use this activated carbon to cleanse skin and for whitening teeth. You can even use it to remove toxins from your mouth to heal cavities. Activated charcoal is nothing but the regular charcoal created solely for medicinal use. For this, regular charcoal is heated with a gas which causes the charcoal to expand and it thus creates porous surface that traps toxins. Due to its incredibly large surface area provided by porous structure, only a little activated charcoal can absorb a large amount of toxins, atoms, and ions. You can easily get activated charcoal in capsule form having powdered charcoal in it. You may also buy it loosely in bulk. When you brush your teeth with activated charcoal, you not only get whiter teeth but also destroy plaque and cure gingivitis as it prevents bacterial build up. Because activated charcoal also promotes formation of new enamel, you get stronger teeth too. Therefore, using activated charcoal seems to be a good remedy to heal cavities.

How to Brush Your Teeth with Activated Charcoal

Get this:

• Powdered activated charcoal or a charcoal capsule
• Toothbrush

Do this:

• Wet your toothbrush and dip it in the powdered charcoal.
• If using capsule, dump it over your toothbrush.
• Put the brush in your mouth carefully as charcoal stains whatever it comes in contact with.
• Brush in small gentle circles for about 2 minutes.
• Spit carefully.
• Wash your mouth properly with water.
• Do this 1-2 times a week.

Initially when you put charcoal in your mouth, everything will look scaringly black but do not worry as it would not stain your teeth. It will rather whiten your teeth along with pulling out the toxins off your mouth.

Precaution- If you are on some medication, consult your doctor before using activated charcoal to heal cavities.

9. Neem Herbal Remedies to Heal Cavities

We had talked about oil pulling with coconut oil which is only one of the many herbal remedies for cavities that Ayurveda has to offer. Lets have some more of such remedies to heal your cavities that use neem as basic ingredient.

Chew on Tender Neem Stems

In India, people had been using the parts of neem tree since centuries to cure many diseases. One of such parts of this tree is its stem. Take a tender stem of neem and chew this to fight off to combat tooth decay and heal cavities. Neem has excellent anti-bacterial properties that will protect your teeth from plaques and cavities. Apart from neem stem, you may also use stems of Miswak that is high on anti-microbial properties. You can also find these neem and miswak teeth cleaning twigs in Ayurveda health stores.

Make Herbal Tooth Powder with Neem

Just like the remineralizing tooth paste whose recipe is given earlier in this article, you can make herbal tooth powder at home using neem powder and salt. Buy neem powder from health store or crush the dried neem leaves to get its powder. Add a pinch or two of salt to a tsp of this powder and brush your teeth with this to get healthy teeth devoid of cavities.