by author Andrew J. Black
"We’ll have to operate, but we may yet save some of your teeth." That was the dentist’s final opinion. Raj Singh, 53, of Mississauga, Ont., had serious gum disease brought on, in his words, by a "history of poor oral hygiene, a lifetime of late-night sweets and decades of smoking." His gums were painful and bleeding, and his teeth wiggled in their sockets.
So Singh visited a naturopathic physician who recommended co-enzyme Q10 daily to stabilize the gum tissue and a few basic lifestyle changes. These measures slowed the degeneration, which provided some hope.
On the advice of a herbalist, Singh also began a regimen of nightly gum packs made from herbs rolled in gauze, which he tucked into the corners of his mouth. A combination of turmeric, aloe, willow bark, vitamin E and powdered alum did the trick. He rapidly noted a "significant turnaround," and by the four-month mark was out of crisis. Now, five years later, Singh still has no significant periodontal disease, just a couple of spots, which is quite normal for a man his age.
Dental Care
Teeth are designed to last a lifetime. Yet an increasing percentage of Canadians wear dentures. According to the dental profession, between 80 and 90 per cent of our population has some form of observable gum disease.
Taken together, tooth cavities (caries) and gum (periodontal) disease, create a painful condition that causes tooth loss and is expensive to correct. Canadians spend more than $4 billion a year to treat and slow the degeneration of their dental health.
If you’re overstressed and generally unhealthy, your immune system will be suppressed and dental caries, which are caused by bacteria, will flourish. If your mouth is unhealthy, it overloads your health constantly, lowering your resistance to all disease.
A clean mouth is a healthy mouth. As the saying goes, "clean only the teeth you want to keep." In addition to conventional care, the main way to keep your mouth clean is to eat a whole-foods diet free of refined sugar. The bacteria that cause dental caries (Streptococcus mutans) thrive on sugar.
General Mouth Care
Most natural healers recommend using warming, astringent, connective-tissue-healing herbs to enhance and maintain oral health. These herbs can be used as a rinse or applied as packs (a pinch of powder, wetted to a mush with a liquid, such as water or vitamin E, and tucked next to the teeth). Rinses are made by preparing a herb as tea in the usual way, or by simply stirring herb powder into water. Hold the rinse in the mouth for up to several minutes, gargle and spit out.
Michael Tierra, in Planetary Herbology (Lotus, 1988), suggests that a daily mouthwash made from chaparral will prevent dental caries. Ayurvedic herbalist Melanie Sachs, in Ayurvedic Beauty Care (Lotus, 1994), suggests a gum massage with a mixture containing five parts alum powder, two parts rock salt powder, three parts black pepper powder and one part turmeric root powder.
In The Traditional Healers Handbook (Healing Arts, 1988), Hakim Chrishti suggests a gum pack made from rose petal, oak leaf and carob powder.
Bilberry fruit and hawthorn berry stabilize collagen, strengthening the gum tissue. Licorice root, also sold in many health food stores, is a gem for the mouth: It promotes anti-cavity action, reduces plaque and has an antibacterial effect.
The tooth sockets are joints, and the teeth are essentially bones. Herbs that treat the skeleton and the joints when taken internally are good bets for long-term tooth health. Standouts include yellow dock root, alfalfa leaf, cinnamon bark and turmeric root.
