Healthy Teeth
My mouth is an art museum. There must be close to fifteen crowns in there. If all the money that I spent on dental care was in my bank account today, I could retire. Nearly. :)
Lately, a dentist told me that my gums had receded too much around two of my crowns, so that the roots were exposed. This is very unhealthy, he explained. It looks unhealthy too—a line of black tooth exposed just below the gum. The dentist advised that I replace the crowns. I agreed.
At home, I looked in the mirror and realized that the black line was showing on more teeth than the two the dentist had shown me. So the dentist was probably going easy on me by advising we start with two teeth. Crowns are only meant to last ten to twelve years, he had said. What? Switching these crowns out would keep me in the chair for the rest of my life.
I felt sad, because I already take nearly obsessive care of my teeth, given my extensive dental record. For instance, two years ago, I started flossing daily, sometimes twice. I wondered if the flossing could have worsened the gum condition. Damned if you don't, damned if you do! Strangely, ten years earlier, one dentist told me that my gums were too long. He charged me the price of a two-week vacatin to push them back!
I started to research alternatives to switching the crowns out. Could the gum be coaxed into returning, I wondered? My readings produced the two-step program below.
Oil Pulling and Swishing
I started this technique on April 11 2009, and I'll report the findings. It's an alternative dental hygiene technique. Every morning, you swish a spoonful of oil around your mouth and push it through the teeth. Sounds strange, no?The idea is that the oil pulls the bacteria in your mouth. It's the same principle as with engine oil. You know when the oil in the car gets really black after a while? That's because dirt binds to oil. The oil is actually there in large part to clean the engine. It's the same in your mouth.
The instructions call for one tablespoon of oil, typically coconut, sesame or sunflower oil. You keep up the pushing-and-pulling for fifteen to twenty minutes. This sounded like a long time, but after a month of this practice, I now find it a fun part of my morning routine. I rather enjoy not having to speak for twenty minutes when I get up!
On the teeth front, some people rave about the results for gum disease and tooth whitening. Then there's a crew of people who claim that "OP" (as the technique is known for short) cures all kinds of other diseases. Why? Fewer toxins in your mouth, fewer toxins in your body.
A few resources:
Oil pulling and crowns. I first heard about the technique on this thread.
Dental Health with Oil Swishing. This article convinced me to try it.
Oil pulling cures. An amazing amount of information about the technique on this discussion board.
Soft tissue grafting
Apparently you can take some tissue from your palate and graft it onto your gums. I am giving oil pushing a try for eight months. If it doesn't work, I will try that next.Wishing you healthy teeth,
Andy
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