I haven’t had a new cavity in decades. Not because I brush harder than you—brushing harder actually causes damage, (but that’s a topic for another newsletter).
It’s because of a handful of small habits that might sound a little strange. None of them are hard. Many of them are free.
Here are the 13 “weird” things I do to stay cavity-free:
- I don’t rinse after brushing. I spit into the sink, and that’s it. Rinsing washes off the minerals in the toothpaste that were about to reinforce your enamel. Rinsing after using toothpaste with an active ingredient rinses that active ingredient away!
- I chew xylitol gum between meals. Xylitol is a sugar the cavity-causing bacteria can’t feed on—they take it in and lose their grip on your enamel. Ten minutes of chewing after a meal also floods your mouth with saliva, which is your body’s own repair fluid.
- I order the cheese plate for dessert. Cheese buffers the acid from the rest of the meal, and it hands your enamel the calcium and phosphate it uses to rebuild. It’s the most dentist-approved dessert on any menu, and nobody believes me when I say it.
- I brush before breakfast, not after. Acid from food—coffee, juice, fruit, toast—softens the top layer of your enamel for about half an hour, and running a toothbrush over softened enamel wears it away. You’re sanding down the thing you’re trying to protect. Brushing first solves the other problem too: bacteria multiply on your teeth all night, undisturbed. Clear them out before you eat, not after. Brush first. Eat second.
- I add electrolytes to my water. Saliva needs minerals in order to protect against cavities. Most electrolyte powders are loaded with sugar or have the sodium-potassium ratio backwards. These are my favorite.
- I take D3 with K2. D3 helps you absorb calcium. K2 is what tells that calcium where to go: into your teeth and bones, not your arteries.
- I take magnesium before bed, to make the most of the D3 mentioned above…magnesium is the mineral that lets your body actually use vitamin D, which pulls calcium and phosphate out of your food and into your saliva, the fluid that repairs your enamel every single day.
- I tape my mouth every night. A small piece of tape keeps me breathing through my nose while I sleep, so I don’t wake up with the bone-dry mouth that is basically a cavity factory because a happy tooth = a tooth bathed in saliva! The kind of mouth tape you use doesn’t matter—pick a brand that’s comfortable and that you look forward to using.
- I skip mouthwash. I oil pull and scrape my tongue instead. Antiseptic mouthwash clears out the good bacteria along with the bad, which is exactly what you don’t want. A swish of an oil-pulling blend and a quick tongue scrape does the freshening without the collateral damage.
- When I’m sick, I use a throat spray instead of cough drops. Most cough drops are basically candy—you’re bathing your teeth in sugar for twenty minutes at a time, right when your mouth is already dry.
- I change my brush head every 4 weeks. Frayed bristles stop cleaning and start scrubbing. I don’t wait for the little indicator to fade or for the bristles to splay because by then, it’s too late—I just swap it monthly, like clockwork.
- I drink green tea every day. The EGCG in green tea interferes with the enzymes S. mutans uses to build the sticky film it anchors to your enamel with. No film, no foothold. It isn’t wiping anything out—it’s just making your teeth a harder surface to hang onto. Just make sure you go with a quality green tea, since green tea is a highly polluted crop. This one is my favorite, and I drink it every day.
- I get my teeth cleaned three times a year, instead of the recommended two. For most adults, that third cleaning is the difference between catching a problem at the early stage versus catching it at the drill stage. The best dentistry is no dentistry, and frequent teeth cleanings are how I prevent issues from taking hold.
-Dr. B
P.S. Did any of these surprise you? Are you doing any of these things already?
Can I regrow my gums?