Tooth remineralization quandary

So, eons ago I had conventional dentistry.  Last week a very large 30+ year old amalgam filling fell out of my back top molar.

The dentist wants to do brave and heroic dentistry, ending up with a crown, and possibly a root canal, depending on “what he finds” as he drills.  “Maybe even an implant if necessary” (an implant costs as much as a decent used car)…. Mooo, maybe I am now a cash cow for them!

I don’t think I will undergo the crown or implant process or expense.  It hardly seems worth the time and pain.  And I am old now.  I will be outa’ here in a couple decades, give or take.  I am more likely have the tooth pulled, and just let it heal up.  If it’s funny to chew with a gap in my line of molars, maybe I could get a replacement tooth on a plate like a retainer… funny no mention was made of that!

But I wonder, what can remineralization do for a situation where the major part of the tooth isn’t there anymore?  

It is a strong and healthy tooth, no pain or sensitivity at present, but it’s only the shell of a tooth, not a fully present tooth.  It seems unlikely that remineralization could re deposit what was drilled away so many decades ago.  Does anyone have any knowledge or experience?

The main drawback I see, with just leaving it in place and giving it a try is that I could accidentally bite down too hard on something hard, and break or crack the remains of the tooth.  Would that make it harder (and therefore create a more traumatic injury) to extract?

My understanding is that once there is damage through the enamel to the inner parts of the tooth, that remineralisation cannot be effective. It doesn’t refill holes, like a cement. It’s more like taking care of your tools by wiping them daily with a layer of protective oil.

Once the damage is done - a patch of rust, or chip in the blade - no amount of wiping with oil will undo the rust or straighten the blade.

In the situation you describe, the tooth is already dead. The nerve and blood supply have long since died. The proposed root canal surgery fills the channel that the nerve used to run through, so that there is no longer a vector for bacteria to reach deep into your jaw.

Bottom line - remineralisation is not going to solve this particular problem.

I used to have a molar sensitive to cold and hot and it progressively worsened. Back when it was bothering me and I still went to the dentist, he wanted to sell me a crown, and I declined. Now it doesn't bother me, and I can chew a cold apple right out of the fridge. There are several changes I made in my life that I contribute to the healing of my teeth such as eating actual food*, but what I consider most important and having the most direct effect is stopping the use of commercial toothpastes. Most toothpaste contains glycerin, and glycerin leaves a coating on ones teeth, preventing the bodies natural ability to remineralize teeth. Years ago I switched to brushing with a 50/50 by volume blend of baking soda and diatomaceous earth.

Last year a piece of mercury amalgam filling came out of one of my teeth, and I did nothing about it. I believe the spot where if fell out is now repaired and healed with new enamel. None of my teeth hurt or have sensitivities to cold/hot or sugar, an indicator of a cavity.

Memory escapes where I read it, but I recall a story of a person who's crown came off a tooth one day, and they opted to leave it. With time, this persons tooth stub glazed over with new enamel.

* What I mean by food is more than ten years ago I stopped eating food like substances that masquerade as food. Junk food such as fast food, frozen convenience foods, highly processed foods, etc. Changing my diet to eating >90% actual whole foods, and organic if I can get it that way, that can be identified on a plate by looking at them. I do still eat some processed foods, such as pasta, and bread, which I bake myself.

Due to timing, I just thought I would chime in that right now people can likely find black walnuts ready for making tincture for tooth ailments and many others.

No, Michael, the tooth isn’t dead, and the nerve is fine.  But thanks for your input.

James, thanks, I am already doing most of that, have avoided most processed food for decades, can’t remember when I started making remineralization tooth powder.  Between your report of a new layer of some enamel type surface being produced on the crown peg, which wasn’t likely all tooth, probably partly dental material to restore the shape of the tooth … and how difficult it seems to be to find a dentist or oral surgeon , the so called cavity may remineralize, and a harder enamel like surface may develop.  You never know.

Apparently some of the tooth and its surface is material deposited by the saliva.  Perhaps I should find some dolomite and calcium carbonate, and swish it around my mouth sa few times a day….

Thanks for the encouragement 😊

As a result of the information on this thread

https://permies.com/t/45249/personal-care/purity/Natural-ways-regrow-teeth-save

And the responses to my quandary, I have decided to live with the tooth and its hole.  

I have re-mineralization powder, and I plan to apply calcium carbonate powder by toothbrush several times a day.  When I can get some comfrey root I will also apply that directly, being careful not to swallow any, though I believe my liver is in good condition.  If I can get some liver support tea then I will use that.

And vitamin D, (I tend to run low on despite my many hours per day out doors)

And vitamin K.

And bone broth with plenty of collagen  from animals not fed gmo or rounded up crops.

I pretty much eat a non industrial diet, but the whole foods I know of that are DEmineralizers are unsprouted or unsoaked grains, legumes, nuts, so I will be decreasing them even more.

Can anyone tell me if seeds like sesame, flax, sunflower and peanut also need to be soaked?  Is it all seeds that are capable of germination?

Does anyone have any idea how long it might take?

And any suggestions I may have overlooked?

Many thanks

I broke a big chunk off one of my molars almost twenty years ago, biting down on a rock in some rice. I just left it and it never caused me any problems. I ate a near 100% raw vegan diet for most of the years after it happened.

When we moved to our property in 2016, we were living in a tent and scrounging our pennies while we built our house. I started eating cooked food and refined sugar to keep calories up and the cold at bay. Once our living situation stabilised a bit, I got rid of the sugar, but continued with the cooked food, trying to eat what I could grow, which happens to be grain and potatoes. About three years ago, that tooth started bugging me and last year I had a root canal and crown done (my first time at a dentist since I was about 11).

All that is to say, while my very broken and exposed tooth never caused me any problems, it never regrew enamel. I just had a very clean diet.

Jan, that’s interesting.  Do you think the cooked food was part of the deterioration?

Sorry it didn’t work out better for you

I think the cooked food is part of it. Now that I'm eating cooked food, I notice little things I hadn't experienced since switching to raw in my early twenties. I have sleep in my eyes in the morning, I have to blow my nose sometimes, I get a phlegmy throat, eczema I hadn't had since my teens is periodically back, etc. Definitely not as healthy a diet for me as raw.

I'm sure the sugar was a major jump start on the whole thing, though. I've got slightly receding gums cause I used to brush my teeth so hard. After a year or so of eating quite a bit of refined sugar, I started to have sensitivity along my gumline when I brushed my teeth. Within days of cutting out sugar entirely, the sensitivity was gone and hasn't been back.

Jan White wrote:I think the cooked food is part of it. Now that I'm eating cooked food, I notice little things I hadn't experienced since switching to raw in my early twenties. I have sleep in my eyes in the morning, I have to blow my nose sometimes, I get a phlegmy throat, eczema I hadn't had since my teens is periodically back, etc. Definitely not as healthy a diet for me as raw.

I'm sure the sugar was a major jump start on the whole thing, though. I've got slightly receding gums cause I used to brush my teeth so hard. After a year or so of eating quite a bit of refined sugar, I started to have sensitivity along my gumline when I brushed my teeth. Within days of cutting out sugar entirely, the sensitivity was gone and hasn't been back.

Dunno if I could go totally raw, I do eat fair amounts of raw vegetables.  I’ll be attentive for possible connections.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:

Dunno if I could go totally raw

It's definitely not for everyone. You have to get used to eating a much larger volume of food to get the  same amount of calories, and you have to pay close attention to make sure you're getting all your nutrients. I've seen many people dabble, end up eating a very unbalanced diet,  sometimes even developing health issues, then blaming the whole concept of a raw food diet.

Not trying to steer you away from it, but just warning that it can be tricky to do well. For the 10+ years I did it, I felt absolutely amazing physically and mentally. I often wonder what the hell I'm trying to accomplish by eating the way I do now.

I didn't do a single thing with my teeth in mind, so anything you do in that regard might counteract all kinds of other nonoptimal conditions.

I have been reading about hypoxyapatite toothpaste. It is supposed to remineralize your teeth.  I have not tried it yet, but I am going to.  I believe it was initially developed by NASA or for NASA to help astronauts keep their teeth healthy.  I have a small spot on a molar that I am worried about. I haven't had any trouble with my teeth in over 20 years since I stopped dirnking pop, stopped putting sugar in my tea, stopped eating cookies and candy and only eat a dessert, (cheese cake or pumpkin pie) about twice a year.  I grow a lot of our food and raise about 80 percent of our meat milk and eggs.  

I gave up flouride and sodium laurel sulfate toothpaste a couple years ago. I have used a home made tooth powder and liked it and I may go back to that. It had indian clay in it and baking soda and some essential oils.  But my Husband wouldn't use it.  

One of the hypoxyapatite toothpastes I have been looking at is here  https://www.amazon.com/Boka-Mint-Natural-Toothpaste-Nano-Hydroxyapatite/dp/B083JHCCV2/ref=sr_1_5_mod_primary_sns?crid=2YQFCPAXSYS2F&keywords=hypoxyapatite+toothpaste&qid=1668043655&sbo=GLaw0Fx56FiNH%2FiZ%2B6XKiQ%3D%3D&sprefix=hypox%2Caps%2C159&sr=8-5

hope this helps.

FWIW, I hadn't been to the dentist for well over 2 years (was trying to wait out the Covidiocy) but went because I couldn't decide if I was having sinus or tooth issues (it was sinus). My teeth had built up an impressive amount of "scale", enough to show up clearly on X-rays. But... even with the ultrasonic scrubber used to blast off the scaling my teeth were much less sensitive than the last time I was there. The big difference? I went (mostly) carnivore a year and a half ago. Ditched the last of the high-oxalate plant foods thinking low carb good and got a surprise when oxalate crystals started dumping. Oxalate is a common plant toxin that binds to minerals but especially calcium. BAD for teeth and bone. Bad in general. Mitochondrial toxin. Bad bad bad. Worse for some than others. Very bad if you're on the autism spectrum. I suspect that some of us have pre-agriculture genetics, agriculture not making its way to Britain until 2,000 years ago via the Roman Empire, and will not thrive on modern plant foods much less the plant-derived industrial food-like products that are so prevalent today. New world plant foods tend to be particularly bad.

Anyhow... removing high-oxalate plant foods from your diet will help to heal your teeth.

Thanks, Brian

Can you list high oxylate foods that you know of?  I’m thinking rhubarb, and a plant we used to eat as children we called “sour grass”, with yellow flowers and a shamrock shaped leaf, ah!  the genus of that one just popped into my head, Oxalis I think, also called wood sorrel. Surely there are others.  Probably spinach, but I will have to check it out.

I guess oxalic acid binds with calcium, promoting kidney stone formation.  I can see it might be a big player in mineral metabolism, which is what I am “researching” here with my tooth, and how much can my body deposit in the cavern in my tooth.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:So, eons ago I had conventional dentistry.  
It is a strong and healthy tooth, no pain or sensitivity at present, but it’s only the shell of a tooth, not a fully present tooth.  It seems unlikely that re-mineralization could re deposit what was drilled away so many decades ago.  Does anyone have any knowledge or experience?

The main drawback I see, with just leaving it in place and giving it a try is that I could accidentally bite down too hard on something hard, and break or crack the remains of the tooth.  Would that make it harder (and therefore create a more traumatic injury) to extract?

I had a bad filling/tooth also. The rear molar was pulled long ago, so the 3rd from the rear had a cavity and the filling fell out. The upper part of the tooth was bad so the dentist just ground it down to just above the gum line and then capped it with 'temporary' whatever and it has done just fine - so far! I'm 80 years old and just went back to the dentist for the first time in 3 years last week. They were talking about a couple of bad teeth saying that one needed work and that one was so bad it should come out and talked about implants and capping. Like you say, it is very expensive - SO - back to the dentist on Dec. 13th and make decisions. I believe that I will tell him to fix it like the one he ground off.

Excellent thread, I'll have to keep an eye one. I also had some past dental work fall out of my teeth this year and haven't gone to the dental hack. I'd like to fix/keep it at bay naturally. Need to finally move to the homestead and get on a better diet.

Rhubarb is exceptionally toxic. We had a rhubarb patch growing up. Just didn't know. Spinach is bad, sweet potatoes, almonds, cashews... there's a lot. The https://www.facebook.com/groups/TryingLowOxalates/ group has the most comprehensive spreadsheet in their Spreadsheets sub-group. Sally K. Norton has a good overview here: https://sallyknorton.com/oxalate-science/ She's done a lot of really good interviews too, links on her site.

Most kidney stones are calcium oxalate but most people don't get stones. I didn't.

I had an open tooth that I thought I'd try remineralizing.  It allowed an infection to the root of the tooth.   I did not want a root canal. I made it so it was a root canal or take out the tooth. I now have a slight swelling in my jaw right that area.  Pretty sure it is unhealthy,mmy conservative dentist doesn't see anything wrong.  No one can find a problem.  I wish I had crowned it right away and had not listened to the remineralization hype.  

Thanks , Bonnie, I had just recently heard oh hydroxyapatite, as a metabolite in the oral environment where teeth exist.  I didn’t know it’s available in oral hygiene products.  It seems like a good idea, but the first one I read about contained nano hypoxyapetite.

When I was looking at zinc as sunscreen a few years ago, I came across nano zinc oxide.  Then I read an article with electron micrographs showing particles said to be nano zinc oxide embedded in muscle tissue.  The nano range of particles apparently can pass through skin, cell membranes, end up anywhere.  Maybe that’s not a good thing in zinc oxide.  Maybe it’s a good thing in hydroxyapatite.  I have more reading to do before I choose a product.  I  want to utilize the availability of the  substance once I am confident.  Anything in particular that stood out for you in your selection process?

Hidden gum infections are one of the things talked about in this video IIRC. Your suspicions may be accurate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVedWy9AwrA

You can try a water pik to keep it cleaned out.

I haven't gone down this rabbit hole very far, but supposedly root canals are very bad for your health. It seals over bits of dead nerve tissue and basically creates an unhealing abscess that cause inflammation indefinitely.

It is very clear modern diets are horrible for teeth which makes you wonder if they are horrible for overall health.

Hi, what a coincidence it is this thread beginning tonight.  I just today went to a biological dentist for the first time after a lifetime of seeing a conventional dentist.  The biological dentist strongly urged I use a toothpaste called RiseWell which contains hydroxyapatite (but not with nano particles).  She said you do not rinse it after brushing, just leave it in your mouth and it will remineralize your teeth.  It is available from their website, www.risewell.com and Nordstroms, oddly enough.  I haven't tried it yet but wanted to share the name with you.  Good luck with your tooth and missing filling!

Just remember that root abscesses and jaw infections are no joke and can even kill you with septicemia! I'd just get the tooth pulled. (But make sure they get it all out!). You can read up on the possible drawbacks of not getting an implant at your leisure.

I know people here go to.Bulgaria or Hungary to get implants (especially if many at once) because it's so much cheaper. There's packages with hotel and everything included.

I live near Poland, I really should find a Polish dentist, many of my German friends do, as it's cheaper.

I went for a cleaning and checkup after my root canal and they were shocked I hadn't had been to a dentist in 30 years. They said it looked like I'd had regular cleanings.  My dentist said to just keep doing whatever I'm doing, but if I wanted to do something extra, recommended a hydroxyapatite toothpaste.

For me, Dental (and overall body)  health starts with body chemistry and its relationship with hydration
Plaque doesn't grow in a mouth within a body with  balanced body chemistry (slightly alkaline)

Most people are dehydrated, usually not from lack of water, but for lack of minerals and salt that allow cells to absorb water.
Without sufficient  salt & minerals, drinking water tends to flush more minerals and salts from the body (dark urine is an indicator) furthering dehydration

A solution referred to as "Solay"  /  "Sole' "  can be made from SEA Salt and water and then added to drinking water, soup, stir fry , margueritas etc
I understand Solay is the most easily absorbed form of electrolytes there is.
Youtube has many videos about Solay, I suggest watching a few as most of the ones I've watched have bits of misinformation / inaccuracies
I understand that the average adult needs about one tablespoon of SEA SALT each day

WARNING- Stay away from table Salt as  it has an acidifying effect on the body chemistry !!!

I find that when my body chemistry is balanced, I wake in the morning with slick teeth, like I just came from a dental cleaning
Smoking, drinking alcohol , eating starches & sugars makes the body acidic and plaque grows quickly
If one can maintain balanced body chemistry over time, cravings for sweets and starches will tend decrease

Bone broth helps teeth repair, Weston Price foundation has good tips on how to prepare
In general, slow cook whole meat with bones, fat , cartilage , skin

I understand that minerals are stored in our bones and when we don't get enough minerals, the body will pull minerals from thee bones to function
I also understand that  the loss of minerals in the bones over time leads to  what mainstream medicine calls Osteoporosis, brittle bones

I also find that Sea Salt is vital  in agriculture

Best to all for stellar health <3

There is a really great book called Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. Check your local library, they might have a copy, it's been around for a while. It's a great resource. Sounds like you're on the right track as far as diet and supplements, though I'm not sure everyone will have the same experience with remineralization. Your dental health depends a lot on your diet, but also on your mother's diet when you were in the womb and your diet as your teeth were forming and coming in.

Good luck with it all. I hope you'll post updates as you go.

Hi all, a great discussion. I have recently started using colloidal silver as a mouth rinse after brushing with bicarbonate of soda. I think I’ll add the Diatomaceous earth to the bicarbonate- sounds like a good combination. Thanks for that. But the silver mouthwash works as a perfect agent against infections etc.. it’ll also prevent throat infections occurring if you shallow the silver liquid. I only drink 10ml a day. So not a lot... look it up, there’s a lot written about it.

I have a very large cavity in one of my molars. I tried to oil pull, use a diy remineralizing toothpaste (bentonite clay, calcium/magnesium, baking soda), and eat as clean as possible for about 2 years. I couldn't keep it up, and didn't see any difference after my experimentation. I finally got the cavity filled this past year. It's been nice not having any pain while eating. Do what's best for you! I haven't seen or heard of much success with complete tooth remineralization of large cavities.

I'm watching this closely as well, Thekla.  The other threads about dental health and remineralization have been very helpful for me.

Like Jan White, I have been to the dentist once in the last 13 years, a biological dentist who was very surprised and complimentary at my dental health.  I was shocked, because my prior dentist from decades ago used to really push a different narrative.  The new dentist said "keep doing what you're doing, and feel free to check back in with me in 10 years."

I do have about 3 fillings that I got, probably unnecessarily, as a young child.  I have long suspected low-level chronic mercury toxicity, but have just left them alone so as not to disturb anything.  We will see.

My wife, on the other hand - her teeth are her personal 'canary in the coal mine.'  Whenever she is fighting off sickness, or her diet is temporarily sub-par due to travel or similar, her in-tact wisdom teeth begin to throb, and the surrounding gums swell, sometimes quite painfully.  We've found turmeric and other simple anti-inflammatory foods keep the pain at bay, as well as helping to address many of the root causes of inflammation.

Good luck to you, and please continue to share.

Well, Thekla, I'm not  a dentist [and I don't play one on TV as the saying goes]. but I'm old. Remineralization? Enameloplasty, as it is called, is cheaper but my understanding is that it is a preventative procedure. Once the tooth is damaged, you may be up the creek without the proverbial paddle. In involves heavy fluoridation. https://www.nadlerdentistry.com/preventive-dentistry/remineralization/
So I just turned 74 and as you can imagine, I'm starting to have problems with my teeth. I never grew wisdom teeth [thanks mom for a tiny mouth: no painful extractions there]. I'm only missing 3 of my natural teeth, so I'm not doing too badly.
One of my back molars had to be extracted as my dentist told me: "when you are older, the bone supporting your upper teeth goes a bit spongy, so you can no longer enjoy implants". The crown was also pretty expensive [$2500], so I let them just pull it. That was 2 years ago. Now, I wish I had had a crown and paid on installments: The teeth surrounding an extraction, upper and lower, begin to move in an attempt to fill the gap, so they start misaligning, which causes additional problems/ cavities.
One thing I know about teeth is that having them, or something to chew with adds years to your life:
https://www.dentalhealth.org/news/want-to-know-how-long-you-will-live-count-your-teeth
I have a couple of crowns, and yes, if you chew on hard stuff, they may come undone. Pick it up, don't swallow, and the next crown will be cheaper because they already have the model.
I am enjoying 3 implants, and I mean "enjoying". No risk of cavities or breaking on those for the rest of my life, no glue to keep dentures in place, no pain ever! they are in there more solidly than your own. Expensive? yes: You have to be put under to install the metal post which has to be affixed to your jawbone. The second session happens in the dentist's office and lasts 10 minutes, so it doesn't cost anything [the bill [$2500 to 5000 per tooth in Wisconsin] covers both the surgery and the pose of the artificial tooth. With good dental insurance, it may be lower, like $1,000]
It seems to me that you would not be afraid of an implant but the bill is what scares you more. 3 solutions:
1/ Dentists are reasonable and they understand you may not have the cash on hand. Ask what they could do with deferred billing/ paying on installments. If you are a typical permie, I'd venture to say you don't have lots of debts, so dealing with just one should be feasible.
2/ You may be on Medicare. There are some plans that will pay a sizeable portion of your costs. Since you can change Medicare programs every year around now check if there would be one that covers implants or can give you a better pricing. Knowing that I will have at least one crown put in this coming year, I selected a plan that is a tad more expensive so I can take care of my teeth. In 2024, I will revert to a cheaper plan.
3/ Medical tourism: My older son lives in Chicago and knew a friend in Peru who has an excellent dentist. It was cheaper for him to fly to Peru, get a room for 3 days, have the procedures and fly back than walk down the street to an American dentist. He was scheduled faster too! He's done it 3 times now and is going again this coming spring. Going to a different country may feel a bit scary, but  dentists there have a different clientele: one that has limited money, so they have to offer all the same procedures we get here, but more in keeping with the standard of living there. Bonus: they want [richer] foreign customers from the US to return, so the work is done well. They may even have gone to a school of dentistry in the US and may speak English.
Whatever solution you choose I wish you good luck, and long life!

The main anecdote I recall about tooth remineralization was from a child of a raw vegan advocate who got him eating raw when he was still young.  Boutenko is the last name I think.  He said that after eating raw vegan for awhile, his fillings started to fall out.  Eventually those cavities filled in with enamel that was dark to start, then gradually whitened.  I've heard other people say remineralization is possible, but I haven't followed any protocol long enough to know first hand.  I do know that diet and dental hygiene determine whether I have pain in my mouth or not.

About 10 years ago I had a lower molar pulled when a dentist said it was too far gone to root canal or crown, and if I left it in place too long and the rot progressed, it could break apart during extraction and require actual surgery to get the shards out.  (I had braces as a kid and had metal bands around my molars for a few years. The molars later developed cavities where the bands had covered them.)  The tooth wasn't painful, but I had it pulled at his recommendation after he showed me the imaging results. He also recommended an implant, but I could not afford it so left it open.  Sure enough, all these years later, the wisdom tooth behind the molar has tipped forward into the void, causing misalignment of my bite.  I can still chew on the other side just fine, but my front teeth don't bite all the way through things anymore except in one tiny spot!  

I did manage to go raw vegan for a short time almost 20 years ago, and never felt better.  But it was hard to stick to surrounded by other people eating cooked foods, and now as a caregiver for someone who loves hot soups and warm meals, it's just not gonna happen for me again any time soon.   But I can keep my teeth from getting any worse with my sonicare toothbrush, an ionic toothbrush, and floss; equisetum hyemale powder, and only all natural toothpastes/powders.

What a wealth of experience and information!  Thank you all.

I do have one implant already, been “driving” it around for 15 years.  I had to have the bone graft aka sinus lift for it.  Interestingly, I did not have general anaesthetic for it.  Just like people are different, so are dentists.  The dentist at the time was my dentist for most of my adult life.  An exceptional dentist, but a conventional one.

I would love to find a biological dentist.  I never heard of such a thing before its mention on this thread.  Perhaps I can find one.

I appreciate the concern of those who warn of dangers of root canals and of risking worse developments by going the remineralization route.  I have so many crowns in my mouth, with and without root canals, most of them gold, that I used to joke to my children that the gold in my mouth was their inheritance. I have had no problems with any of them, once they were done.  I’m very healthy, and I don’t think I will have dire complications.

I am thinking there are good dentists and bad ones.  As a child I had a bad one, then I had the one I mentioned earlier.  I don’t have a good dentist available, and especially not a biological one (yet).

My options are, to search for a good dentist 100+ miles away, minimum.  Schedule an extraction a couple months wait time and again at least 100 miles away.  Go to the local dentist who is patronizing, and therefore I do not trust.  

I want a practitioner who gives straight answers, and doesn’t try to leverage my decision by changing his information as I try to sort the situation.  (AND doesn’t have a patronizing and verbally aggressive receptionist)

When it came to presenting all the options and possible outcomes, he said the receptionist could explain that part to me, and left the room…. Sheesh!

Ok, where was I ?

Unavailability of practitioners is part of my decision, but the bigger part is that I personally don’t believe in the whole conventional dentistry story.  

It was about 12-14 years ago that I heard of Weston A Price, read his book, saw his photos, first heard of tooth remineralization.  That theory makes a lot more sense to me, and fits the evidence collected by Weston A Price

But  I didn’t have anything to experiment with or practice on.  Now, I do😊.

I’m keeping the cavern clear of food, applying calcium carbonate, bioavailable phosphorus may be a little more difficult to find, but not impossible.  Perhaps it’s a component of the hydroxyapatite toothpaste.

Some information supports the possibility of cavities being sealed off, even filled in with new mineral, other information supports the opposite, that it’s just not possible.  That’s the quandary I faced when starting this thread.  When faced with confusing and conflicting information, I don’t know what else to do but ask for more information—— which has been provided here, 😊 thanks, and choose what makes most sense to me.

Yay!  Another n=1 experiment.  I definitely will report back on this, but I never got the idea that the remineralization process was fast.

Next step the toothpaste

Thekla, by remineralization, and biological dentistry, do you mean holistic dentistry?
https://www.rejuvdentist.com/biological-dentistry/holistic-dentistry-more-expensive/
or integrative dentistry? Dentists go by so many different names of 'schools' that it's hard to figure out!
https://www.duttondds.com/our-services/redding-integrative-dentistry/
There seems to be less "conventional" dentists around Redding. And strike what I said about remineralization perhaps ending up being more expensive. From the link above, that may not hold true.
I'm so sorry you have found a bad dentist and have to deal with that attitude. I googled "biological dentistry near Redding" and this map came up. [Unfortunately, asking for "biological" does not mean that Mr. Google will only give us the biological ones,] but hopefully, you will be able to find one who is not too far.
https://www.google.com/search?tbs=lf:1,lf_ui:2&tbm=lcl&sxsrf=ALiCzsZhUYeKyn7FfMJN2_PzcQXZboceaw:1668169085873&q=biological+dentist+near+redding+ca&rflfq=1&num=10&ved=2ahUKEwiOpKeOjqb7AhV_j4kEHRh1BaUQtgN6BAgSEAY#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[40.5892644,-122.3207436],[40.5491052,-122.422801]];tbs:lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u2!2m2!2m1!1e1!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2

Wow, thank you, Cecile.

I will follow up on those links.  There may be someone worth the long drive, and it would be great to have an established relationship with a dentist.

Am Pohlacker wrote:There is a really great book called Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. Check your local library, they might have a copy, it's been around for a while. It's a great resource.

I tried to order this book, but it’s “out of stock”.  Even the e-book pdf down load version.  How does that work? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I had a housemate who used to stuff the holes from old fillings in his teeth with brown paper so they didn't accumulate debris & he could chew without further breaking the place where the amalgam filling used to be. I don't know how often he changed it. He felt that it allowed remineralization of the remaining tooth without undue stress on the thin parts.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:

Am Pohlacker wrote:There is a really great book called Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. Check your local library, they might have a copy, it's been around for a while. It's a great resource.

I tried to order this book, but it’s “out of stock”.  Even the e-book pdf down load version.  How does that work? 🤷🏻‍♀️

He passed away in 2017 from some sort of tumor in his brain stem unfortunately.
Here is a pdf of his work and some stuff can be accessed in that format. certainly worth a read;
https://www.scribd.com/document/544386822/Cure-Gum-Disease-Naturally-Heal-and-Prevent-Periodontal-Disease-and-Gingivitis-with-Whole-Foods-Ramiel-Nagel

Interesting idea, brown paper plug.

I found and ordered a used copy of the book cure tooth decay ….. it looks like it is the collection of information I was seeking when I began this thread.

Most of the dentist offices in Redding are closed today.  The one website I looked at for “biomimetic dentistry made no mention of remineralization.