What Really Causes Cavities?

I want you to know the truth about cavities. Because more and more mamas are struggling to help their children with tooth decay. At the dentist’s office, they are told to brush and floss better. To avoid sugary foods. But what if you’re already doing those things and your kids are still failing their checkups? Well, I want to tell you that your kid’s cavities are not your fault. And I want to tell you what REALLY causes cavities.

If it’s not brushing and flossing, what is it?

Let’s look at cavities from a naturopathic perspective. A cavity is not just a simple issue isolated to the mouth. It is multifactorial! In naturopathy, the mouth and body are not separate. So, a healthier mouth means a healthier gut which means a healthier brain. It’s all connected! This is why you want to address this issue, beyond just seeing fewer cavities.

Our teeth are living matter with the ability to HEAL, just like the bones in our bodies. In fact, our teeth are incredibly strong and are not meant to decay. There’s always a root cause for everything, and it’s always either a toxicity or deficiency.

Cavities are not caused by bacteria!

This has been PROVEN in both animal and laboratory experiments. For the past 130 years, modern dentistry has blamed germs and what germs eat as the only cause of tooth decay (bacteria eat sugar). 

But think about this: bacteria are part of life, with some good ones and some bad ones, and trillions of them everywhere. So, dentistry’s goal to eliminate bacteria seems impossible.

Modern dentistry tells us our mouths are full of dangerous bacteria. We must brush and floss and rinse our mouths with chemicals to kill and remove these bacteria. If you do a bad job at this, then the teeth must be drilled to remove the bad material and filled with man-made substances.

It sounds kind of crazy, right?

Obviously, modern treatments do limit some pain and suffering, but if the basic cause of tooth decay is not addressed, your teeth will continue to decay.

So what really causes cavities?

Weston A. Price was a dentist who literally traveled the world to answer this question. In his travels, he came across tribes with very severe tooth decay and tribes with zero cavities. Why was this?

He discovered that people on a modern, refined food diet had a high degree of decay. And isolated tribes eating their native diets had high immunity to it. Many indigenous tribes ate raw grass-fed butter, fish eggs, shellfish and the organs and organ meats of wild-caught animals.

Many tribes required a period of premarital nutrition, and children were spaced to permit the mother to maintain her full health and strength prior to her next pregnancy. So, the mother’s mineral status was quite high. The children born to these mothers inherited strong mineral reserves.

People on modern industrial diets were mineral-depleted and had high rates of decay. This was also passed on to their children.

When Dr. Price analyzed the foods used by isolated indigenous peoples, he found that they provided several times the water-soluble vitamins (B,C), several times the minerals, like calcium

and phosphorus, and at least 10 times the fat-soluble vitamins(A,D,E,K) than the displacing diet that caused tooth decay.

Tooth decay is caused by a LACK of nutrients in the modern diet.

The root cause of tooth decay.

Tooth decay begins many generations back. It started with your grandmother and her mother, too. Since we hardly eat foods rich in fat-soluble vitamins in our modern culture (liver and grass-fed butter, anyone?) and since our modern culture doesn’t really practice a special time of preparation and building for pregnancy, we have accidentally created an environment where tooth decay is really likely to happen.

The constitution that you were born with plus the diet you grew up on( sugar and flour, anyone?), plus what you are eating now are 100% the key to creating a healthy mouth.

Cavities started before your kids were born!

At just 6 weeks into pregnancy, baby tooth buds start to form. And by the time your baby is born, 20 baby teeth have already developed under the gums. 

So preconception care and mineral balancing definitely matters!

Many women today are in a state of burnout. Women are under-eating, don’t have enough minerals to work with and are already in a depleted state. There are not enough resources to give to the developing baby.

***Sources: "Cure Tooth Decay" by Ramiel Nagel and the work of Weston A. Price

We have two goals with teeth healing protocols

The first goal is to STOP decay. The second goal is to REVERSE. This is achieved through targeted mineral support, microbiome balancing and nourishment. Most diets are low in crucial nutrients. Teeth require minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, chromium, molybdenum –

AND the synergistic relationships of other minerals to ensure and fortify the health of the larger mineral base of the body as a whole.

You can heal your kid’s teeth!

Healing your child’s teeth IS healing your child. Even if you don’t get the immediate satisfaction of saving a tooth, you are able to address the root cause and prevent future decay. 

I hope that this post has inspired you to dig deeper if your child is dealing with cavities. Inside of FEM, we work with mamas on one-on-one mineral balancing protocols. We also teach proper preparation of foods to minimize mineral loss. The payoff is huge when mamas learn how to support the root cause of tooth decay.

The doors to FEM only open once a year. If you are interested, you can learn more and get on the waitlist here!