Can I reverse (and prevent) tooth decay with yogurt?
Quick backstory: I have struggled with tooth decay my whole life. From getting my teeth drilled for cavities from 10 years old, to little fillings becoming big fillings, and big fillings becoming crowns. I now have 2 crowns, 8 other fillings, and two active sites the dentists have wanted to drill and I'm trying to remineralize. It got really bad 3 years ago, when I had sensitive spots all over my teeth to the point I started using sensodyne, before I stumbled across Dr. Ellie Phillips, DDS, on youtube, and her advice to ditch the sensodyne (the large tin ions in the stannous fluoride can inhibit remineralizations) swish with xylitol to remineralize your teeth with your own spit, to only use Crest Regular toothpaste (sodium fluoride remineralizes teeth), and to swish with listerine and ACT fluoride rinse. Also, not to rinse after brushing with toothpaste, but instead just spit, and rinse my toothbrush and brush my tongue off, but let the residual toothpaste soak into my teeth. All my sensitivity went away in a matter of months, and I was able to arrest the cavity's development. My bad breath and 'tooth fudge' (that white stuff that used to grow on my teeth in the morning, and between meals) dissappeared. The dentist said that the "surfaces actually look pretty good" above my cavities.
So I have seen first-hand what xylitol and (sodium!) fluoride can do. But can it get better?
Drumroll...
I woke up with shiny teeth. As in, very slippery, feel-good mouth this morning. Feeling fresh. Highly unusual for me.
I have seen connection with if after I brush at night I use listerine and ACT rinse, use xylitol, then my mouth is not super gross on waking like when I just brush at night. But this morning it was SHINY CLEAN like JUST BRUSHED AND SWISHED WITH XYLITOL ten minutes ago. After 7 hours in bed.
So what did I do last night?
- Mostly skipped dinner due to bellyache, alas. But I had been grazing all day.
- Swished with xylitol during the Bible readings (like....10 min?)
- THEN ate a few bites of "zero sugar" (stevia yuck) Chobani greek yogurt the kids left on the table so as not to throw it out
- Two hours later, Chewed xylitol, brushed teeth with Crest. [I don't think I even swished with mouthwash and ACT last night?]
- Was so tired I fell asleep without kissing Josh :(
- In the night had allergies & stuffy nose, but kept pressing my tongue to the roof of my mouth to open my nasal airways. I made a conscious decision multiple times waking in the night. But I normally wake breathing through my nose, so unsure
- Extra data: In other ways my health is bad right now. Allergies, and sleep issues (I woke up at 5 instead of my usual 6:30)
This morning woke up with the shiniest cleanest freshest teeth.
So I'm guessing it was the yogurt, and the lack of mouthwash or kissing meant that was the final microbes that blasted my mouth, then were just brushed and not killed or competed with.
With this hypothesis, I turned to my eagerly helpful and yet often hallucinating research student, Grok. I followed through to his sources to make sure, and found legitimate scientific studies that proved my hypothesis.
Scientific Support for the Yogurt healing teeth hypothesis
Another cool study, that suggests the yogurt makes a competing biofilm that keeps the cavity causing streptus mutans at bay.
So basically, all of them found that consuming (plain?) yogurt, increased the competitive microbiome in your mouth that competes with the bad cavity-causing bacteria.
These alternative bacteria possibly contributing to the biofilm on your teeth, competing with the S. Mutans, and that this reduced cavities.
I had thought that since yogurt is an acidic fermented food, it would have hurt teeth. But no, it strengthened them.
AND with my experience last night, this confirms the secret to my super clean oral microbiome seems to be yogurt.
I don't know how to emphasize how fresh and shiny clean my teeth feel right now. Having brushed them 7 hours ago, feeling like I JUST DID.
When I started using xylitol two years ago, it immediately took away the dreaded morning "mouth fudge." But there was still some residual yuck, and the teeth feeling a bit softer in the morning (less "clicky" when they tap each other). This morning they feel AMAZING, clicky-hard, smooth, slippery, nothing feeling acidic or soft. (And this is with a few yr old cavity in there I'm trying to reverse)
Hannah's steps to Oral health So Far (what stopped me from getting new cavities constantly)
- Not rinsing after brushing with fluroide regular Crest toothpaste (just spitting, and brushing my tongue off with a rinsed toothbrush, but not rinsing the teeth after), rather, letting it "soak in". This took away my tooth sensitivity
- In conjunction with swishing with xylitol (I spit it out after 5 min) 1-3x a day
- Now...yogurt as the last food in my mouth at night...before the final brush
I want to try
Hannah's New Tooth-healing Regimen
- moving my tooth-brushing-listerine-ACT routine to after lunch
- a 10 min swish with xylitol in the evenings after dinner,
- followed by 1 mouthful of plain greek yogurt (I really hope the dental benefits for me are not unique to this stevia one. I hate stevia. But it stands to reason that I shouldn't do a sugary one)
- Regular tooth brushing at night
- Make Josh do this protocol before bed, so I can kiss him and not get cavities
Are there specific yogurt strains that work better?
This paper says lactobacillus rhamnosus . https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12903-024-03893-8 lactobacillus rhamnosus
This scientific paper says these are specifically good to compete with s. mutans. L. Reuteri, L. Rhamnosus, and whatever Streptococcus Salivarus is.
Specific strains such as Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and Streptococcus salivarius inhibit cariogenic bacteria through competitive exclusion, acidity modulation via arginine metabolism, and production of antimicrobial compounds like reuterin and bacteriocins.
Now, looking at my "Chobani 20g protein zero sugar added" stevia yogurt that did this last night, it has got
- S. Thermophilius
- L. Bulgaricus
- L. Acidophilus
- Bifidus
- L. Casei
- L. Rhamnosus
So I think it was one of those, that did this miracle for me last night.
It had better be one of those guys. And not be the stevia....(shudder)....
(I don't think it was the stevia though, given the fact that I brushed my teeth afterwards, and the fact that pure stevia seems to be about as effective as xylitol, and there was only a tiny amount of stevia in that yogurt, which I then brushed out, I would put my money on the live cultures that could hide in crevices, and re-colonize and reproduce in my mouth.)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
