If you ask a dentist the question, “can teeth heal?”, you will most likely get a somewhat condescending negative answer. However, there is a great deal of factual evidence to the contrary. What does that mean exactly?
For example, can a cavity heal itself? The answer is a resounding yes. Dr. Weston Price’s research shows quite conclusively that tooth decay, as well as physical degeneration, is the result of nutritional deficiencies.
Dr. Price was born in Canada in 1870 and began his practice in Cleveland in his early 20s. Frustrated by the unexplained increase in the amount of physical and dental degeneration that was prevalent in those days, he set out to find some answers.
His search took him around the world and he studied groups of isolated people in many countries whose diets had not been affected by the industrialization of the food supply chain. These groups included Aboriginal people from Australia, Maori from New Zealand, African people groups, Melanesians, Polynesians, Eskimos, Native North Americans, as well as Gaelic groups in the Outer Hebrides and isolated villagers from the Swiss mountains.
Dr. Price’s extensive studies, as described in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, not only demonstrate that the root cause of tooth decay is nutritional deficiencies, but that the damage is reversible. Several of his experiments with nutrition answer the question “can teeth heal?” pretty conclusive.
Dr. Price found that these people had beautiful straight teeth with no cavities, healthy bodies with fine bone structure, and resistance to disease as long as they followed their traditional diets. When the same people came into contact with modernization and succumbed to convenience and the inherent diet, largely of processed foods, they suffered from the tooth decay typical of industrialized cultures.
In his work, Dr. Price boiled it down to a few essential nutritional lifestyle choices. All of these people had diets rich in vitamin A and D, which we know is necessary for good teeth and strong bones. What many don’t realize is the need for animal fats in the diet to utilize these fat-soluble vitamins. Animal fats of some description were common in the diet of all these peoples, whether it was meat, dairy, or fish.
Dr. Price also discovered another mysterious factor, which he could measure but not define. He called it the X-factor and noted that it was prevalent in the butterfat of fast-growing pasture-raised cows. This was especially noticeable among Swiss villagers who drive their cows to the alpine slopes in the spring, where such grass is readily available.
This elusive factor X has since been discovered to be vitamin K2. All the qualities that the good Dr. recorded regarding his X-factor correspond to the previously unknown benefits of vitamin K2. Previously, researchers have tended to discount the nutritional role of K2 since K1 in most diets is about 10 times higher.
While K1 primarily activates blood-clotting proteins, our body uses K2 to put calcium where it’s needed in the bones and teeth and keep it out of soft tissue to prevent calcification. For all the good vitamins A and D, they are of no use if there is not enough K2. Together, these 3 vitamins work synergistically to accomplish what modern dentistry cannot.
Therefore, the question “can a cavity heal itself?” has been answered positively through innovative research and experiments on human subjects in need. And this, more than a century ago!
By testing humans for K2, researchers have found that deficiency is nearly universal. No wonder modern dentistry is such a lucrative profession! After studying human skeletons from past periods, Dr. Price concluded that there had been more tooth decay in the previous 100 years than in any thousand-year period before that. He attributed this to Activator X, which was common in previous diets, being deficient in our diets.
Dr. Price was able to achieve a cure for cavities by administering regular doses of vitamin-rich cod liver oil and Activator X concentrate. In an initial case, a 14-year-old girl was cured, over a seven-month period. , of 42 cavities in about 24 teeth. This was achieved with a protocol of vitamin-rich cod liver oil and Activator X 3 times daily.
So yes, indeed, teeth can heal. It’s all about proper nutrition.
