Question: What do you think of the practice of painting children's teeth with a sealant to prevent bacteria from attacking them? Is this ever done with adult teeth?

Answer: Yes, we've been using sealants since the early 70's for kids of all ages. If folks are committed to living unhealthfully, this is an excellent way to prevent the grief of the tooth decay that occurs in the deep grooves and pits of teeth.

1--PURPOSE--Protection of physical gaps in enamel (pits and fissures).

2--WHICH TEETH DO WE RECOMMEND SEALING--ANY with open pits and fissures.

3--AT WHAT AGE?--As soon as we find open pits/fissures and the client gives permission and payment.

4--DO THEY PROTECT THE ENAMEL FROM DECAY?--NO, they're just a physical barrier to entry of plaque and its products to the underlying dentin.

5--WILL BRUSHING SUBSTITUTE FOR SEALANTS? ("We didn't recommend sealants for Billy's teeth 'cause he seems to be brushing well.")-- NO, the bristles of the brush are bigger than the pits and fissures; they can't remove plaque from open pits and fissures.

6--WILL FLUORIDE SUBSTITUTE FOR SEALANTS?--No. Fluoride strengthens the enamel (and inhibits plaque if applied daily) but has no effect on the physical breaks (pits and fissures) in enamel.

7--WHAT CAN SUBSTITUTE FOR SEALANTS?

A--Selection of proper ancestors (genetics) to avoid open pits and fissures.

B--Maybe pre-natal diet--no proof that I know of, just my suspicion

C--Elimination of sucrose from the diet.

D--Chlorhexidine (Peridex), Viadent, Plax (to some extent)

8--DOES FLUORIDE APPLICATION BENEFIT SEALED TEETH?--Yes, Fluoride does not penetrate thru the sealant to the enamel beneath, but it protects all the surfaces NOT covered by sealant.

9--COMPOSITION, WHAT IS THE SEALANT MADE OF?--The ones we use (eg, Delton) are unfilled Bis-GMA resins, the same resins that form the "liquid" part of most of the composites we use for bonding and composite restorations.

[Eating raw doesn't protect you from dental disease]--Yes. And toothpaste doesn't either! It's the mechanical action of the brush/floss that disrupts the colonies of bacteria that produce the acids & toxins that "cause" dental caries. 'tho I suspect that dental disease could not happen in a truly healthy body in which the flow of fluids thru the tooth were always OUTWARD; no acids nor toxins could swim upstream to cause caries--& very few humans are that healthy, due to all the reasons y'all well know. Periodontal (gum) disease is a bit more complicated & toothpastes also don't protect us from that, either & in fact, may be harmful in that they clog the toothbrush bristles, preventing capillary action to draw the disruptive plaque out of the sulci & toothpaste's pleasant flavor deludes folks into believing that the toothpaste "cleans" the mouth.

The dental instrument I designed is manufactured in Germany by Miltex. They call it the Wynman Crown Gripper. It's simply a curved hemostat with a 60 degree curve rather than 30 degree, with narrower but thicker working end constructed of a stronger, tougher alloy than conventional hemostats & inlaid with a tungsten-carbide serrated tip for gripping wet glass, such as porcelain restorations. I searched for two years for such an indispensable item in the late 70's before resorting to building one. Strange that someone else didn't do that work years earlier' 'twould be very difficult to practice dentistry without that instrument ... y'see, using "regular" instruments, like hemostats designed to clamp soft things like arteries, is dangerous in dentistry; grabbing a moist, slippery crown or bridge with those instruments can easily squirt it like a watermelon seed down our client's throat. Better to do that in Japan, where there's a lawyer for every 20,000 honest people rather than here, were the ratio is 1:200!

If your dentist does not have one of those instruments in each treatment room, (s)he probably doesn't know the Crown Gripper's available & if it were MY throat involved, I'd direct that dentist to his dental dealer to direct to www.miltex.com to order some, otherwise I'd advise you to keep the back of your mouth sealed securely with your tongue or an old sock & if any dental prostheses get shot in that direction, be sure to swallow them rather than inhale them (there's a back door if you swallow 'em). For details on the Crown Gripper, CLICK HERE

On the subject of economics, this was our first introduction to the concept of "residual income", 'cause Lou & dad & I put a lot of work into designing the Crown Gripper, building prototypes, modifying, experimenting, showing it to dentists, manufacturers, suppliers, etc. back in the 70's for which we were paid nothing & the manufacturer has honored their small royalty agreement all these years (the first ten years, we donated the checks to the Fund for Dental Health; now they're donated to Mental Directions). This is the sort of income earned by authors, composers, rock stars for their recorded performances.

"REPRODUCIBLE Residual Income" is what we earn from having fun working our tails off finding partners, leaders & working with them to build their new businss networks. It's residual income that reproduces itself, increasing in time, as if the Crown Grippers multiplied in your dentist's drawers. If you're interested in information about considering the business adventure, CLICK HERE.


[Taking electrical readings off your teeth?]--I did that stuff for awhile 15--18 years ago, experimenting with Huggins' "Amalgameter" & other similar devices, even built my own super-sensitive device by modifying our electromyograph (EMG) attached to the oscilloscope of our mandibular kinesiograph (MKG). My conclusions were that the electrical readings were entertaining & useless. They change radically from day to day, even moment to moment on the same surface of the same tooth. Experts agree that they're critically important. Other experts agree they're totally useless for anything but impressing clients.

Best solution is to select a line of ancestors who lived hygienically from birth, preferably Instinctively, live that way yourself from birth, successfully resist grandma's gifts of sucrose so that no dental restoration is ever needed. I don't know how to do that retroactively yet. Workin' on it. Meanwhile, while I gotta help folks make decisions about restoring damage that's already present, I've got nothing better to offer than "Based on the conclusions of my study, research & practice of preventive dentistry & my own journey toward Optimum Health since about '73, here's what I'd do if your mouth were in MY head at this specific time ...."

Tooth Whitening?--Here's the ONLY question (& my answer) generated by two quarterly publications of my "Dental Health Naturally" column in our local Tahoe Forest Hospital HealthScenes paper:

"Are over-the-counter tooth whitening products harmful to teeth, such as taking enamel off; are they abrasive? I would like to see a dentist for whitening but I'm sure it costs $250 or $350. Can the OTC products help? --A.N."

I've come to the weird & unpopular belief that anything other than whole original foods that we're biologically adapted to are toxic & thus to some extent harmful to us. From the cases I've seen, the OTC tooth whitening products are probably relatively safe and ineffective. They're fairly safe due to the low concentrations of the chemicals necessitated by leakage from poorly-fitting application trays plus action by unconstitutional government agencies and other criminal elements of our society. These OTC products are likely no more harmful to your teeth & body than is the daily coffee you mentioned in your letter. I've seen no evidence that they're abrasive nor that they're capable of removing any significant amount of enamel if used as recommended.

The materials dentists prescribe for whitening teeth are both more effective and more toxic than the OTC products and the type of custom trays dentists make to apply the bleaching chemicals to your teeth are more precisely fitting & better able to contain the material on your teeth & prevent the leakage that increases your body's exposure to the chemicals & decreases the effectiveness of the bleaching gel. For these reasons, the systems used by most dentists ARE effective at whitening teeth. They remove the stains YOU put there since the teeth appeared in your mouth & do NOT alter the stains visible from INSIDE the teeth that have always been there. They require from a week to a month of use a few hours a day (or at night) & the lightening lasts about as long as it took you to stain the teeth originally, depending on what stain-producing foods & non-foods you put in your oral orifice. Your estimate of the fee for bleaching both upper and lower arches is probably reasonable.

YES, Melvin Page, DDS' "Your Body Is Your Best Doctor" IS worthwhile! Just after our phone conversation (while dining in our dental lab on organic mangoes!), I was enjoying an audio tape of Nancy Appleton, PhD's presentation at the National Health Federation Pasadena '96 conference on "Alternative to Germ Theory". She's writing a 2nd doctoral thesis on this subject & will publish the book in '97. She presented some dynamite preliminary info (ever heard of somatides? I don't remember ever hearing of 'em 'til Nancy's presentation!).

[Is OxyFresh mouthwash a safe product?]--Probably yes, 'tho some of us weird Instinctos think that ANYTHING that ain't food is toxic to some extent, but then most folks spit out the mouthwash anyhow. Like tongue scrapers, I've never found rinses useful.

[Wisdom Teeth, does anyone have 'em?]--Yep, about 70% of the clients I see have 'em & about half of those actually have enough room for 'em. Why do most of us not have room? Bottom line: I dunno, probly no one knows. Opinion of most current dental schools: as we've evolved a larger brain, the growth of the brain has occurred at the expense of the "back of the face", meaning we're evolving less space for our wisdom teeth (sorta makes sense in a strange kinda way). Opinion of Dr. Begg from his studies of primitive peoples in the 20-30's ( & currently adopted by Dr. Dwight Jennings, of Alameda & Sutter Springs, CA, with whom Lou & I visited 10/98): On a primitive mostly raw food diet, teeth not only wear normally on their biting surfaces, but wear interproximally (they bounce up & down in their sockets & wear the front & back where they're contacting their neighbors) & by adulthood in the primitive populations, this wear accounts for about 14 mm, enough for about 80% of the width of the wisdom teeth. Begg postulated that the wear is normal & the wear on the biting surfaces allows the teeth to function with minimal anterior overlap, more edge-to-edge (present "textbook occlusion" taught in dental schools advocates a 2-3 mm vertical & horizontal overlap of the front teeth, based, presumably on what the educators observe in most "normal" people & I & thou know about the errors of assuming that present civilized "normal" = "healthy"). And his concept is that the interproximal wear is also normal & by age 18-20, provides enough room for the wisdom teeth to erupt, replacing the chewing surface lost by that wear. That also makes some sense & produces interesting & less-than-optimistic ideas on how long our bodies are expected to live. CONTINUE