After several decades of standard American eating habits, most of us have experienced our share of dental and gum problems.  They stemmed from the extreme imbalance of bacterial growth in response to a diet built on cheap refined carbohydrates.  Back when human diets were built around nutrient-dense natural foods, it was typical to have lifelong robust oral health.  Now we find ourselves trying to regain our oral health, and finding it’s not easy to eat entirely as our primitive ancestors did.

But we can adjust our diets to be more like healthy pre-industrial ones, and we can complement our nutrition with the conscientious exercise of oral care habits and a careful combination of selected herbs, vitamin C and natural cleansers that address the foundation of oral health.  If your gums are crying for help, then you’ll see the best results by combining all of the practices described below.  After you’ve healed, and as your change in diet reduces the production of plaque-causing bacteria, you might consider reducing and then dropping some practices described toward the end of this article.

BRUSH
Even after your gums have been stabilized in good condition, brush with a dental powder (such as Good-Gums) instead of toothpaste.  In order to be a paste, toothpaste must contain a humectant, and the one the manufacturers have settled on is a sweet, inexpensive industrial byproduct called glycerin, which undermines the health of your enamel.  Glycerin leaves a filmy coating on your teeth, effectively sealing them from the minerals provided by nature in your saliva, thereby preventing the saliva from remineralizing your teeth—and thwarting a natural mechanism for maintaining enamel health.  Even “natural” and “healthy” toothpaste contain glycerin.

To compensate for this loss of saliva remineralization, most toothpastes add fluoride, an industrial chemical that causes teeth enamel to become brittle, a poor substitute for being replenished. Unfortunately, fluoride is so toxic that there’s enough in a small (4.6-oz / 130-gram) tube of toothpaste to kill a 9 year old child and enough in two tubes to kill a grown woman.  Fluoride has also been proven to exacerbate gum problems.  In addition, toothpaste commonly contains other still-toxic but less deadly chemicals, such as the engine-degreasing-detergent SLS.  Paste may be a convenient way to move the dentifrice into your mouth, but that small convenience is not worth the continual barrage of toxins.  And toothpaste can’t give the same amount of positive help to your gums.  The herbs and vitamin C that are so helpful for gum healing start to break down unless kept dry or in a vacuum, and because toothpaste is by definition wet and isn’t sold in vacuum-packs, toothpaste doesn’t include  therapeutic amounts —if any— of its ingredients.

It’s simple to brush with powder; this description describes brushing with the amount recommended for Good-Gums.  Use a brush with rounded tips that rated very soft (not just soft); if you can’t find one, soften the bristles under hot or warm water.  The way to start is to tap into the clean palm of your hand a small mound that would just cover a dime.  Use a moistened (not wet) toothbrush to spread the powder along the gum line, where it will dissolve.  Then you’re ready to brush.

If you’re using an electric toothbrush (e.g., Sonicare, et al.), angle the brush at 45-degrees so that the bristles just nestle into the gum line and gently let the vibrating bristles loosen any plaque.  If you’re using a manual toothbrush, angle the bristles at 45-degrees and gently move the toothbrush’s head in tiny circles so that the tips of the bristles just wiggle at the gum line, and not slide left-and-right or up-and-down.  Take your time when you’re trying to overcome gum problems.  For a manual toothbrush, each tooth should get about 20 wiggles; for an electric toothbrush, each tooth should get a couple seconds of vibration, even if that means running the brush for a couple of cycles.  Do not scrub with hard pressure, as that could irritate the gums and cause further gum recession.  Just let the vibrating bristles lightly nestle under the gumline with the dissolved Good-Gums, and let the wiggles or vibrations disrupt the biofilm of plaque.

After brushing the gum line, brush the enamel surfaces.  Brushing in this way will clean the teeth and apply Good-Gums to the gum line.

FLOSS
If you eat any concentrated carbohydrates (such as crackers, breads, pasta, grains, etc), then flossing should be standard practice.  And if you have any degree of gum issues, flossing with Good-Gums is better than with floss alone.  Good-Gums contains two special ingredients rarely found in toothpaste: cranberry powder and tea-tree-leaf powder (the natural leaf, not the distilled oil, which can be too intense.)  These herbs are known to help counter the stickiness property of plaque bacteria.  The rubbing action of the floss is designed to scour the soft plaque from the sides of the teeth and to shred the biofilm back into harmless disorganization.  A dissolved solution of Good-Gums helps.  Also the floss will carry some of the dissolved Good-Gums under the gum margin.

The way to floss with Good-Gums is to put a very small pinch of the powder in your mouth where it will dissolve in saliva.  Even though the salty flavor may tempt you to swallow, and it’s perfectly safe to do so, resist the inclination so that the solution can work in your mouth.  Swirl it over the teeth and gums on one side, either top or bottom.  Some people have tried to keep all of the solution between their teeth as they floss, but that’s not necessary and can lead to dribbling.  Let the solution fall back in your mouth and floss on the teeth that have been swirled.  If they dry out, simply close your mouth and swirl again.  Gently move the floss between the teeth until it nestles against one tooth right up under the gum margin, which is a prime location for plaque to start and gum infection to take hold.  Wrap the floss around the tooth and rub with the floss so that it scrapes down the side of the tooth.  Repeat for the adjacent tooth and for each tooth on that side of the mouth.  Take another pinch of Good-Gums for the other side of the mouth, and then repeat the process, and then again for the lowers (or the uppers).

INTERDENTAL CLEANING
If the condition of your teeth and gums was as bad as mine once were, then you can accelerate your healing by adding interdental cleaning to your oral hygiene routine, in addition to flossing.  Its intent is similar to flossing, but it gets some plaque and calculus that your floss does not.  As with the floss, put a pinch of Good-Gums in your mouth, but instead of using floss, slide an interdental brush (i.e., interproximal brush) between your teeth at the gum line.   Gently use the bristles to massage the gums between the teeth, while the bristles flick away plaque on the sides of the teeth.  (You can find interdental bushes at any pharmacy or grocery store.  I used to use an Oral-B brand, but after a while my gums grew back so much that the brush wouldn’t fit between most of my teeth, so I switched to the much thinner Soft-Picks).  As with floss, use a new pinch of Good-Gums for each quadrant (e.g., top-right or bottom-left) and let the dissolved liquid penetrate into the folds and crevices.

RINSE AND SOAK
A good way to use Good-Gums is to let it sink into the tissues, folds, and crevices for a longer amount of time than the incidental exposure from the above steps.  Put some Good-Gums into your mouth and let it dissolve.  Then swirl it over any areas of particular concern and hold it to let the liquid cover the problem area.  Gum tissues do absorb quite readily, so let the Good-Gums stay there for a few minutes.

MANUAL MASSAGE
For any particularly sore spots, you can use a clean finger to massage the dissolved Good-Gums right over the area of gum tissue that’s inflamed.  Manual massage both increases the blood flow to the area (which brings more immune system cells to the site of the infection), and helps the Good-Gums penetrate the tissue.

SUPRAGINGIVAL IRRIGATION
“Supragingival” means “above the gums,” and this means using an oral irrigator with a wand and tube connected to a low-powered water pump (e.g. Hydrofloss or Waterpik) to squirt liquid onto the gum line and between the teeth.  Lynwood, one of the Good-Gums people, uses a Hydrofloss and adds a little Good-Gums to the water before irrigating.  The oral irrigator flushes out some remaining residue above the gum line, and disperses the dissolved Good-Gums into crevices (but doesn’t really penetrate into gum pockets).  A supragingival irrigator can be expensive, but if you can afford one, it does affect hard-to-reach areas that brushing and flossing do not.  If you decide to use one, don’t add much Good-Gums powder, or there could be undissolved solids to clog up the pump or nozzle.  After each use, flush out the irrigator by running clean water through it.

SUBGINGIVAL IRRIGATION
“Subgingival” means “below the gums,” and this means flushing liquid right into gum pockets below the level of the gum line.  (Gum pockets are areas where the gum tissue that should be firmly attached to the tooth root have lost their grip and merely lie flat and detached along the tooth’s root.  Anaerobic bacteria can thrive in gum pockets.)  For really desperate spots, the frequent (once or twice a day) flushing of contaminants out of a gum pocket for a few weeks can help keep the level low enough for healing to occur.  None of the other practices described above can get deep into the pockets.  (Some brands of manual subgingival irrigators are: Perioflex irrigator and Pocket Care Mini-Irrigator.  Some supra-gingival irrigators also have subgingival tips available: Waterpik and Hydrofloss.)  The irrigation is done by placing the irrigator’s thin metal cannula (Latin for “hollow reed”) alongside the visible part of a tooth and gently sliding it into a gum pocket, where the gum has detached from the tooth root. The cannula doesn’t have to go all the way to the bottom; only as deep as is comfortable. Then you squirt liquid into the pocket. Low pressure is best and seems to disperse the liquid into a pocket just as well as high pressure, but without forcing bacteria into the tissues. A cannula with a side port (sideways opening near a rounded tip) is just as effective as one with an end port (opening at the end). If the pocket is quite deep, there may not be much sideways dispersion, so it’s best to repeat with the cannula in several places around the tooth.

What’s the liquid to use as a subgingival irrigant?  It needs to be a liquid that contains no solids at all, as even the most minute particles might clog up the tiny port hole in the cannula.  It’s possible to use dissolved Good-Gums, but it would have to be filtered. (e.g. I’ve snipped off the top of teabags, replaced the tea with Good-Gums, and then folded and stapled the teabag material with Good-Gums in the bag.)  Besides a “tea” of Good-Gums, you can use plain water, salt water, or hydrogen peroxide (3% in 97% water, available at grocery stores or pharmacies); historically all have been used extensively for subgignigval irrigation at home.  A pure sea salt and water solution can be soothing in a mild solution (at a ratio of about half a teaspoon per cup of water). And the hydrogen peroxide has additional antiseptic properties that are useful against plaque bacteria. You’ll want to spit out the debris and bacteria from irrigation. It’s particularly important not to swallow if hydrogen peroxide is your irrigant, because large amounts of it may cause irritation to the digestive tract. The hydrogen peroxide that’s disposed in the sink will break down harmlessly into water and oxygen.

Because subgingival irrigation necessarily means squirting liquid into a gum pocket and down toward the tooth’s root, you might feel a very uncomfortable temperature sensitivity unless you warm the liquid irrigant first. You have to make sure that the liquid is only warm, and not hot; before putting the liquid in the irrigator, it should just feel warm on the outer lip.  You don’t want to burn sensitive tissue.

DIET
The above measures will help disrupt the infecting plaque and help your body heal from it.  But it’s also important not to keep feeding the plaque bacteria, so that the numbers in their colonies stop their explosive growth.  Plaque bacteria thrive on sugars and on refined carbohydrates that the body quickly turns into sugars.  The fossil record and the scrutiny of primitive societies have shown that in the early days of humanity, before these kinds of foods were ingested, people almost never had cavities or oral infections.  Avoid or reduce the consumption of concentrated carbohydrates, not just sugar and sweets, but also crackers, breads, cereals, and pasta.

Let the condition of your teeth and gums be your guide as to how strictly and diligently you apply the above practices, and you should see rapid progress.

Nutritional guidance is available at Liberation Diet, and Good-Gums is available at the Liberation Wellness Store or at Good-Gums.

John Chisholm is co-owner of a small company that makes Good-Gums, a toothpaste-replacement that supports the body’s ability to heal its gums. When WAPF Chapter Leaders started carrying Good-Gums, John started learning and practicing Weston A. Price dietary principles, as lucidly explained by Kevin Brown’s Liberation Wellness. Already a regular exerciser and feeling pretty healthy, John didn’t anticipate how well his body would further respond to unprocessed, full-fat, pasture-raised foods.