tooth sensitivity

[djkvan]

I'm experiencing increased sensitivity in my teeth. I am careful to use a straw with my OJ, and I floss and sonicare gently in the morning with water. My teeth aren't the greatest. I have numerous fillings, mostly due to grinding and a period of neglect in my twenties, and the sensitivity isn't a new issue as I have some gum recession and enamel erosion.

I decided to forgo brushing for a couple of days and noticed my sensitivity (as tested by sucking air past my teeth) was greatly diminished. I'm going to guess that this was due to the plaque coating that my teeth were sporting. I thought about letting my teeth go 'aux natural', but I wimped out and brushed today and the sensitivity is right back to where it was.

Is initial sensitivity increase normal? Will it diminish over time, or is this an individual experience? Is there anyone who stopped brushing entirely and has any input?

I read in Wai talk somewhere that the teeth need to become accustomed to the elevated acid levels. Is this true or should I try to cultivate some nice tartar deposits and cross my fingers. Oscar? RRM?

[panacea]

wow i typed a long message and lost it!

basically -
1. don't brush except when absolutely neccesarry, don't make it a ritual, make flossing a ritual.
2. brush the hard to get places, the gumline area (softly of course), without toothpaste and dont spend time on the cosmetic front surfaces or obvious spots more than lightly.. it's just taking your protective layer off.
3. try not to use foods/juices/fruits after brushing, if you must though, try and eat something to give them a plaque layer before drinking juice.. unless it's been long enough and the juice won't aggrevate them by now. alternatively, buy a bitevalve addon for bottles, to really get deep in your mouth to bypass the teeth completely for the juice.

p.s. did you ra chand juicer come in yet? if you'd give a review it would help me a lot! i'm still on the fence for ra chand versus orange x olympus

[djkvan]

Thanks, panacea. No, I haven't received the juicer yet. I'll keep you posted.

If I'm sitting around, or drinking juice they don't become aggravated. They seem to be sensitive to solid and dry fruits now though, insofar as they rub against sensitive surfaces. Also direct contact from granulated sugar makes me wince.

[panacea]

I've never liked dry fruits because they stick to your teeth worse than candy. It's really impossible for me to get that stuff off. Nothing nutritionally wrong with it though. What kind of solid fruits? are you sure they are ripe? for instance, unripe pineapple or oranges could really hurt your teeth.. pineapples are hard to get right, if it burns your tongue it's doing the same thing to your teeth - even before you percieve it - until it's too late. What I do is eat a banana or two before those kind of fruits, so even if they are a little unripe, there's banana mush all over my teeth for it to react with instead.

[djkvan]

Yeah, I eat bananas mostly too if I'm not having OJ. Really other than avocados it's the only other fruit I eat unless I get a specific craving for another fruit. I can always eat bananas. As a dried fruit I'll eat dates. I've been jumping around the Wai Talk forum and checking out different topics, so I am aware of the pineapple issue.

Actually, one time I was eating a brilliant, sweet pineapple and got about two thirds of the way through it (I was doing the frugivore lifestyle complete with insulin spikes) and it suddenly became burny and inedible. Some weird instincto phenomenon. Cool!

[djkvan]

My enamel is f**ked on about eight teeth in about ten places at the gumline (almost all molars) and has been for a while. It may be getting worse, but they don't throb or hurt unless I touch them with my fingernail to test the sensitivity (OUCH)!). There's not much I can do about it, I guess. If I go to the dentist he will just fill them and I don't want to keep wasting money on having construction on my teeth. As long as I'm not splashing OJ directly on them they don't bug me, but it's not a great situation overall. I wait until the morning to floss and gently brush with water. That's all I can do at this point, I guess. On the bright side my healthy teeth seem to be okay, it's the weakened ones that are taking a beating.

[Oscar]

That's unfortunate
You could think about locally applying fluoride to strengthen the weak places. Not sure if this helps though.

[djkvan]

Thanks, Oscar. I appreciate the concern.

I don't think I'll go the fluoride route just yet, though. As you said there isn't enough evidence that it's helpful. Given that it can have negative effects on people whose health is compromised (as per wiki), I think it isn't likely to have curative properties. The funny thing is that if you were to see me smile you would likely assume that I have perfect teeth. With regards to the enamel/sensitivity issues you can only tell that anything is wrong based on some staining and some gum recession in the problem areas, but my gums appear to be healthy and haven't receeded since I started Wai, as far as I can see. If anything in spite of the enamel/sensitivity my teeth look cleaner/healthier than ever! Weird.

I am tempted to just let nature take its course and hope that some sort of homeostasis has been reached and that there is some potential for recovery in the future. I know there is significantly less contact of juice with teeth than when I first started juicing. Also it seems as though there is less film (plaque?) accumulation throughout the day than when i first started juicing. Perhaps I am in denial, but I am thinking that the health benefits of Wai must surely extend to the teeth at some point?

[Oscar]

Of course. We don't have any (empirical) information about if/how fast/how much the condition of the teeth improves though.

[djkvan]

Well I'll have to wait and see, I guess. I have found that there has been some improvement in the sensitivity of the bottom right, back molar. The cool thing is that according to this site (http://www.healthcarealternatives.net/toothbody.html) the pdf chart indicated that that specific tooth has to do with the ileocecal region of the colon and the large intestine, which is where I was experiencing some tenderness that seems to have improved as well. In the last couple of nights I found some throbbing happening in the lower right jaw late at night which would then stop, so something is going on.