Best Foods to Heal Cavities

Not all food leads to tooth decay. In fact, some foods can strengthen teeth and even help minimize the risk of cavities!

By Dr. Stephanie Vera, DDS

It's unfortunately all too common for my dental patients to struggle with dental anxiety, often due to past traumatic experiences related to tooth decay. Aside from trying to calm these fears in the dental office, if you are prone to getting cavities you may be surprised to learn you can potentially avoid dental treatment altogether and heal your cavities at home by focusing on your diet.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely cavities that require fillings, especially once the decay has reached the dentin – the middle layer of the tooth. . But it's important to know that you have the power to reverse smaller cavities on your own and even prevent new ones from forming.

How Do Cavities Happen?

Before we start talking about how to prevent and heal cavities, let’s learn about understand how they develop in the first place. There are three main factors that determine a person's risk of getting a cavity:

1. Saliva: Each person’s saliva has different characteristic, including minerals, volume, and pH.

2. Oral Bacteria: Our mouths are home to millions of bacteria, some harmful, some beneficial, and some neutral. The balance of these bacteria varies from person to person.

3. Diet: The types of food you eat, how often you eat, and whether you're getting enough of the right vitamins and minerals to strengthen your teeth all affect your risk of tooth decay.

Together, these three factors can increase or decrease your risk of getting cavities. You might know someone (or maybe you are that someone) who does everything right but still gets cavities, or vice versa, someone who slacks on their oral hygiene and still has perfect health! It all comes down to saliva, oral bacteria, and diet!

Believe it or not, the foods and drinks you consume daily directly impact your saliva and feed the bacteria in your mouth. When you consume the wrong things, you create the "perfect storm" for tooth decay. And here's a surprising fact - the frequency of eating or drinking has a bigger impact on our oral health than what we actually consume. Every time you eat or drink something, it lowers the pH in your mouth, which leads to the breakdown (or demineralization) of your tooth enamel. Although our saliva will naturally neutralize the pH of our mouths, but if you’re constantly creating an acidic environment, your body will not be able to neutralize the acid, making your teeth highly susceptible to cavities.

When combined with weakened tooth enamel, the free sugars in the foods and drinks we consume feed the bacteria in the mouth. If these bad bacteria are fed too frequently, they produce their own acid, leading to decay on the tooth surface they're attached to. Additionally, ff this bacteria isn’t removed from the surfaces of the teeth through proper brushing and frequent flossing, your body won’t be able to restore minerals to the teeth and the cavity will grow.

Foods the Can Heal and Prevent Cavities

The quality of your diet determines if you’re getting the necessary nutrients to support the natural remineralization of the enamel. This process requires specific vitamins and minerals, and if you're not getting them, you may be preventing your teeth from rebuilding and strengthening the enamel. Let's take a closer look at the specific nutrients your teeth need to heal cavities and where to find them in food.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is an element that plays an important role in the body. When combined with oxygen to form phosphate, it is used as one of the two key components of tooth enamel. You can find phosphorus in most foods, but some are especially good sources. Light meat chicken and turkey are among the best sources of phosphorus, as are many types of seafood – which come with the added benefit of omega-3 fatty acids to help protect against cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses. Dairy products like cheese and milk are also top sources of phosphorus in our diets; reduced or low fat milk and yogurt contain the most phosphorus, while full-fat versions contain slightly less.

Calcium

Calcium is the primary component of bone and tooth enamel, and has long been known to improve dental health. It's not only a main building block for our teeth (both during their initial formation and for remineralization), but calcium also helps you produce more saliva to wash away food debris and neutralize the acids in your mouth.

While dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt are great sources of calcium, they’re not the only foods rich in this important mineral – which is especially important for people with an allergy or intolerance to lactose. Surprisingly, seafood like salmon, crab, shrimp, and scallops are also great sources of calcium. It can also be found in plant-based sources like broccoli, kale, almonds, tofu, sweet potatoes, and figs.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is both a nutrient we eat and a hormone our bodies make, and it is essential to preventing and healing cavities by controlling the body’s ability to absorb calcium and phosphorus. Unfortunately, most people don’t get enough Vitamin D. While spending extra time in the sun can help boost our Vitamin D levels, it can also be found naturally in mushrooms, egg yolks, and oily fish like salmon and sardines.

Vitamin K2

Like vitamin D, vitamin K2 helps to regulate the absorption of minerals in the body. In fact, these two vitamins work together to ensure that teeth have the calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium needed for remineralization.

Dietary sources of vitamin K2 include animal proteins and fermented foods. Beef, pork, chicken, and egg yolks are great sources of Vitamin K2, as are fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchee, miso, and hard cheeses like Gouda and Muenster.

Magnesium

Magnesium is essential for many of the body’s biological processes, including the remineralization of teeth. It controls the balance of other nutrients in the body, including phosphorus and calcium, which is essential to the remineralization process that allows teeth to remineralize and reverse or stop the progression of cavities! Magnesium rich foods include seeds, nuts, avocados, whole grains, black beans, and dark leafy greens like spinach, collard greens, and kale.

Fluoride

Did you know that fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral and can be found in many foods? While food prepared in fluoridated water will contain fluoride, it is also naturally occurring in the ocean, so most seafood contains fluoride. Fruits and vegetables also wonderful ways to naturally add fluoride to your diet. Apples, strawberries, avocados, peaches, carrots, spinach, radishes, and potatoes are all great sources!

Poor nutrition affects nearly every aspect of your health, and that includes your dental health. By feeding your body essential vitamins and nutrients, you can also help protect and reverse tooth decay (at least in its early stages) by aiding the remineralization process of tooth enamel. So next time you're at the grocery store or preparing a meal, try to incorporate foods that are naturally rich in phosphorus, calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, magnesium, and fluoride. And don't forget to drink plenty of water, too!

But, don’t forget, that in addition to maintaining a healthy diet, it's essential to practice good oral hygiene habits. Brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing regularly, and visiting your dentist for check-ups are all crucial for a happy, healthy smile!

Dr. Stephanie Vera is a general dentist practicing in Murphy, Texas. She is a graduate of Baylor College of Dentistry and believes education and prevention are essential to a happy, healthy smile.