Tag Archives: caries

Was It the Paleo Diet or Acorns or ? That Rotted These Teeth?

Posted on January 7, 2014 | 2 comments

“Basically, nearly everybody in the population had caries,” or tooth decay, says Louise Humphrey, a paleo-anthropologist with the Natural History Museum in London.

Humphrey says 94 percent of the more than 50 people from the cave she studied had serious tooth decay. “I was quite surprised by that,” says Humphrey. “I haven’t seen that extent of caries in other ancient populations.”

Certainly, life was brutal and short for Stone Age folks, what with saber tooth cats, parasites, and not an aspirin to be found anywhere. But at least the paleo diet — meat, tubers, berries, maybe some primitive vegetables and very few carbs— was supposed to be good for the teeth. Carbohydrates can turn sugary in your mouth, then bacteria turn that into enamel-eating acid.

But apparently, these ancient people had a thing for acorns.

“Acorns,” says Humphrey, “are high in carbohydrates. They also have quite a sticky texture. So they would have adhered easily to the teeth.”

Read the whole thing.

Click to see the study abstract.

h/t Melissa McEwen

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Paleo Diet May Be Better for Our Teeth

Posted on September 12, 2013 | 2 comments

NIce teeth!

I just ran across this NPR story from February, 2013. Audrey Carlsen wrote it. An excerpt:

“Hunter-gatherers had really good teeth,” says Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. “[But] as soon as you get to farming populations, you see this massive change. Huge amounts of gum disease. And cavities start cropping up.”

And thousands of years later, we’re still waging, and often losing, our war against oral disease.

Our changing diets are largely to blame.

In a study published in the latest Nature Genetics, Cooper and his research team looked at calcified plaque on ancient teeth from 34 prehistoric human skeletons. What they found was that as our diets changed over time — shifting from meat, vegetables and nuts to carbohydrates and sugar — so too did the composition of bacteria in our mouths.

Not all oral bacteria are bad. In fact, many of these microbes help us by protecting against more dangerous pathogens.

That makes me wonder if antibacterial mouthwashes are a good thing for otherwise healthy people. Do they kill good bacteria, too?

Read the whole enchilada.

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Applying Paleo Diet Principles to Dentistry: Dr. John Sorrentino

Posted on March 6, 2013 | 2 comments
tooth structure, paleo diet, caries, enamel

Cross-section of a tooth

When I think about a Paleolithic approach to dental disease, the first expert that comes to mind is dentist John Sorrentino, D.D.S.  The only other living “authority” that pops up is Stephan Guyenet, Ph.D., and he’s not even a dentist.  Stephan focused his literature review more on malocclusions than teeth per se, as I recall.  Dr. Sorrentino cites dentist Weston A. Price as a ground-breaker, documenting the deterioration of dental health as traditional cultures moved to modern diets loaded with refined and concentrated sugars and starches.

Fortunately for us, Dr. Sorrentino has blogged about the intersection of dentistry, evolution, and the paleo diet.  Malocclusion and caries (cavities) weren’t  problems for our Paleolithic ancestors, although “…they wore thru their enamel by the time they were middle aged.”  Then what happened?

Regarding caries, Dr. Sorrentino wrote:

Caries was just about non-existent because simple sugars and the refined carbohydrates that cause them were just not present in any Paleolithic diet.  Since the Paleolithic covered such a vast period of time and many, many different populations it is important to remember that there is no one “Paleolithic Diet,” but rather a continuum or “envelope” of certain related types of foodstuffs that were consumed. These included but were not limited to fish, shellfish, leafy green plants, root vegetables, and fruit in season.  It was interesting to note that there is decay in some lowland gorillas.  It is present mostly as interproximal decay on the upper anterior teeth.  It was speculated that sucking on fruit or raiding human garbage dumps, common in the area, caused this.  In either case it shows that our closest living relatives are not very well adapted to eat sugar either.

Read the rest.

paleo diet, teeth, smile

Are these healthy teeth a result of proper diet, dental self-care, dentistry, Photoshop, or a combination?

I was perusing his website looking for reliable information on flossing and Water Pik-like devices and their proper roles in periodontal disease and caries prevention.  I didn’t find much other than recommendations to eat a paleo diet, naturally low in concentrated sugars and refined starches, especially grains.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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The Carbohydrate and Chronic Disease Connection

Posted on July 20, 2012 | 2 comments

Simple dinner roll, or a future HEART ATTACK?

Adherents of the paleo diet and low-carb diets will love this post; it supports their choices.

Dentists are considering a return to an old theory that dietary carbohydrates first cause dental diseases, then certain systemic chronic diseases, according to a review in the June 1, 2009, Journal of Dental Research.  It’s written by Dr. Philippe P. Hujoel, who has been active in dental research for decades and is affiliated with the University of Washington (Seattle). He is no bomb-throwing, crazed, radical.

We’ve known for years that some dental and systemic diseases are associated with each other, both for individuals and populations. For example, gingivitis and periodontal disease are associated with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The exact nature of that association is not clear. In the 1990s it seemed that infections – chlamydia, for example – might be the unifying link, but this has not been supported by subsequent research.

The “old theory” to which I referred earlier is the Cleave-Yudkin idea from the 1960s and ’70s that excessive intake of digestible carbohydrates, in the absence of good dental care, leads both to certain dental diseases – caries (cavities), periodontal disease, certain oral cancers, and leukoplakia – and to some common systemic chronic non-communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and dementia. In other words, dietary carbohydrates cause both dental and systemic diseases – not all cases of those diseases, of course, but some.

In the context of excessive carbohydrate intake, the article frequently mentions sugar, refined carbs, and high-glycemic-index carbs. Dental effects of excessive carb intake can appear within weeks or months, whereas the sysemtic effects may take decades.

Hujoel compares and contrasts Ancel Keys’ Diet-Heart/Lipid Hypothesis with the Cleave-Yudkin Carbohydrate Theory. In Dr. Hujoel’s view, the latest research data favor the Carbohydrate Theory as an explanation of many cases of the aforementioned dental and systemic chronic diseases. If correct, the theory has important implications for prevention of dental and systemic diseases: namely, dietary carbohydrate restriction.

I agree with Dr. Hujoel that we need a long-term prospective trial of serious low-carb eating versus the standard American high-carb diet. Take 20,000 people, randomize them to one of the two diets, follow their dental and systemic health over 15-30 years, then compare the two groups. Problem is, I’m not sure it can be done. It’s hard enough for most people to follow a low-carb diet for four months. And I’m asking for 30 years?!

Dr. Hujoel writes:

Possibly, when it comes to fermentable carbohydrates, teeth would then become to the medical and dental professionals what they have always been for paleoanthropologists: “extremely informative about age, sex, diet, health.”

Dr. Hujoel mentioned a review of six studies that showed a 30% reduction in gingivitis score by following a diet moderately reduced in carbs. He mentions the aphorism: “no carbohydrates, no caries.” Anyone prone to dental caries or ongoing periodontal disease should do further research to see if switching to low-carb eating might improve the situation.

Don’t be surprised if your dentist isn’t very familiar with the concept.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Reference: Hujoel, P. Dietary carbohydrates and dental-systemic diseases. Journal of Dental Research, 88 (2009): 490-502.

Mendosa, David. Our dental alarm bell. MyDiabetesCentral.com, July 12, 2009.

Jimmy Moore’s 2012 interview with Dr. Hujoel.

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Posted in Grains, Heart Disease, Low-Carb, Teeth

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