Prior to recent visits to have a cracked filling replaced, I had not been to the dentist in almost 12 years. I had gotten the filling back in 2004, before I was as learned about dental health as I am now and before I had the confidence to ask to see x-rays and challenge a dentist's or doctor's diagnosis.
At any rate, I noticed the filling was cracked when it frayed my dental floss starting a few weeks ago. After asking for recommendations from various friends, I chose a local holistic dentist who is Weston Price-friendly and made an appointment to have them look at the filling. They did a fairly comprehensive exam as part of their new-patient on-ramping, which included many x-rays and a thorough look around my mouth. I am happy to say that aside from a very small amount of decay that had started beneath the cracked filling, they found no other dental decay in any of my teeth, and no signs of gum disease. The filling was replaced last week, and this morning I went in for a cleaning mainly so they could scrape some built up plaque off a few of my teeth.
I figure that our teeth are our canary in the coal mine, so to speak. When our health is poor for whatever reason, dental health problems are one way that poor health manifests. It feels good to know that the diet I am eating (mostly raw, about 50/50 animal/plant by calories) seems to work well for me.
Also, does anyone have any resources they can recommend about which foods to eat or avoid to reduce plaque build up?