Why do I still get cavities?

Patients who are diligent with their homecare get easily frustrated when they are told they have dental decay.  Through their frustration they ask what does it take to be cavity free?  Is proper brushing and flossing the solution, or will limiting sticky sugary snacks stop this problem?  Some patients just feel doomed to constant dental work due to hereditary factors and the soft teeth that were handed to them from their parents.  All of these concepts are based upon a long held belief that tooth decay is a result of the fermentation process of plaque bacteria that eats away on a tooth. 

This belief may be valid however; there is another paradigm that has been around for many years that unfortunately does not get equal consideration.  This contrary concept was  developed by, Dr Ralph Steinman, a well respected dentist and researcher who has looked over 40 years at the interactivity between the oral cavity and the metabolism of the body.  Teeth are not solid, but consist of a series of dentin tubules and parallel enamel roads.  Dr. Steinman proved that substances moved from within the body through the tooth and into the mouth.. He did this by injecting a radioactive dye into the gut of rats and found that it took only 6 minutes for his dye to make its way into the tooth.  He proposed that this movement of the dye is associated with normal flushing that occurs constantly in a tooth to provide essential nutrients, and prevent bacteria from causing damage to the tooth.  This movement within the tooth is called dentinal fluid transport.

Dr Steinman also worked with an endocrinologist John Leonora to search for a hormonal source for regulating the dentinal fluid transport.  They found the mechanism was regulated by the  hypothalamus, a structure within the brain responsible for a large number of normal functions throughout the body, including regulating sleep, temperature, eating, and sexual development. The hypothalamus also regulates the functions of the pituitary gland by directing the pituitary to stop or start production of its hormones. 

Their collaborative studies led to the discovery of a new endocrine system: the hypothalamic-parotid gland endocrine axis. The parotid gland is a major salivary gland located on either side of the cheeks within our mouth, and is the only salivary gland that communicates to the hypothalamus.  This communication occurs with the parotid releasing factor and these researchers were able to  isolate this hormone in a pure form, and showed that it stimulates dentinal fluid flow. They demonstrated that a high sugar diet suppresses the function of this endocrine axis and consequently dentinal fluid flow. They went on to demonstrate in rats that they could physiologically prevent the suppressive effect of the high sugar diet on dentinal fluid flow and prevent dental decay 80 to 100 percent of the time.

Extrapolating the work of  Dr Steinmans and Dr Leonora the body essentially tells our teeth to decay.  The body makes this decision based on its analysis of our blood chemistry which is performed in the pituitary gland. When this occurs then vital nutrients as well as substances within our mouth or on our teeth start getting pulled inward through the three miles of microscopic dentin tubes in each tooth.  Thus a clean tooth may decay less, or hurt less while it is decaying, but it still will decay.

The bodies message controlling whether your teeth decay are influenced by the health of the person, and primarily what the person is eating and not eating. Drugs, vaccines, smoking, drinking and other stimulating activities can influence or even cause cavities.