It has now been two years since I embarked on a journey that began with me feverishly googling for information about tooth decay in children. Finding brown and chalky-white marks on my 2-year-old daughter’s teeth was a shocking start to our toddler oral healthcare journey that left me full of guilt, fear and confusion.
But after two years of treatment, trial and error, we have gotten to a place where I feel I can mostly relax about my daughter’s teeth. I no longer fear that they will rot away to nubs because she eats some carbs (horror of horrors) or because we occasionally give her candy (unthinkable!).
If you are in the beginning stages of researching tooth decay in children, let me reassure you that there is hope that your child’s teeth can be preserved. While every situation is different and not all tooth decay is reversible, there are many people who have found natural ways to protect and heal decaying teeth. I’m going to share with you what we have done to protect my daughter’s teeth for the past couple of years.
Please note that I am not a medical or dental professional and nothing in this post is to be construed as medical or dental advice. I encourage all of my readers to seek opinions and dental care from a qualified dentist.
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Scroll down to get a 10% off discount code for the PurO3 ozonated olive oil that helped protect my daughter’s teeth from further decay!
Prevalence of Tooth Decay in Children
First of all, let’s just talk for a moment about the prevalence of tooth decay in children. After the onset of my daughter’s tooth decay, I was shocked to discover just how prevalent cavities are in young children. Because none of my nieces or nephews have had any problems with cavities and because we have always restricted or limited sugar, junk foods and prepackaged foods, I never would have guessed that cavities would become a major focus of my toddler daughter’s healthcare.
But according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 23% of children ages 2-5 have cavities. That’s a big number! Of course, having a cavity or two is only the beginning of tooth decay. Some children will get a filling or two and have no other major dental health issues.
But even getting a filling at such a young age is a big deal. Since small children will not sit still and willingly hold their mouth open for a dentist to work on their teeth, general anesthesia is often required to repair cavity-damaged teeth. Having a child put under anesthesia is scary for any parent, and it can also have risks.
Shockingly, the UK Oral Health Foundation states that tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for young children requiring anesthesia to administer oral treatment. That’s pretty eye-opening! Who knew tooth decay in children was such a major issue?
I certainly didn’t. And to be honest, I still don’t understand how that prevalence can be real. I regularly stare with wonder at the sparkly-white-toothed smiles of children who eat refined sugar on a daily basis and then look with confusion at my sugar-free daughter’s sweet, beautiful smile stained with brown spots that she has had no part in creating. I have yet to meet another child with visible tooth decay.
I’m not going to lie … I sometimes worry what people will think once they notice her less-than-pearly-whites. I’m not worried so much about what they will think of me. I’m worried about how they might perceive my daughter. I don’t want her judged by something so superficial. It can be hard for us humans not to form instant impressions of people – even children – based on those superficial things we notice about their appearance.
But the fact of the matter is, regardless of what people see in my daughter’s smile and regardless of what I see – or don’t see – in other kids’ smiles, I know there are other mamas out there seeking the answers they need to fight tooth decay in children. So let me share with you the answers I have found that have worked (and number 3 is extremely effective and affordable!).
3 Simple, Natural Solutions that Reverse Tooth Decay in Children
Yes, tooth decay in children really can be potentially reversed! And not by putting your kid under general anesthesia to patch the problem. There are natural ways to effectively change the state of your child’s teeth.
Edit: Please note that some children do need dental intervention such as crowns and fillings to repair their teeth. However, some children’s cavities can be entirely healed naturally if they have not penetrated too deep before treatment is started. Since writing this post, my daughter has had work done on some of the teeth which were too damaged to naturally repair before we even found the decay, but some of her teeth have been healed of decay by completely natural means. Read my latest tooth decay update here for more info on what your options are when the dentist mentions the need for dental crowns and fillings.
In this post, I will be focusing on where we are at right now with my daughter. There were many different solutions I was pursuing to heal my daughter’s teeth in the beginning, but some of them did not seem to make a difference or were unsustainable. However, some of those solutions may still be good options for healing your child’s tooth decay, so if you would like to read the full “recipe” of our initial treatment plan with my daughter, read this post that I wrote at the very beginning of our journey and this post I wrote a couple of months later as an update.
Now, let’s talk about what we are doing currently to protect my daughter’s teeth from decay.
1. Brushing with Remineralizing Toothpaste
Obviously, it’s always a good idea to brush twice a day. When you are dealing with a young child with tooth decay, brushing regularly is even more important. But you also want to make sure you are using a SAFE and EFFECTIVE toothpaste for your child. I have one that I happen to love.
I’ve mentioned this particular natural, remineralizing toothpaste in my other posts on tooth decay in children, but I’m bringing it up again because 1) we still use it and 2) I still absolutely love and believe in it. The brand is Happy Tooth Powder and it’s creator is Tom Carbone – a wonderful man who gave me a call to offer some tips on healing my daughter’s teeth when I shared my daughter’s story with him via email after using his toothpaste for a while.
Happy toothpaste is made from natural ingredients, and you can read the full, descriptive list of them under the “Ingredients” tab on the Happy Tooth Powder website. Now, I am not an affiliate of Happy Tooth Powder and I receive no commission (although I sure do appreciate the discounts I get on my own toothpaste purchases when customers enter Marissa Khosh as their referral source 🙂 ). I just genuinely love this toothpaste!
Edit 4/10/2024: I do now receive free product as a result of referring so many readers to purchase Happy toothpaste. However, I continue to recommend this toothpaste not because of the free or discounted products I receive, but because my daughter’s teeth have visibly improved over the course of the past four years of using this toothpaste. Read about the best dental report she’s ever received at her recent dental exam here.
This toothpaste does not have fluoride or other harmful chemicals or substances, and it contains several remineralizing ingredients to protect and restore teeth naturally. And believe it or not, I actually use this toothpaste for myself sometimes because it decreases my tooth sensitivity better than Pronamel, and it leaves my teeth feeling cleaner than traditional toothpaste. I cannot recommend it enough for treating tooth decay in children.
2. Limiting Carbs & Sugars to 3 Times per Day
If you read my previous posts dealing with tooth decay in children, you know that I initially went radical with my daughter’s eating habits, basically adopting a candida-eliminating, extremely low carb diet. Carbs were the enemy. The fact is, even healthy carbs (rice, beans, carrots, etc.) and natural sugars (fruit, honey, milk) feed bacteria when you already have an overgrowth.
Strange as it was to hear, the biodentist I was taking my daughter to for the first year of treatment told me not to let her snack on carbs or sugars of any kind. Only proteins and fats. I also read this advice over and over online on standard dental websites. At first I eliminated virtually all carbs – even during meals – in an attempt to kill her overgrowth of candida.
The goal was to make this low-carb diet a new way of life. But after a year and a half of struggling and failing, struggling and failing, I finally realized it was simply not realistic to prevent carbs from entering my daughter’s mouth. So I ended up deciding to simplify all of our lives and limit carbs and sugars to mealtimes. The 2-3-exposures-per-day rule is what they called this at the biodentist I used to take my daughter to.
The biodentist taught me that how frequently the teeth and body are exposed to sugar and carbs is more important than what amount they are exposed to. Basically, bacteria are just like toddlers: They thrive when they are constantly snacking. Going for long periods without a sugary morsel is more likely to kill off or limit bacteria growth than letting your child have small amounts of carbs or sugar (even natural ones) every hour.
I can tell a difference in my daughter’s teeth when I am firmly sticking to my rule of no carbs or sugars for snacks. They stay in better shape when I’m on top of it. When I get lazy about this rule, on the other hand, I can literally see the results on her teeth.
So please, if you can’t adopt any form of a strict diet, at least save all carbs and sugars for mealtimes. I know that’s easier said than done, but take advantage of my free list of low-carb, low-sugar EASY snack ideas for young children to help you get started (with an included list of foods to save only for mealtimes).
I also highly recommend The Sweeter Side of Candida recipe book. I use it frequently to make delicious, sweet desserts and snacks for my daughter that are low carb and sugar-free. I know it sounds impossible, but trust me, there are some amazingly tasty recipes in there!
Personally, I am a big fan of using xylitol to sweeten dessert-foods for my daughter because it can be used the same as table sugar. It is granulated (although not as fine as table sugar) and tastes almost the same as sugar, yet it contains zero carbs and only sugar alcohol – which is not absorbed by the body. In other words, I can give my daughter sweet snacks without actually giving her sugar. Oh, and – bonus! – xylitol kills candida.
3. Using Ozone Oil Once per Week
Okay, this is a new one and it is what has made the biggest visible difference in my daughter’s teeth. Brushing with ozonated olive oil once per week has dramatically improved the chalky-white spots and overall appearance of my daughter’s teeth. It also cures her of the sensitivity her cavities produce when we go too long without an ozone treatment.
I first discovered the use of ozone in the treatment of tooth decay when I started taking my daughter to the biodentist where they applied a gas solution of ozone to her teeth every 2-3 months. However, when we moved to a new state last year, none of the biodentists in our area would treat children. It had been many months since my daughter had had an ozone treatment and her teeth were starting to hurt her every day again.
It scared me to hear her complaining of tooth pain every day, because it reminded me of how we started this journey. I was afraid all our efforts to preserve her teeth were going down the drain if I could not find another dentist to do ozone treatments. In a desperate attempt to find some kind of treatment, I took her to a regular pediatric dentist to see what our options were.
Of course, the dentist emotionlessly recommended we put our 3 1/2 year old daughter under general anesthesia to have fillings and crowns put in. But when I pushed for less invasive treatment, the dentist admitted that her teeth would be fine as-is as long as we prevented the cavities from growing bigger. Naturally, she had a very unnatural solution for this as well, which I declined.
What I did do is go home and call my daughter’s old biodentist to speak to our trusted hygienist to see if she could recommend some way to do ozone treatments at home. The hygienist recommended purchasing this blue jar of ozonated olive oil to put on her teeth. I ordered some from Amazon immediately and we have been using it for about 6 months now. My daughter’s teeth are completely stable, she rarely complains of any pain, and their appearance is greatly improved.
I simply put a pea-sized amount of the oil on my daughter’s toothbrush (it is best to keep it refrigerated and it is consequently solid) and then put her toothpaste on top. I brush her teeth for her when we brush with ozone and let her watch tv until I’m done.
The smell and taste of the ozone take some getting used to. For my daughter, a mixture of bribery and tough love used to be necessary for every ozone brushing session. However, now she is so used to it that she does not even mind it as long as she gets to watch her show while we brush.
Edit 3/19/2024: My readers and Facebook support group members have told me the Tooth and Gum Support ozonated oil is much easier on the taste buds for little ones due to the addition of cherry or mint flavor and stevia.
As I said, I generally brush with ozone roughly once per week. I also brush with ozone any day when she has had refined sugar. This frequency seems to be the right balance for keeping her teeth optimal, although I do not have a professional recommendation on how often to use it. Even though she only got ozone treatments once every 2-3 months at the biodentist, I can definitely see more improvement on her teeth with using ozone more frequently.
I also think that this version of ozone is a safer way to use it. With the gas that was used at the biodentist, my daughter was required to blow out her breath into a gentle vacuum during and after the treatment so as not to breathe in the gas because it is not good for the lungs. But when brushing with the oil, there is no risk of breathing it in.
It is also FAR cheaper to purchase ozonated olive oil than it is to go to a biodentist. As much as I loved our biodentist, it was expensive (insurance does not cover anything holistic). And because we had to drive over 3 hours to get to the closest biodentist, travel expenses made it even more pricey. By contrast, buying ozonated olive oil is an extremely affordable way to treat tooth decay in children!
Tooth Decay in Children Can be Stopped
If you need some proof that tooth decay in children can actually be completely stopped in its tracks, just look at the comparison pictures below of my daughter’s teeth when she was 2 (on top) and now at 4 (on the bottom). You can clearly see the significant reduction in chalky-white decay on the top half of her teeth, as well as the brown staining up near her gums.
And I’m going to be completely real with you. I know that I have not found all the answers yet. Not even close. I know that we have not found a way to really treat the root-cause of my daughter’s tooth decay: Candida. I’ve tried several times to treat it and have not made as much progress with that as I would like.
However, where we are at right now with her tooth decay is astounding to me. We may not have found the cure to her bacteria overgrowth, but we have found a way to protect her otherwise rotting teeth until we can ultimately heal the bacteria issue. And that is immensely reassuring to me! It gives me hope that her teeth will survive and hope that there are more answers out there that we will find some day.
So it is my sincere desire that this post – that my success in treating tooth decay in my child – will inform you and give you what you need to treat the tooth decay in your child naturally, safely and successfully.
If you have experience with tooth decay in children, please share your experience in the comments!
Read about my daughter’s best report ever from the dentist in my most recent tooth decay update here!
Need more support as you figure out this childhood tooth decay thing? Join my Facebook support group for parents of young children with tooth decay!
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