If you ask most people whether or not you can heal a cavity, the answer you would get 99.9% of the time is that it is impossible.
Even conventional dentists would agree with this assessment. Ask a typical dentist at a routine cleaning whether you can heal a cavity on your own and he/she is likely to look at you like you’re crazy (I know this from experience).
In stark contrast to this current conventional “wisdom”, Dr. Weston A. Price DDS wrote of numerous situations in his dental practice back in the 1920s and 1930s where cavities healed with no need for drilling and filling. Dr. Price discovered through research that cavities are caused by nutritional deficiency and when this nutritional deficiency is corrected, the cavity heals.
Biological dentists also understand and teach their patients that teeth can remineralize naturally when the diet and microbial conditions in the mouth are conducive to the healing process.
If you think about this in an open-minded manner leaving all preconceived ideas about cavities behind, doesn’t this make sense? Shouldn’t the body be able to heal a cavity just like it heals a broken bone or a cut on your arm? Why would teeth be any different from a broken wrist after all?
Having read Dr. Price’s epic work Nutrition and Physical Degeneration some years ago, I’ve been of the school of thought that cavities can indeed be healed with proper nutrition for some time. But believing something intellectually and knowing it works from experience are two very different things, are they not?
For this reason, I am very excited to relay to you a recent story regarding one of my children. You see, my oldest child (12 years old at the time) developed a cavity in his top right lateral incisor. It was behind the tooth right on the gumline. My husband noticed it one night as he was checking his teeth to see if he was doing a good job brushing and flossing (he’s way too old for nightly brushing by Mom or Dad).
There was a definite hole in the tooth and not a small one either. My husband called me over to take a look and I was alarmed to see the hole and I used a rubber-tipped tooth probe that we have on hand to check how deep it was. The tip of the probe went way into the hole. There was no doubt that this was a cavity, and we both agreed that we needed to get it filled pronto.
Our reasoning was that the incisors are very prominent teeth and taking a chance that the nutritional approach would not work quickly enough to save the tooth was a big concern for us especially given that our soon to be teenager’s diet could likely not be controlled closely enough to ensure rapid success.
I called the dentist right away and made an appointment. In the meantime, I began insisting that my son take 3 butter oil capsules every morning along with his normal, daily teaspoon of fermented cod liver oil. I’ve always been pretty strict about the daily cod liver oil dose before school, but a bit slack about the butter oil along with it to be perfectly honest.
Not anymore. With this big hole in the back of his incisor, I knew that he needed to take both together. Dr. Price discovered that cavities healed faster when these two therapeutic and nourishing oils were taken together.
The dental appointment was a few weeks out, so I continued with the butter oil capsules every single day. I also told my son that he really needed to go back to his breakfast of two slices of toast each morning with raw butter and honey. This instead of tahini and honey which is what he had been having in recent months.
He was fine with that as he loves raw butter and had just gotten out of the routine of having it every morning. Did this simple change of breakfast have an impact on the development of his cavity?
Probably.
I didn’t change anything else. He didn’t go off grains and he still ate the occasional sugar junk that he gets at school (ugh). It was Easter time too so this type of stuff was rampant. He is almost a teenager, after all. Try to take all grains and sugars out of their diet and you are going to get a rebellion. Kids need to learn some things on their own.
I’ve found you can’t protect your kids from this stuff and raise them in a bubble. You can only teach them to be wise and they will learn moderation on their own over time.
On a side note, I was pleased to see that at a party following his class’s Poetry Day that he bypassed the big bottles of soda and Hershey bars. Amazingly, this junk was being handed out by the parents afterward (no, I’m not kidding).
I was very very proud of him. He knew that eating that stuff would give him a couple of zits for sure and make him feel lousy all afternoon and probably the next day too. We Moms have to celebrate little victories along the way, don’t we?!
Anyway, back to the cavity story.
As it turned out, the day before his dental appointment, the receptionist calls to say that the appointment needed to be rescheduled as the dentist had to unexpectedly go out of town for family reasons. This pushed out the appointment for another couple of weeks, but all the while, we continued with the 3 capsules of butter oil with a teaspoon of fermented cod liver oil after a breakfast of 2 slices of raw butter and honey toast.
Last weekend, I decided to take a peek at the cavity to see if it was getting any worse. It had been about a month since my husband discovered it and I was a bit concerned given that it was one of his top front teeth. I took a flashlight and he tipped his head back and I looked, and looked, and LOOKED!
NO CAVITY!
That’s right. There was no hole at all. It had completely filled in and was as smooth as the tooth next to it. I told my husband and he took a look too. He was delighted to see that the hole was gone.
I took the probe and pressed around just to be sure and confirmed what my eyes were telling me – the cavity had indeed healed over.
I will still be taking him to the dentist to have a check-up but there is no doubt that there is nothing wrong with that tooth any longer.
The best news of all is that I changed very little to get this tooth to heal. He didn’t use coconut oil pulling or any special remedy. He simply continued on his normal, nourishing traditional diet at home with the lapses that typically occur at school and playdate events. We added the butter oil with his daily dose of cod liver oil, and he substituted raw butter for tahini on his toast every morning. The butter oil added critical Vitamin K2 to his diet which supercharges the absorption of the Vitamins A/D in cod liver oil.
That’s it!
I hope you find this story encouraging! Dr. Price’s research really does work in practice!
Dentist’s Conclusion After Examining My Son’s Cavity
This brief update has been added since the original posting date of this blog. I did indeed take my son to the dentist to have a full examination and there was no cavity to be found anywhere in my son’s mouth. A hole was there, the hole is gone. Nutrition can indeed heal cavities!
Diet not only heals early cavities, but it can also heal severe ones where a root canal is recommended. This article on avoiding root canals details that scenario.
Please note that a cavity in a tooth that has already been drilled and filled in the past cannot be healed. Please see a dentist right away to have that cavity filled with non-toxic materials (not mercury amalgams).
Also, a tooth that is cracked or has had part of it broken off cannot be healed with diet. Again, consult with a dentist to have that situation properly handled.
Best Cod Liver Oil and Butter Oil to Heal a Cavity
Please click here for where to buy cod liver oil and butter oil. Note that any old store brand of cod liver oil is not going to work for healing cavities. These brands contain synthetic Vitamin A and D and are heavily processed. Only use these vetted and tested brands to ensure quality results.
Click here to watch my video blog on how to make ghee if you are not able to order butter oil where you live.
Also, this article which provides photographic proof cavities heal can help you see the visual results.
Child Needs to Be on Traditional Diet
Please note that if your child is not on a healthy diet already, the addition of cod liver oil and butter oil (for Vitamin K2) alone will not be sufficient to heal a cavity. A diet consisting primarily of convenience foods that resulted in a cavity problem cannot be rectified with a couple of superfood supplements. It will definitely help and may prevent future cavities, but won’t fix existing ones.
For more information on the diet necessary to heal cavities including high vitamin cod liver oil and butter oil, read the book Cure Tooth Decay.
A Second Cavity Healed!
In May 2017, the same child mentioned in the story above healed yet another cavity. This time he did it all by himself (he is 18 years old now). He noticed a small hole in one of his front teeth. Like the last time, the early cavity was right along the gumline. It was also on the front of the tooth and easy to see in the mirror. I am kicking myself now that we didn’t take before and after pictures!
He asked me what to do about it, and I referred him to what we did 6 years earlier to heal a hole in one of his lateral incisors. He hadn’t been taking much cod liver oil for awhile. So he immediately went back on 1 tsp raw, extra virgin cod liver oil per day (which we are now using instead of fermented liver oil). To supercharge the absorption of the Vitamin A/D in cod liver oil, he also doubled his Vitamin K2 intake (180 mcg/day). Finally, he cut out the few sweets he was eating. Within 2 weeks, the hole was gone!
Please note that instead of butter oil to add K2 to the diet, this time he used a potent natto extract supplement. Both butter oil and natto extract contain the critical Vitamin K2 necessary to heal cavities. It is best used synergistically with cod liver oil for optimal and fast results. Butter oil contains MK-4 and natto extract contains MK-7. This article contains more discussion on MK-4 vs MK-7 forms of Vitamin K2.
Diet is Always First to Heal a Cavity Followed by Cod Liver Oil/K2
My son felt very empowered by the experience. Please note that other than lagging on his cod liver oil/K2 supplement regimen, he was eating an excellent Traditional Diet. Certainly no fast food (ever), candy or soda. Junk to him is a piece of pizza at a party and sweets are a couple of organic cookies after a quality whole foods dinner.
As a Mother, there is nothing better than knowing your children have learned from your efforts raising them and are able to successfully put traditional health into practice for themselves as young adults.
Where to Find a Biological Dentist
I get many requests about who I recommend as a truly holistic dentist. If you are looking for one, I recommend Dr. Carlo Litano of Natural-Smiles.com – (727) 300-0044. Be sure to tell Dr. Litano that the Healthy Home Economist sent you and get 10% off your first visit!
He sees children and does phone consults too!
More Information
Child’s Severe Tooth Decay Healed with Diet
Whiten Your Teeth Without Dangerous Chemicals (that will eventually destroy the enamel)
Healing Periodontal Problems with Bone Broth
Natural Alternative to Baby Teething Gels
Coconut Oil Stops Oral Strep Bacteria from Damaging Tooth Enamel
Cause of Crooked Teeth
10 Signs Your Dentist is Truly Holistic
Could the Cause of Your Illness Be Right Under Your Nose?
Wisdom Tooth Extractions
Also, do you really think that Westin Price knew more about medicine and biology in the late 1800s and early 1900s than millions of MDs, DDSs, and PhDs do today? Electronmicroscope anyone? You all crack me up! You are the same gulible people that could be convinced to drink coolaid before a spaceship lands to take you all to another planet!
No skeptics allowed right? Sounds like if you shun out correct and proven ideas and facts, the more this silly nonsense makes sense! If what you say is that there is a cure for caries, then please, by all means, SHOW the clinical data, and pass it along to the rest of the universities and world!!!!! 100% of clinical data from universities proves you are wrong. And believe me, they are trying and spending billions of dollars each year around the world to achieve the exact results you claim.
BTW, MOST dental schools do offer comprehensive nutrition courses and have for at least the past 12 years.
Just because the human body can heal a broken bone, doesn’t mean that it can grow new tooth structure and fill in large carious lesions. That is a bogus claim. It is like saying the human body can grow a finger after it has been cut off. There are many biological reasons, which none of you, clearly, have a grasp on. The bottom line is this, the blood supply of a tooth is only in the pulp chamber. There are NO mechanisms for regrowing enamel (the outtermost hard tooth substance) as the cells that create the enamel die before the tooth erupts. If the tooth is cavitated, there is nothing to be done.
If a small cavity is seen on a radiograph, the lesion can be REmineralized through flouride and other minerals, but you people probably don’t believe in the use of those either.
Go spend 10,000 hours studying tooth biology, development and anatomy, then spend another 5000 hours in a research lab proving your claims and then come back and shock the world. You all look silly and have no idea how ignorant your claims are.
Until then, good luck healing your large cavitated carious lesions with ‘all natural foods’ (imagine how much more money they make on this stuff off of you). There will always be someone here to pull your rotten teeth after your intelligence has finally outlasted your pride and you decide to pick up the phone and call your local dentist.
THANK YOU. I am in dental school, and this was one of the worst articles I have ever read – even worse than the run-of-the-mill, “fluoride is a conspiracy to poison our children” ones. I am so glad at least one person here has even a basic grasp of science.
Hi Sarah-
This is fascinating! I was so happy to see this post! I have 4 daughters aged 8,6,4 and 2. Up to this point we haven’t had any cavities. Last night my 6 yr old complained that her tooth hurt. I am afraid that it is a cavity. We are fairly new to the Weston Price diet but have slowly incorporated the diet over the last year or so. We have always eaten an organic/healthy diet but hardly any meat or raw milk. We take a Vit D3 supplement (Solar Gems) 4000 IU total. Cod Liver Oil (500 mg) the rest of Vit D is from cholecalciferol. We eat grass-fed beef, raw milk, bone broth daily..but we are new to the butter oil/fermented cod liver oil. Where do I start to help heal her cavity? What would be a sufficient dose for her? Thank you so much ;).
Kelly
Sarah, Thanks for writing this. My 5 yr old has 2 black areas on both sides of her upper teeth, mirroring each other (and 3 holes, 1 of them rather large between 2 teeth). The blackness has increased… so we started FCLO and ghee (Indian grassfed). Now I read that we need centrifuged butter oil, so we ordered that, hope it will help more. Cutting sugar, using xylitol toothpaste… should I really cut wheat out? Not sure what my little picky eater will eat without grains… and worried about overdosing with Vitamin A, since canned pumpkin is her favorite veggie (she only eats 2, that and brocolli). Thanks again, I’ll let everyone know how it goes.
Sarah — please forgive if you get this 2x — just tried to “submit” a comment but it didn’t seem to post — anyway thank you for your post about healing cavities naturally. Like others, I’ve bookmarked your site now, just on the strength of that post alone.
Also like others, though, I won’t be able to try your suggestions without specific how-to information. How much to take, how often, and when would be very useful. Would you please write a new, separate post with this information? Please do make it *separate* so your readers don’t have to fish through this very long comments list to find the info.
If you’ve deliberately not-done this yet for legal reasons, there’s no reason not to use a disclaimer absolving you if others don’t get the same results you did.
Thanks again,
Dear Misinformed,
Sarah’s not writing you back because she know this is bullshit. Please go find a dentist you like and ask questions. They love when their patients want to learn.
Good luck.
Hi Mr. I just want to know why are you being so rude.
You do realize we’re all civilized individuals with different opinions, and language such as youra is actually frowned upon. These are moms and elders here, not cavemen.
I don’t really know who is right here, but please respect the decision anyone takes. You’re not their mom, and you’re not their dentist. Seriously, it’s of really bad taste.
The neutral 17-years-old girl with a better vocabulary and respect than a certified dentist.
You recognize thus significantly in terms of this topic, produced me in my opinion believe it from numerous varied angles. Its like women and men aren’t fascinated until it’s something to do with Woman gaga! Your personal stuffs nice. At all times handle it up!
Sarah,
Do you think my child would be able to absorb vitamin d from cod liver oil if I rubbed it on her skin? (since she doesn’t like the taste of it).
For now I’m planning on just Now Foods vitamin D3 chewables, and rubbing nordic naturals w/out added d, onto her skin. (nordic naturals does make clo w/ vit d3 too). The clo w/out vit d does have some vitamin a and the healthy omega 3’s.
Thank you,
Allie
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all people you actually understand what you are talking approximately! Bookmarked. Kindly also talk over with my site =). We could have a link exchange arrangement among us
What about vegetarians? Kids allergic to dairy? My son is both so this wouldn’t work for him. Are there alternatives? He has never had a cavity (neither have I), we eat healthy and brush/floss often.
Hi Sarah,
Interesting thread, and especially regarding “Adam” the blind dentist. If more in his profession were TRUE scientists — pioneers like Dr. Weston Price — then they’d do some of their own honest and unbiased scientific research, and be quite surprised at how far their ‘mainstream’ profession is removed from reality. If Adam had little or no official schooling in nutrition, then by definition HE is the “quack” by attempting to shut down a nutritional-discussion group among lay-people.
When you come across a rude, outspoken and righteous “dental professional’ like Adam, bluntly ask him several pointed questions designed to reveal his true intentions and methodology:
–As a licensed dentist, do you put mercury amalgam fillings in your patient’s mouths? If so, do you get their fully informed consent by showing them the MSDS Sheet for Mercury Amalgam? (Check it out—it’s a killer)
— Do you put fluoride in your patient’s mouths without their fully-informed consent? Did you know that approx. 10 percent of the general public has a heightened sensitivity to this highly-toxic poison? Have you heard of 3-year-old William Kennerly from New York, who died in the dental chair when a dentist brushed stannous fluoride onto his teeth? (The dentist forgot to tell the kid not to swallow. It was little William’s first and only visit to the dentist. The autopsy report said that William had swallowed the equivalent of 3 lethal doses worth of fluoride. The mainstream news quickly suppressed this incident.)
— Do you do root canals on your patients? Do you get fully informed consent from them, by outlining the liabilities of root canals, as described by Dr. Weston Price in his research?
A root canal tooth has had its nerve and artery removed to stop pain, and thus it is dead tissue. Dentists are the only doctors who purposely leave dead tissue in the body. Sooner or later dead tissue in the body will get infected, BUT THE KICKER HERE IS THAT A ROOT CANAL GONE BAD, OFTEN SHOWS UP AS A PHANTOM DISEASE ELSEWHERE IN THE BODY THAN IN THE MOUTH. The source remains hidden.
The toxins from root canal teeth are one of the most toxic substances known. In some of his experiments Dr. Price inserted extracted human teeth (root-canal teeth) under the skin of live rabbits. In 100% of over 300 cases, the rabbits would get the same illness as the patient from whom the tooth came. One tragic set of photographs that I saw in Dr. Price’s book showed a rabbit whose eyes deteriorated more every day, to the point where he went blind and his weeping eye-sockets were almost empty. The human who’d been the owner of that root-canal tooth had bad eyes and, fortunately for him, his eyes got better after that tooth was extracted. The rabbit died, in the name of scientific research.
20 years ago I’d had severely failing health for a couple of years — constant fatigue, misery, and always getting sick for no reason — yet no ‘official’ MD could find the cause. I was a miserable basket case. By chance I happened across a wonderful dentist who was well briefed on the scientific work and publications of Weston Price, DDS, and after examining my mouth and testing some physical responses, this dentist proposed pulling my two root-canal teeth.
I consented, and it was like magic. Just as those teeth were being pulled, sitting there in the dental chair, my body responded with a tremendous sense of relief and gratitude. That wonderful dentist refused to give me those 2 teeth back, until he’d soaked them in bleach for 24 hours to kill the toxins.
My mouth healed in a very short time, and I quickly recovered my health. It was wonderful!
That dentist had a bad reputation among his peers for openly following the advice of Weston Price, but I’m convinced that it’s his critics who were the unscientific quacks, because they’d rather have seen me dead by their methods, than well with his.
Moral of the story: Beware the so-called ‘professionals’ with tunnel vision who have been highly indoctrinated, and are very highly-paid, to toe the line of the sickness industry. They simply wouldn’t get paid if everyone was well all of the time. Their biased close-minded training removes genuine science from the equation, often to the detriment of the general public.
They aren’t playing with a full deck but they’re absolutely convinced that they ARE. They’re quick to righteously toot the ‘I AM A SCIENTIST AND YOU ARE ONE OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE’ horn when in reality they’re bad scientists in a profession which is actually more of an ART than a science. For example, how can you possibly do a double-blind crossover study on a woman who has PMS, plus an undisclosed sugar addiction, plus a vitamin deficiency, plus a sore jaw from a leaking mercury amalgam filling, and who just had an argument with her nagging mother-in-law, etc. etc?
‘Scientist’? Yeah, right. What’s the latest annual death-count of iatrogenic deaths, your Lordship?
Here in the USA, today’s dental/medical profession is like a huge steamroller with a LOT of strongly mis-directed momentum, that tries to crush everything in its path. Following the money, just watch the bulk of TV commercials and you can see exactly where their bias and backing comes from.
It’s only business.
the medical/dental industry is responsible for much misery;
eg,tonsillectomy-this barbaric,archaic practice dates back millenia,yet is still performed on youngsters-lymphatic tissue,such as tonsils and adenoids,are an essential part of immune system development (up to 7 years of age),so removal should be last resort,ie,to prevent choking to death,yet doctors routinely perform this butchery because the child with tonsilitis is keeping parents awake.
Doctors don’t know what causes chronic tonsilitis,so they remove the tonsils-this is analgous to having ones arm removed because ones doctor can’t resolve ones tennis elbow…
You might be one the most uninformed, ignorant, and paranoid people I have ever come across. Guess what, most things are toxic in excessive amounts, including water. I guess dentists should ask for your consent before rinsing your mouth and having you swallow.