Keeping teeth for life: genetics, flossing, and baking soda

Keeping teeth for life: genetics, flossing, and baking soda

There is a question that runs through any conversation about oral health that no one answers with data: why do some people at 70 have all their teeth without barely visiting a clinic, while others who brush three times a day already have half their mouth filled by 50? The discussion starts with a specific case: someone who never had cavities, only had orthodontics 20 years ago, and had four healthy teeth extracted to fit it, despite being warned the week before. Since then, they have not allowed anything to be extracted, not even wisdom teeth.

Their daily routine is as homemade as it is debatable: nighttime rinses with water, baking soda, and a splash of vinegar. And it works, or so it seems. The doubts raised—if fluoride is a myth, if dental floss damages more than it cleans, if you can keep your dentures until old age—trigger a cascade of responses where evidence mixes with bar talk.

Genetics weigh more than dentistry acknowledges

The first consensus that emerges is not technical, but resigned: the genetic lottery rules. Some describe a very careful mother with a destroyed mouth and a father who barely uses a toothbrush with all teeth intact around 70. Others point to morphology: teeth positioned in a way that self-cleans, bites that favor or condemn.

Salivary pH appears as a hidden variable. With a certain pH, it is argued, you can keep perfect teeth even if you are neglectful, though yellow like a field mouse. Most people do not have this advantage. And there the problem begins: individual effort clashes against biology that does not negotiate.

There is a fact that reinforces this line: cavities skyrocketed in ancient Egypt after the introduction of cereals. Those who mention it stopped drinking sodas and drastically reduced carbohydrates, and since then have not had a new cavity. They only replace old fillings.

Dental floss: the cleaning almost nobody does right

If there is a point where the discussion becomes technical, it is here. Brushing teeth is not enough; you must clean between them. Interdental cavities are the worst because they are invisible and advance without warning. Floss, used correctly, is the only tool that reaches there.

The problem is that almost nobody uses it correctly. The process is described: wrap it around fingers without cutting circulation, use about 30 centimeters of floss from the roll and move it along, not the two centimeters of preformed arcs. The first week gums bleed and hurt. Insisting for two weeks, they heal. After a couple of months, you can saw with the floss on the gum without a drop of blood coming out.

The alternative gaining ground is the water flosser: debris remaining under the gums are the main cause of bad breath, and the pressure jet washes them away without damaging tissue. For wide interdental spaces, it works better than floss.

Baking soda yes, vinegar no: homemade chemistry under review

The grandmother's recipe—baking soda with vinegar—receives an almost unanimous correction. The reaction between both can eat enamel, and some directly call vinegar an aberration. Baking soda alone, however, is defended: some use it daily and attribute not having medieval-looking teeth to that.

The proposed alternative is simpler and cheaper: salt water, a well-filled coffee teaspoon in half a glass, rinses morning and night. It is argued that it reduces inflammation, fights infections, and respects enamel. A dentist opposed to extracting non-essential teeth recommends it, according to accounts.

Fluoride generates division. Some call it poison and seek pastes without it. Opposing them, the argument that it hardens enamel and needs nothing else: paste with 2,400 ppm of sodium fluoride, twice a day for a month, and the enamel gets as hard as it can get. Titanium dioxide, the white pigment, also gets criticized: some pastes have eliminated it and are cited as the only option without it.

Can you keep all your teeth until 80?

The short answer is yes, but with conditions that do not depend solely on the toothbrush. Periodontitis, not cavities, is the main cause of tooth loss. This is stated by a dentist, as reported: you must also brush the gums, everywhere, with a soft brush. Hard brushes retract the gum and leave the neck of the tooth exposed.

Bruxism, misaligned bites, trauma, and aggressive orthodontics complete the list of threats. Cavities can be prevented; structural wear cannot always be. And with age, even without cavities, teeth can be lost.

Diet returns to the center. The work of Weston Price is cited, the Canadian dentist who traveled the world comparing ancestral and industrial diets, finding cavities practically absent where there was no refined sugar or flours. Eating meat and vegetables, this current argues, eliminates the need for dentists. The problem is the price: that diet costs more than an annual cleaning.

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The point where everything stalls is the same as at the beginning. Some arrive with an intact mouth having done nothing; others accumulate fillings despite discipline. Genetics, pH, bite, and diet deal cards before anyone picks up the toothbrush. What remains to be known is how much of what we call care is actually compensation.