Dental Herbalism

Natural Therapies for the Mouth

Leslie M. Alexander, Linda A. Straub-Bruce

• Publisher: Healing Arts Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781620554135
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

A comprehensive practical reference to herbal dental care for all ages • Details the use of 41 safe and effective herbs for the mouth • Explores 47 common conditions that affect the mouth, such as gingivitis, periodontitis, acid reflux, and tooth loss • Provides recipes for herbal toothpastes, mouth rinses, pain-relieving poultices, and teas for prevention and daily care • Examines infant and toddler oral care, including remedies for teething and thrush Our oral health is intimately linked with our overall health and well-being. In this practical guide to herbal dental care, medical herbalist Leslie Alexander and registered dental hygienist Linda Straub-Bruce detail how to use 41 safe and effective herbs for the mouth for optimum oral health, prevention of decay and inflammation, and relief from pain and discomfort. The authors provide recipes for herbal toothpastes and rinses, poultices for pain and inflammation, and teas and tinctures for intervention, prevention, and daily care. They explain how recent research confirms the link between poor oral health and many diseases, such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. They examine the risk factors, symptoms, causes, and herbal preventives and remedies for 47 common conditions that affect the mouth, such as gingivitis, periodontitis, bruxism, acid reflux/GERD, and tooth loss. They explore the complete anatomy of the mouth and explain proper brushing, flossing, and tongue-cleaning techniques to prevent tooth decay and gum disease and maintain bridges, implants, and braces. The authors address the importance of diet and nutrition in oral health as well as controversial topics including fluoride. They provide an in-depth chapter on pregnancy, infant, and childhood oral care, including herbal remedies for teething and thrush. Ideal for those looking to improve their own oral health, herbalists looking to address the root cause of systemic inflammation, or dental professionals searching for natural alternatives, this authoritative yet practical guide empowers each of us to reclaim the health of our mouths and sustain a full, strong set of teeth for a lifetime.

PART I

The Lay of the Land

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Here we start with the basics. We answer such questions as “Why is the mouth important?” “How do I find my way around the oral cavity?” “How can I care for my mouth or even recognize changes?” and “Who can help me, dental professionals or herbalists?” We believe that understanding “the lay of the land” in this way will support the choice of timely interventions, help to allay any fears, and, practically speaking, take us closer to getting to know the mouth.

1

IT ALL BEGINS IN THE MOUTH

As health care interventions multiply, there remain certain unchanging fundamentals: eating food (naturally), drinking water (often), moving our bodies (freely), and breathing clean air (easily). Good oral hygiene is seen as a pillar of overall health and well-being.

Too much fast food and not enough real food leads to fatigue and deficits—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. The repercussions may begin in the mouth with signs of decay, but it would be shortsighted to think that they end in the mouth.

Imbibing a rainbow of sugary beverages is likely to dehydrate rather than hydrate the body’s tissues. We need pure, natural water to support digestion and elimination and to support well-being.

Rest is imperative, but stasis cannot endure. For centuries we have been urged to move, to dance, to walk, and to run. Activity enhances circulation and benefits the tissues; yes, even in the mouth.

Oxygen is a vital element. Its absence causes oxygen starvation. A healthy mouth needs oxygen.

These age-old pillars hold our teeth firmly in place. When our teeth decay, loosen in the gums, or simply rot and fall out, we are seeing signs of disease and inflammation. When our gums are sensitive, are swollen, or bleed, they are showing signs of inflammation. Often inflammation in the mouth is indicative of inflammation elsewhere in the body.

INFLAMMATION

Acute, circumscribed inflammation can be a normal biological response to potentially harmful stimuli. It can help to safeguard vulnerability, just as, for example, swelling (inflammation) can meaningfully protect an injured site anywhere in the body to promote its healing. Under most circumstances an intact systemic inflammatory response increases the likelihood of a successful outcome following acute injury or infection. The key is to determine the cause of inflammation and eliminate, or at the very least alleviate, the source.

Often we are able to identify acute inflammation by any of its classic symptoms: pain, heat, redness, swelling, and/or loss of function. It’s easy to imagine any one or all of these characteristics occurring in the body. In the mouth, inflammation can manifest in one or more of these observable symptoms, but it can also be asymptomatic, symptomless. Furthermore, not all inflammation is localized, acute, and short-lived; it can extend over time, for days, months, or even years, and become chronic and systemic. And so the mouth can indeed be a source of chronic, systemic inflammation, with far-reaching consequences for one’s overall health.

We are learning with each new shred of evidence that when inflammation presents in the mouth—which we refer to by names such as cavities, decay, gum disease, periodontal disease or periodontitis, or other diagnoses—there may be inflammation elsewhere. Or if there isn’t already, there will be if we do not attend to the health of the mouth.

As noted by Bruce Bistrian, chief of clinical nutrition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School,

Therapies to down-regulate the systemic inflammatory response by targeting the source of inflammation may dramatically improve patient outcome in chronic inflammatory states and some acute inflammatory conditions. (Bistrian 2007)

MEASURES OF INFLAMMATION

Let’s look at two of the most common. First, many recognize the presence of a protein in the blood called C-reactive protein, or CRP, as a measure of inflammation. While CRP levels can be affected by genetic differences, inflammation in the mouth is known to give rise to elevated CRP levels in the blood. As blood circulates throughout the body, the sources of oral inflammation are carried throughout.

It is accepted that there is a flow of fluid within each tooth that nourishes dentin and enamel (see a detailed discussion in chapter 2). Blood, mixed with the oxygen it carries, nourishes the teeth, entering each tooth through its root, then dispersing outward through tiny tubules to feed each tooth. This provides a continuous exchange of nutrients between each tooth and the rest of the body. We might even say that in the broadest sense our whole being is connected to every single tooth.

Monitoring CRP levels has limited practical appeal. We cannot go home, sit down at the kitchen table and do it, or open the medicine cabinet and whip out a CRP barometer. We can, however, learn to measure stress.

Stress is inflammation. The body does not differentiate between inflammation of an emotional or spiritual kind and a physical cause. Our body responds to stress, whether it’s from poor oral health, an infected tooth, or an infected attitude. Stress can take many forms. For example, fatigue and exhaustion are forms of stress; trauma, accident, or injury are stressors; so too are fear, depression, anxiety, and extremes of elation, grief, and mourning. So stress itself inflames. Knowing this is useful. While it is difficult to directly monitor CRP levels, we can begin to understand and moderate stress; this is something we can do while sitting at the kitchen table.

So, no CRP barometer at home? Ask yourself, What can I do to reduce my stress level?

Identifying stressors and slowly working to eliminate them when we are able to helps us support general health and the health of our immune systems. It often seems that over the short term stress is manageable, tolerable. But stress can be cumulative. A twinge from food stuck in the mouth is a passing discomfort, but a stressor nonetheless; a sustained tenderness or sensitivity in the mouth draws our attention again and again. Chronic stress, be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual, takes its toll, as the body is not designed to parry chronic inflammation.

We cannot separate the mind and the body. When we are happy, we can measure the bodily changes that result. Too, our reactions extend to the mouth. Stress measured in the mouth can interrupt function.

DIGESTIVE HEALTH

Just as too many weeds will choke many a plant and too much rust will impede the smooth movement of a bicycle chain, similarly inflammation can disrupt digestion. We have been taught that the digestive system plays an important role in our ability to utilize the nutrients in our food. But let’s stop and consider: everything we eat and drink contains microorganisms—bacteria, viruses, even fungi. Our exposure to these organisms helps each of us build a robust immune system. Yet as food and drink enter the digestive system, microorganisms challenge our immune system too. We now recognize that a healthy digestive system enhances immune function, and much of the immune system resides in the digestive tract, between the mouth and the rectum. Yes, it all begins in the mouth.

“Chew your drink and drink your food,” suggested Mahatma Gandhi. Chewing food thoroughly allows saliva to coat each morsel. This initiates the digestive process and begins the extraction of nutrients. Straightforwardly, the more we chew, the more efficient the digestive process. When we chew insufficiently we limit the body’s ability to extract nutrients. We also provide a breeding ground for inflammation, as bulk accumulating in the colon limits contact with digestive enzymes and can promote colonization by microorganisms. As well, chewing thoroughly can help ease symptoms of flatulence (gas), bloating, constipation, stomachache, cramps, and even diarrhea.

As soon as food and drink enter the mouth, the action of saliva can be detected. So begins the digestion of carbohydrates (starches) and fats, with enzymes contained in saliva—namely, amylase (also called ptyalin) and lipase (also called lingual lipase)—excreted by the salivary glands (see chapter 2). Herbs, foods, drink, pharmaceuticals, emotions, illness, disease, and stress all mediate one’s saliva levels. Sometimes even fear can leave us with a dry mouth.

Sufficient saliva production helps sustain the internal environment of the mouth in many ways, not the least of which is moderating a balanced microbial population. Saliva also helps moderate inflammation and infection. Indeed, chronic inflammation of the mouth can drain immune reserves and may set up a chain of responses whose roots are in the mouth.

THE MOUTH, DISEASE, AND ILLNESS

These are not simple, straightforward relationships. While rates of decay are now considered to have reached epidemic proportions among young people in the United States, it is possible, with attention and care, to avoid teeth becoming decayed, filled, or even pulled. In fact, some of us are prone, through birthright, accident, or fate, to have healthier mouths than others.

Even more alarming is the growing epidemic of gum disease among American adults. Chronically poor oral health and periodontitis, gum disease, has been linked with numerous systemic inflammatory diseases (see chapter 14). We needn’t think that the link between oral health and a range of systemic inflammatory conditions is new. Historically, perhaps the most famous is scurvy. But it was more than 100 years after Scottish physician James Lind (1716–1794) published A Treatise of the Scurvy, detailing the beneficial effects of vitamin C in avoiding the disease, when Willoughby D. Miller (1853–1907), an American dentist, published his seminal work “The Mouth as a Focus of Infection.” Yet between the end of the nineteenth century and today, notions surrounding oral health have shifted; only relatively recently hav...

Table of contents

• Cover Image
• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Foreword by M. Leslie Williams, RH(AHG), M Ed
• Foreword by William D. Hammerlee, DMD, FAGD
• Foreword by K. P. Singh Khalsa, RH(AHG), DN-C
• Foreword by Richard Mandelbaum, RH(AHG)
• Introduction
• Part I: The Lay of the Land
• Part II: From infancy to old age: The Mouth through a Lifetime
• Part III: Herbs for the Mouth
• Part IV: Sustaining a Healthy Mouth
• Concluding Remarks
• Appendix 1: Professional Organizations
• Appendix 2: Suppliers of Herbs and Oral Care Products
• Appendix 3: Herbal Cultivars and Wildcrafting
• Appendix 4: Useful Conversions, or Your Pint’s Bigger than my pint
• Appendix 5: Oral Health Charts and Tables
• Glossary
• Footnotes
• About the Authors
• About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company
• Books of Related Interest
• Copyright & Permissions
• Index