Rotting teeth!

[Rory17]

Hey everyone,

I just recently went vegan, about a month and a half ago. I've been feeling pretty good (a lot of my past issues have been fading away like sinus issues, arthritis, etc.) but I noticed that my gums started to get extremely sensitive, and a TOOTH is rotting at the back of my mouth!? This literally happened out of no where.
I then did more research and saw that I am not the only vegan who's teeth have rotted... and a lot of vegans have gotten cavities as well?

I realize it could be a detox thing, since the mouth issues are a good sign my body is detoxing. Also, not enough minerals in my diet could cause the rotting tooth as well.

I REALLY want to continue being vegan, but I'm not sure about it if my teeth or mouth health is going to get worse.

Has anyone else had this problem? What can I do?

Hello,
It might not be the vegan diet in general - it might be to do with your specific diet. Do you eat a lot of sugar?
I would arrange an appointment with your dentist if you can. They can probably help more than strangers on the Internet without any training in dentistry.
Also, have you tried a reduced sugar/sugar-free vegan diet? It may be very hard, but it could possible be done. It really helped me when I did it for a while. It improved my mental and physical health, and I more or less overcame binge eating disorder for a while (it did come back later on).
Please don’t ever give up veganism though!
Thank you.

 

[FredVegrox]

I have bad teeth and it's with a lifetime of worse eating and inadequate care for the teeth. Just eight and a half years I have been eating in just a vegan way and it would not be to blame for that. Six years before this coming spring I found the healthy way of eating, with just having whole foods from plants and avoiding processed foods, I don't even use fungi. I have been cutting out sweetened things more and more. I can't reverse damage but it does not seem to worsen now.

 

[FredVegrox]

I had given up sweets very effectively. But I don't seem to make it without sweet things I can keep much colder for the hot days through summer.

 

[David3]

There aren't many peer-reviewed studies comparing the dental health of vegetarians vs. omnivores.

Here is one such study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Periodontal conditions in vegetarians: a clinical study. - PubMed - NCBI . This study, done by Hannover Medical School in Germany, found that vegetarians had better periodontal (gum) health, fewer loose teeth, and fewer missing teeth than the omnivores. The vegetarians had more dental cavities and erosions than the omnivores.

I am always reluctant to draw conclusions from a small number of studies, but it seems that the vegetarians in the study had overall better dental health than the omnivores. Although the vegetarians had tooth decay and erosions, it would appear that, on average, the omnivores were more likely to have severe tooth decay, requiring tooth extraction.


I can't find any peer-reviewed studies on the dental health of vegans.

This website presents a thorough summary of peer-reviewed research on vegan diets and bone health: Calcium Part 2—Research .

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (the world's largest association of Registered Dietitians) makes these recommendations for maintaining dental health: Healthy Nutrition for Healthy Teeth