My mother says that the reason why she didn’t send us to the dentist as consistently as she should have was because she had her own fear of seeing them. Hmph. I think that her stuff ended up getting projected onto me because if there is one thing that I loathe, it’s making a dental appointment. Still, it really is an unnecessary evil, especially as you age, because the reality is that, over time, enamel gets thinner, teeth become weaker, and all kinds of oral-issue-hell can break loose if you’re not proactive about your oral health needs.
Okay, but what do you do if you know that you’ve been a bit more negligent when it comes to your teeth than you care to admit? Are there proven, all-natural things that you can do to restore your enamel, heal your cavities, and even remineralize your teeth?
Listen, you need to see your dentist on an annual basis; there’s no way around that. At the same time, the dental industry is still a business, so it’s important you know that there are things that you can do to make seeing your dentist less painful when it comes to your mouth and your wallet.
Read on for 10 ways that you can get your teeth back into the condition that you’d like with a bit of know-how, patience, and consistency.
1. Eat Calcium-Enriched Foods
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Something that you probably learned in elementary school is that if you want your teeth to remain healthy and strong, you need to get some calcium into your diet. However, what you may not be aware of is the fact that calcium is a nutrient that your body does not naturally produce, which is why you have to be proactive and intentional about getting it into your diet.
Otherwise, not only could the enamel of your teeth weaken, but you could also end up experiencing muscle aches and cramps, fatigue, brittle nails, extreme PMS, and depression symptoms. That’s why it’s a good idea to consume foods that are rich in calcium, like lentils, dark leafy greens, canned salmon (salmon croquettes, anyone?), yogurt, cheese, and chia seeds.
2. Consume Some Bone Broth Too
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Another food that I’ve been getting into more and more often over the past several years is bone broth. It’s pretty much what it sounds like broth made from meat bones that have simmered for many hours.
Some of the benefits that come from bone broth include its ability to promote gut health, boost immunity, reduce joint stiffness, and even promote a good night’s rest. Since bone broth also helps your system to produce more collagen and collagen not only fights signs of aging but also helps to prevent tooth decay — if you’ve never tried bone broth before, now is just as good a time as any, right?
By the way, if you happen to be vegan, there are alternative recipes like mushroom bone broth that you can try. One of them is here.
3. Drink Mineral-Rich Water
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If you’re looking for the kind of water that can help lower your blood pressure, prevent heart disease, and relieve constipation, mineral water can make that happen for you. Between the natural carbonation that it oftentimes provides (because mineral water typically comes from springs) and the minerals like calcium and fluoride that are in it, I’m pretty sure you get how it can help with your overall oral health and well-being.
In fact, there are studies to support that women who drink mineral water on a fairly consistent basis end up with higher bone mass density than those who don’t. Just something to think about next time you’re at the grocery store, and you’re considering picking up some sort of bottled water. Mineral water is beneficial on a few levels.
4. Also, Drink Juice Through a Straw
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Acids and teeth enamel are not exactly the best of friends — and that’s putting it mildly. The reality is that a lot of people end up experiencing tooth decay because they underestimate what the acidic levels of soda, coffee, and even juice can do to their teeth over time. Now, no one is saying that you should only drink water for the rest of your life. However, if you do want to get a leg up on keeping your enamel nice and strong, try to drink acidic stuff through a straw as much as possible. It’s a small move that can make a big difference over time.
5. Take a Vitamin D Supplement
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Vitamin D is essential to your overall health and well-being for a few different reasons and on a few different levels. It supports your immune system. It helps to regulate your moods. Studies reveal that those who struggle with weight loss tend to have less vitamin D in their system than they should. During cold and flu season, it can reduce your chances of coming down with either one. And as you probably already know, vitamin D helps to keep your bones healthy — as well as your teeth.
To take it a step further, the dentin that helps to support your teeth’s enamel can sometimes repair itself if you’ve got enough vitamin D in your body. So, since we, as Black women, tend to have a lower amount of vitamin D in our system than other demographics, aside from being intentional about eating vitamin D-rich foods like mushrooms, eggs, and fatty fish, it can never hurt to take a vitamin D supplement on the side too.
6. Brush with “Artificial Enamel”
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As far as toothpaste goes, the kind that seems to be gaining quite a bit of traction these days has the technical name of “biomimetic hydroxyapatite.” Its nickname? Artificial enamel. From what I’ve briefly read and researched, artificial enamel is slowly yet surely becoming a favorite over fluoride because it is able to “mimic” enamel which helps with strengthening weak teeth. If you’re interested in giving this type of toothpaste a shot, a brand that appears to be pretty well-liked on Amazon is Bioniq. You can look more into it here.
7. Or DIY a Remineralizing Toothpaste
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Your teeth have minerals like calcium and phosphate in them. However, as you eat and drink throughout the day and if you don’t take care of your teeth daily, that can cause your teeth to lose minerals — and that can ultimately lead to weakened enamel and tooth decay. That’s the bad news. The good news is you can actually remineralize your teeth. No, it doesn’t happen overnight, yet it can indeed happen with the help of eating less sugar, chewing more gum (saliva carries some of the minerals that your teeth need), drinking more water (to remove acid from your teeth), brushing and flossing consistently — and using a homemade remineralizing toothpaste. Two recipes that are relatively simple to follow are found here and here.
8. Do Some Oil Pulling
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If you’re familiar with the term “oil pulling,” yet you’ve always wondered where it came from, it’s most popular in Ayurvedic medicine. Basically, what you do is put some oil in your mouth and swish it around in order to “pull out toxins” from your teeth. Although coconut is probably the most popular oil that’s used, sesame, peppermint, and extra virgin olive oil are good options, too.
Simply put a teaspoon of the oil of your choice into your mouth and swish it around for 10-20 minutes. Then rinse. Even though you’ve been using an oil, you’ll be amazed by how squeaky clean your teeth feel once you are done with the oil pulling process.
9. Apply a Mixture of Pure Aloe Vera Gel and Tea Tree Oil
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Gingivitis is basically a common and mild form of gum disease. When plaque and tartar build-up get onto the teeth and gumline, it can lead to swollen and bleeding gums, bad breath, and gums that are darker than usual. That said, even though tea tree oil isn’t pleasing to the taste buds by any stretch, research reveals that if you use tea tree oil as a main ingredient for a DIY mouthwash (don’t swallow it), it is pretty darn effective at getting rid of gingivitis.
As far as aloe vera gel goes, it might be surprising to know that studies indicate that it contains properties that actually help to prevent the bacteria that lead to tooth decay from growing. That’s why it would make all the sense in the world that if you add a drop of tea tree oil to a teaspoon of 100 percent aloe vera gel and then apply it to your gum line, it could help to heal your gums and prevent gingivitis from increasing in your mouth.
10. Snack on Some Licorice Root
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It might not be something that you hear about every day, but listen here: if you’ve got digestive issues, get yourself some licorice root. Trying to get over a bacterial or viral infection, get yourself some licorice root. Menopause driving you up the wall, yep — licorice root to the rescue. Also, look into it if you’re trying to prevent or heal an ulcer or if you want to get some of your weight down.
As far as your oral health goes, licorice root is a wonder because its potent antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory properties can help to reduce acid reflux (which can also play a role in damaging tooth enamel) as well as keep cavities from forming in the first place. So, take it in supplement form, sip on some licorice root tea, and suck on some licorice root sticks. It’s just one more all-natural way to get your teeth back into superior shape and condition. Enjoy!
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Featured image by Peathegee Inc/Getty Images
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak