Best ways to clean food traps in teeth

Best ways to clean food traps in teeth

Food traps are places in your mouth where food particles can get stuck. They can appear on any tooth surface or in the gums. The trouble with these nooks and crannies of your mouth is that trapped food encourages the kinds of bacteria that can cause tooth decay and gum disease. In a clean mouth those types of bacteria can exist without causing trouble, but as soon as there’s old food lying around they get to work making trouble.

Taxonomy of Food Traps

  • Spaces between teeth
  • Large or small cavities,
  • Chips, cracks,
  • Broken fillings,
  • Naturally occurring grooves on the occlusal (chewing) surfaces of molars
  • Gum pockets
  • Braces
  • Removable dentures
taxonomy of food traps

How to tell if you have a food trap

You are probably aware of the most problematic food traps in your own mouth. Those spots where a fragment of carrot, a wad of chewed bread or a strand of celery often seems to get stuck. It nags at your attention after a meal, a tiny speck of leftovers that feels much bigger than it really is. You worry it with your tongue or poke at it with your fingernail but that’s not usually enough to get rid of that persistent feeling of something’s not quite right. Even if you get the most uncomfortable chunk of food out of the trap, an imperceptible residue can remain as an endless buffet for bacteria.

You may be better off getting a dental restoration to fill in the food trap, especially if there is active decay. Depending on the nature of the food trap, holistic healing strategies may help to resolve it eventually.

However, if you can’t (or won’t) close the food trap immediately, you can mitigate its risks by keeping your mouth spotlessly clean at all times. The best way to discourage the unhelpful bacteria staking out your food traps is to analyze those problem areas in your mouth, figure out the best way to keep each different kind of food trap clear and then get in the habit of deploying the most effective cleaning methods after every time you eat.

 

Best ways to clean food traps

 

Water flosser (oral irrigator) – best all round tool for all kinds of food traps, especially deep cavities and braces. Just don’t angle it straight into a gum pocket. When you are eating away from home, consider getting an inexpensive manual irrigator that is small enough to carry around for a discreet squirt in the bathroom after eating.

 

Intraoral brush (Pixter) – good for cleaning food traps in gaps, cavities or chips between teeth. They come in a range of sizes, so use the right size brush for each food trap and wash between uses.

 

Floss  – convenient for removing food from between teeth with tight contacts. Avoid plastic- coated floss (Oral B and the like) as these can embed microplastics in your gums, make sure you your flossing technique is safe and avoid using floss picks.

 

Oil pulling – can be effective especially if you have food trapped in a lot of parts of your mouth. Avoid oil pulling if you have amalgam or new fillings.

 

 

4 ways to clean food traps

Dodgy approaches to food traps

 

Toothpicks are not ideal because they can pack food deeper into a food trap. If you must use a toothpick, be very gentle and avoid poking your gums. Always use a fresh clean tip and toothpicks after one use.

Fingers and finger nails shouldn’t be used because they can spread germs, break up the food fragments or pack them in deeper.

Food traps
Meliors Simms headshot
Has a dentist told you that your cavities or receding gums are your fault because you are drinking too much Coke, you don’t floss enough or you need to stop breastfeeding your baby? And you know that isn’t true!

I’m a natural oral health coach and I’m not going to blame you or shame you.
The underlying causes of your oral health issues are not your fault!

Nature or nurture, ancestry or environment, free will or systemic oppression, unconscious emotions or the degraded food system are the factors that make your teeth and gums vulnerable to disease.

Even though your tooth decay and gum disease is not your fault, it is within your power to change.

I can help you to turn your oral health around with natural strategies, healthy habits and intuitive insights.

The Secret Lives of Teeth cover

Learn how to interpret the metaphysical messages of your teeth and gum symptoms!

The Secret Lives of Teeth is a clear and comprehensive guide teaches you a unique, complementary self-help approach to easing toothaches, enhancing enamel and gum remineralization and getting better results with necessary dental treatments. 

Available as a paperback or ebook.

Stop tooth decay naturally

Holistic teeth healing is different from almost all the dental advice you’ve ever received.  It starts from the principle that the health of our teeth and gums is tied to the health of the rest of our body, in a two way interaction. In order, to understand holistic teeth healing strategies, you really have to understand how teeth, and the rest of your body, are connected.

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Best ways to clean food traps in teeth

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Vanishing Twin Tooth

Vanishing Twin Tooth

CW: The following article about lost twins includes mention of miscarriage and stillbirth. Be kind to yourself if this is a sensitive topic for you.

A lost twin and or vanished triplets may be more common than most people suspect.

Some, like Elvis Presley, got to spend their whole prenatal life snugged up in the womb with a sibling, only to lose their twin at birth.

Many more, like me, were conceived with a twin who died before anyone suspected their existence. To be conceived a twin and born a single baby is called Vanishing Twin Syndrome.

For a long time my only clues were an inexplicable sensation of loss and guilt that suffused my childhood. As puberty hit, I thought I was going mad with vivid otherworldly visions. In my early 20s with a meditation practice and therapeutic support I found relief when I could understand those visions and emotions as as prenatal memories.

Around 29, at the time of my Saturn Return, I had an unnecessary root canal in a perfectly healthy tooth 18. Due to a dental misadventure, one root canal turned into two root canals which soon both failed. Repeatedly. These lower left twin molars (teeth 18 & 19) ended up getting extracted (you can read the whole story in my book, The Secret Lives of Teeth).

It’s only in retrospect that I can interpret the metaphysical meanings of those troubled teeth, let alone understand them in the context of my unique framework of Tooth Archetypes.

Conception Tooth #18 Vanishing twin

The Secret Lives of Teeth

At the heart of my book, The Secret Lives of Teeth, are thirty-two detailed descriptions of archetypes that sum up the unique energetic imprint of each adult tooth. I developed these archetype descriptions from working with coaching clients to understand the metaphysical messages carried by symptoms in different parts of their mouths.

The Tooth Archetype for the lower left second molar is Conception. Symptoms in tooth 18 may be trying to reconnect you with a sense of unified love and ecstasy of your existence before birth.

As I wrote in my book, symptoms in tooth 18 are primarily communicating your relationship as a fetus/embryo with your mother, via the placenta. Ideally this all-encompassing connection was your original experience of human bonding. As such it is also mapped onto the relationship between your conscious mind and physical body.

However, since publishing The Secret Lives of Teeth, I’ve also found a connection with Vanishing Twin (or Triplet) Syndrome. Over my years as a holistic oral health coach, I would often have a breakthrough in my understanding of certain tooth archetypes when the same tooth would come up for discussion with several clients within a short time. This happened again a few months ago with tooth 18, the lower left second molar that I call the Conception Archetype.

The Secret Lives of Teeth cover

Learn how to interpret the metaphysical messages of your teeth and gum symptoms!

The Secret Lives of Teeth is a clear and comprehensive guide teaches you a unique, complementary self-help approach to easing toothaches, enhancing enamel and gum remineralization and getting better results with necessary dental treatments. 

Available as a paperback or ebook. 

Secret Tooth Archetypes

Tooth Archetypes are like job descriptions. The Tooth’s Archetype is a role that stays as potential rather than presence unless the Archetype is activated. Then the job starts to actually get done and the role is filled. 

Tooth Archetype’s gets activated by your experience with three ‘S’s’: Silence, Secrets or Suppressed emotions. When one of the ‘S’s’ affects the qualities of a Tooth Archetype, that tooth may eventually, or immediately, start to try to get your attention.

Most people will only become aware of a tooth asking for attention when symptoms flare up i.e. decay or cavities, sensitivity or toothache, bleeding or receding gums. 

However, when you really pay attention to your mouth, you can become aware of a Tooth Archetype activating before it turns into a physical symptom.  You might be aware of a buzzing or tingling feeling, a sense of fullness, or just a feeling that is hard to describe in or around your tooth. 

The earlier you can engage with an activated Tooth Archetype, the easier it is to avoid, stabilize or even reverse damaging symptoms in your mouth. 

 

Tooth Archetypes

Lost Twin and Conception Archetype

Your lower left second molar may present with symptoms when something activates unconscious memories from your time in the womb. If the emotional energy of your mother around the time of your conception, as well as through the pregnancy and birth was influenced by secrecy, suppressed emotions or silence that could help explain later issues with tooth 18. 

For example, if you were an unplanned baby, or your parent’s circumstances were difficult, this tooth could be asking for attention. Tooth 18 can be vulnerable to feeling that you are unwanted, your timing is off, or that you are not good enough to belong.

Or maybe your tooth is reminding you of a vanished twin or lost triplet, asking for you be explore that experience and release any stuck emotions.  As a child you may have tried to explain feelings or ideas which could be related to a lost twin, but been shut down. Symptoms in tooth 18 may even be embodying resonances from an older sibling who was miscarried or stillborn, especially if they were never mentioned

The strength of this tooth is feeling an unconditional sense of being welcomed and loved, and believing your body is worthy of care.   You can support your tooth by sending it loving thoughts while you brush and floss every day. 

When you have current issues with your lower left second molar, you may decide to explore your prenatal life with meditation, journalling, counseling conversations, or other kinds of therapeutic practices. Develop a Healing Story for this tooth, which connects its metaphysical meanings with the unique circumstances of your early life, and current events.

If you can, ask your parents about the circumstances of your conception and pregnancy.

  • How was your mother’s emotional and physical health while she was carrying you?
  • Had she lost a baby to miscarriage, still birth or adoption before you were conceived?
  • Was there any sign (such as breakthrough bleeding) that you may have lost a twin?
  • Did she feel well supported during the pregnancy by her partner, family, friends, neighbors, and workplace?
  • Were there distressing world events or local news that made her feel unsafe or unsettled while pregnant with you?

Learn more about healing with Tooth Archetypes

Every single adult tooth has an Archetype, and there is a lot more to each Tooth Archetypes than even the discussion in this article. The Tooth Archetypes descriptions and framework are at the heart of my book, The Secret Lives of Teeth: Understanding emotional influences on oral health.

The Secret Lives of Teeth goes beyond the ‘spiritual meanings’ of teeth to engage with the oral effects of generational trauma, personal stress and adaptive emotional patterns.

It includes:

  • A unique and user-friendly system of Tooth Archetypes to guide you through the emotional landscape of your mouth explaining each adult tooth’s vulnerabilities and strengths.
  • An exceptionally in-depth explanation of Mouth Meridians, with a layperson’s guide to working with their energies.
  • A directory of Symptoms as Messengers to help translate the underlying influences on symptoms including abscesses, bruxism, cracks and chips, gingivitis, plaque, root canals, and receding gums.
  • A toolkit of self-help exercises to make it easier to develop a Healing Story which works with your symptom’s messages, to relieve symptoms and free yourself from shame and fear about your mouth.

 

The Secret Lives of Teeth cover

Learn how to interpret the metaphysical messages of your teeth and gum symptoms!

The Secret Lives of Teeth is a clear and comprehensive guide teaches you a unique, complementary self-help approach to easing toothaches, enhancing enamel and gum remineralization and getting better results with necessary dental treatments. 

Available as a paperback or ebook. 

Meliors Simms headshot

Has a dentist told you that your cavities or receding gums are your fault because you are drinking too much Coke, you don’t floss enough or you need to stop breastfeeding your baby? And you know that isn’t true!

I’m not going to blame you or shame you.
The underlying causes of your oral health issues are not your fault!

Nature or nurture, ancestry or environment, free will or systemic oppression, unconscious emotions or the degraded food system

These are the factors that make your teeth and gums vulnerable to disease.

Even though your tooth decay and gum disease is not your fault, it is within your power to change.

You can turn your oral health around with natural strategies and healthy habits.

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Safely remove amalgam fillings

Safely remove amalgam fillings

What are amalgam fillings?

Amalgams are metal fillings that look silver when they are placed but soon turn a dark color that contrasts with the white enamel of your natural teeth. They are made out of an amalgam (blend) of different metals that can include silver, zinc, copper, tin, and mercury (usually about 50%). Amalgam fillings aren’t placed in adults as often as they used to be, so if you have one, it may be almost as old as your teeth.

The older the amalgam, the more likely it is to be leaching toxic mercury vapour into your body. The mercury in amalgam fillings can be released through wear and tear on the filling or the surrounding tooth, from oil pulling or even hot liquids. Visible signs that your amalgam filling may be compromised include the biting surface looking shiny (from clenching or grinding), cracks, chips, staining, or decay in the surrounding tooth.

Some people get very ill from mercury exposure and others can seem to cope with it for a long time. Your susceptibility to mercury toxicity is influenced by genetics, so not everyone will have the same level of reaction.

Nonetheless, amalgam fillings leaking mercury have been linked to the (usually) gradual or subtle development of gum problems, candida, neurological issues, fatigue, breathing difficulties, joint pain, skin rashes, kidney dysfunction, and gastro difficulties to name a few of a long list of possible symptoms of mercury poisoning. (ref)

Mercury can accumulate in the body from multiple sources, so if you’ve been exposed to mercury from eating fish or in your environment, that can build up along with any mercury leaching from your fillings. 

 

 

Safely removing amalgam fillings

Do you need to remove your amalgams?

The greatest risk of exposure to mercury poisoning from amalgams is actually while the amalgams are being removed from a tooth. 

You can get really sick if it isn’t done correctly.  The risk is less if the whole tooth is removed intact, but then you have lost a tooth, which should be avoided if possible.

As long as your amalgam filling is stable and you have no symptoms of mercury poisoning, then you may be better off leaving it in place for the moment.

Tests (e.g. hair, urine, EAV) can confirm whether you have mercury buildup in your body. Tests are also important to indicate the pace at which fillings can be removed safely. Your amalgam-removal dentist should first test to see if your body chemistry and organs are able to handle an amalgam-removal procedure

 

Who should remove your amalgams?

It’s really important to make sure your dentist has the specialist training and equipment to do the procedure safely. 

The dentist should protect you during the removal procedure with equipment including

  • a nose mask for breathing oxygen
  • a rubber dam to isolate the filled tooth from the rest of your mouth
  • a cool electric drill to avoid damaging the pulp.
  • a lot of water during the drilling to capture particles and keep your tooth cool
  • special intra oral high speed suction (a specialised high veolcity vacuum cleaner with the opening placed very close to your moth to help take away any vapors and particles that the intra oral high speed suction may have missed
  • air filters in the treatment room

Your dentist should section the fillings out in chunks rather than grinding.   

Specially trained dentists will describe their amalgam removal qualifications and set up on their websites. If you don’t see them advertising this speciality then find a functional, integrated, or biological dentist (search directories) who takes amalgam removal seriously.

 Mercury detoxification

Mercury accumulates in the body, so you may not get relief from any mercury toxicity symptoms immediately after the amalgams are removed. There are protocols that can help flush (chelate) the mercury from your system more efficiently, for example by eating sulphur-rich foods (such as garlic) as mercury particles bind to sulphur to be expelled through the body’s waste disposal organs. 

I recommend working with a naturopath, nutritionist, or health coach (like me!) who has experience with guiding people through mercury detox/amalgam removal experiences.

Mercury retrograde amalgam removal

 Timing your amalgams removal

Ideally, you would remove any amalgam fillings at least six months before conceiving because if the filling is compromised, mercury can be passed to the fetus. Removing amalgam fillings is not recommended while pregnant as doing so may contribute to miscarriage. It’s also unsafe to remove amalgams while breastfeeding due to an increase in mercury excretion immediately after they are removed. (ref)

Once you have started removing amalgam fillings its a good idea to have all your amalgams removed as quickly as possible, within 30 days. However, you should try to schedule multiple mercury removal appointments on different days of the week. The body’s immune system runs on a 7-day cycle, and is better able to tolerate subsequent procedures if they do NOT fall on the 7th, 14th, 21st or 28th day after your initial appointment. (ref)

Astrologically speaking, Mercury retrogrades can be an auspicious time to review the state of your existing fillings. If you already know that you have compromised amalgam filings and you’ve just been waiting for the ‘right time’ to take action, a Mercury Retrograde is probably it. 

Mercury retrograde is an astrological transit happens about four times a year, whenever the planet Mercury appears to slow down and reverse, from our perspective looking from planet Earth.  Mercury retrograde season has a reputation for frustrating communication difficulties and annoying travel disruptions.

But it can also be a powerful time to review, revise, remove and renew, depending on the sign its retrograding in and its relationship to your birth chart. Consider timing your amalgam removal to coincide with Mercury retrogrades through Virgo and/or your first or sixth house, or with aspects to Saturn or Chiron.

What is the energetic meaning of your amalgam filling?

The meaning of your amalgam filling(s) relates to the specific tooth or teeth where they are located.  You can use my book, The Secret Lives of Teeth, to find out the spiritual/emotional/ancestral meaning of any tooth with a  filling?

Understanding the Tooth Archetype that holds your filling can help you to have a more positive experience with amalgam removal.

Plus you can use the metaphysical toolkit in Chapter 10 to help ensure an uncomplicated outcome with the removal procedure, or to maintain a healthy tooth if you are choosing to keep your amalgam in place for now.

 

The Secret Lives of Teeth cover

Learn how to interpret the metaphysical messages of your teeth and gum symptoms!

The Secret Lives of Teeth is a clear and comprehensive guide teaches you a unique, complementary self-help approach to easing toothaches, enhancing enamel and gum remineralization and getting better results with necessary dental treatments. 

Available as a paperback or ebook.

Has a dentist told you that your cavities or receding gums are your fault because you are drinking too much Coke, you don’t floss enough or you need to stop breastfeeding your baby? And you know that isn’t true!

I’m a natural oral health coach and I’m not going to blame you or shame you.
The underlying causes of your oral health issues are not your fault!

Nature or nurture, ancestry or environment, free will or systemic oppression, unconscious emotions or the degraded food system are the factors that make your teeth and gums vulnerable to disease.

Even though your tooth decay and gum disease is not your fault, it is within your power to change.

I can help you to turn your oral health around with natural strategies, healthy habits and intuitive insights. 

Dear tooth, I honour the life you shared with me and release you with love.

You can choose to turn your tooth extraction experience into a portal of profoundly transformational healing.

Download the 7-minute long MP3 audio recording to meditate with and/or use as journaling prompts.

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How to have a tooth extraction with grace and ease

How to have a tooth extraction with grace and ease

 

Releasing your tooth with ease

 

No one wants to lose a tooth, but sometimes a tooth extraction is necessary. 

By the time you are considering an extraction, it’s usually the end of a long series of attempts to try almost every other possible way to restore and repair the tooth.

Unfortunately, eventually, sometimes you just run out of good alternatives and have to let the tooth go.

I see a lot of preventative advice about how to avoid reaching the end of that road to extraction. Most dentists are quick to offer an implant to fill the gap afterward.

This article is offers support for the experience of releasing a tooth with grace and ease when it really is the best decision at a certain point in time.

Medieval painting of a woman having her tooth pulled

Pulling teeth doesn’t have to be brutal

Once pulling teeth was almost the first resort of some mid-twentieth-century dentists, and now it’s usually the last resort when you’ve tried everything else.

Unfortunately, it’s still standard practice for many orthodontists to recommend removing healthy wisdom teeth or premolars from young mouths.

When healthy teeth are removed the physical challenges may be similar to medically necessary extractions (see my tips below) but the emotional implications are often postponed for decades.

I have met with many adults filled with regret and delayed grief for the adult teeth that were pulled out in their teens before they understood the implications. 

Deciding to extract an unhealthy tooth as an adult can be an opportunity to heal the old trauma of the earlier loss of healthy teeth by releasing your old regrets and grief.

Dear tooth, I honour the life you shared with me and release you with love.

You can choose to turn your tooth extraction experience into a portal of profoundly transformational healing.

Download the 7-minute long MP3 audio recording to meditate with and/or use as journaling prompts.

Top tips for an uncomplicated extraction

After a tooth has been extracted, a clot will form over the extraction site. This clot is what will keep you from developing a dry socket (and possibly its long-term complication of cavitation) so you want to encourage the clot to stay in place for 5-10 days.

You’ll be able to see the clot in your gums as a black spot that gets smaller day by day, eventually getting lighter in color and disappearing completely. 

The following tips are all about helping a healthy clot to form a secure attachment and stay in place until it dissolves or falls out naturally.

1. Schedule at least 24 hours to rest and recuperate from a tooth extraction. You may have a very easy experience in the dental chair and feel fine afterwards, but losing a tooth is still a big adjustment for your body. Immediately after a tooth extraction is not the time to take any exercise, including walking more than half a block. If possible you should avoid lifting anything heavy, especially wriggly children. If you had a difficult extraction try to take an additional couple of days off from any kind of exertion.

2. Don’t suck, squirt, or swish anything in your mouth anything until the clot is completely gone. That means don’t drink through a straw, smoke or vape, don’t oil pull, use a mouthwash or water flosser and don’t french kiss or give oral sex until the gum has healed over and you can’t see the clot anymore.

3. Avoid ‘bitsy’ food until the clot is gone. Stick to liquids for the first 24 hours, then eat soft smooth food for at least another couple of days. After day 3 you can start eating chewier food if you want but don’t eat food with little bits, like rice, rolled oats, chopped parsley, or nuts and seeds. Avoid any foods that might scratch at the clot like chips or toast.

A portal for transformational healing

Dear tooth, I honour the life you shared with me and release you with love.

A tooth extraction can carry a heavy emotional burden of fear, grief, disappointment, anger, and/or despair which can add to physical discomfort at the time, and may linger if not acknowledged and integrated.

Creating a healing story to consciously work with the emotions of extraction, along with the meaning of the tooth’s archetype*, can turn an extraction experience into a portal of profoundly transformational healing. It’s one of the most powerful aspects of my work as a natural oral health coach.

I recorded a heartfelt guided meditation called ‘Farewell to a Tooth’ where you can hear my words as though you are speaking directly to a tooth that you need to release or have already lost.

You can stream the meditation for free on Insight Timer  or purchase it as an MP3 download to listen offline forever.

*Tooth Archetypes are the unique emotional associations of each individual tooth, described in my book, The Secret Lives of Teeth.

Dear tooth, I honour the life you shared with me and release you with love.

You can choose to turn your tooth extraction experience into a portal of profoundly transformational healing.

Download the 7-minute long MP3 audio recording to meditate with and/or use as journaling prompts.

The Secret Lives of Teeth cover

Learn how to interpret the metaphysical messages of your teeth and gum symptoms!

The Secret Lives of Teeth is a clear and comprehensive guide teaches you a unique, complementary self-help approach to easing toothaches, enhancing enamel and gum remineralization and getting better results with necessary dental treatments. 

Available as a paperback or ebook.

Has a dentist told you that your cavities or receding gums are your fault because you are drinking too much Coke, you don’t floss enough or you need to stop breastfeeding your baby? And you know that isn’t true!

I’m a natural oral health coach and I’m not going to blame you or shame you.
The underlying causes of your oral health issues are not your fault!

Nature or nurture, ancestry or environment, free will or systemic oppression, unconscious emotions or the degraded food system are the factors that make your teeth and gums vulnerable to disease.

Even though your tooth decay and gum disease is not your fault, it is within your power to change.

I can help you to turn your oral health around with natural strategies, healthy habits and intuitive insights. 

Tooth extraction meditation

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Fast, easy, and cheap bone broths

Fast, easy, and cheap bone broths

Bone broth is one of the most nutritious foods for oral health because it’s high in collagen for strong, flexible gum tissue and mineral-rich for remineralizing tooth enamel. It’s also inexpensive and easy to make yourself!

Whether you are a habitual bone broth brewer or you’ve never even tried, you can vary your broth to suit your priorities:

FAST? EASY? CHEAP?

It’s all good!

 

Alt oral book review

Choose the bones

The best bones come from organic or wild animals.

For fast bone broth: Fish bones (and fish heads) make the fastest bone broth. The thinner the bones, the quicker they give up rich mineral goodness and fish bones only need up to an hour of simmering for an exceptionally nutritious broth.

(Chicken bone broth takes up to 24 hours of simmering and beef bones can simmer for up to 72 hours.)

For easy bone broth: Save your leftovers. Any time you roast a whole chicken, grill some T-bone steaks, or roast a leg of lamb you’ll have bones left over at the end.

Don’t throw them out! If you don’t want to make your broth immediately, store the bones in the freezer until you are ready.

For cheap bone broth: If you know someone who hunts or fishes, ask them if you can have the bones whenever they are successful. Otherwise look out for inexpensive bags of beef bones, fish heads, or chicken carcasses in the freezer section of your butcher or meat counter.

Choose the cooking container

The bigger your cooking container, the easier it is to make therapeutic quantities of broth on a regular basis.

For fast bone broth: If you have an instant pot (pressure cooker) you can make bone broth much more quickly than any other method!

For easy bone broth: If you have a slow cooker (crock pot) bone broth can be a set-and-forget cooking project.

For cheap bone broth: Use your biggest cooking pot and simmer on the lowest heat.

Choose the additions

Add a splash of vinegar to any broth to help draw out more of the nutrients.

For fast bone broth:  Make a bland broth with nothing but bones and water. Bland broth makes a good base for smoothies and any kind of cooking where you don’t want the broth flavor to dominate.

For easy bone broth: Use whatever fresh vegetables or herbs you happen to have available.

Onion, carrot, and celery are tried and true. Add bay leaf, thyme, and parsley for a Euro-flavor profile or ginger, garlic, and chilli for a more Asian-flavor profile. Or, even easier, add a stock cube for flavor.

For cheap bone broth: Keep a big sturdy ziplock bag in the freezer to collect vegetable scraps e.g. onion ends, carrot peels, leek leaves, and parsley stalks. Add any vegetables in your kitchen that are starting to get limp but not rotten, or vegetables from your garden that are over- or under-ripe or going to seed.

When you’re ready to cook withdraw a couple of handfuls at a time for a small broth batch or dump the whole bag to make a big broth. No need to thaw first.

Pro tip: chop the scraps into small pieces before you freeze them to release more flavor into the broth.

Alt oral book review

Choose what’s next

Once the broth is cooked, strain out all the solids. You can cook the bones again to simmer for another (less flavorful but still nutritious) broth.

For fast bone broth: make into a soup straight away by following your favorite recipe or adding some fresh vegetables to simmer until soft enough to blend or mash.

For easy bone broth: Transfer cooled broth to a jar in the fridge then heat up one cup at a time with a sachet or spoonful of miso paste for a hearty drink

For cheap bone broth:  Make broth in bulk to store in the freezer. Store in big containers for when you plan to make it into family-sized meals. Freeze in muffin cups for single serves or ice cube trays for when you just need a tablespoon of broth for a recipe. Transfer portions to a sealed bag once frozen so they’ll last longer.

For more simple suggestions for food to help regenerate teeth and gums check out

My delicious liver pate recipe

Cloud bread recipe

Golden milk

Alternatives to raw milk

Anti-cavity candy recipe

The Secret Lives of Teeth cover

Learn how to interpret the metaphysical messages of your teeth and gum symptoms!

The Secret Lives of Teeth is a clear and comprehensive guide teaches you a unique, complementary self-help approach to easing toothaches, enhancing enamel and gum remineralization and getting better results with necessary dental treatments. 

Available as a paperback or ebook. 

Has a dentist told you that your cavities or receding gums are your fault because you are drinking too much Coke, you don’t floss enough or you need to stop breastfeeding your baby? And you know that isn’t true!

I’m not going to blame you or shame you.
The underlying causes of your oral health issues are not your fault!

Nature or nurture, ancestry or environment, free will or systemic oppression, unconscious emotions or the degraded food system

These are the factors that make your teeth and gums vulnerable to disease.

Even though your tooth decay and gum disease is not your fault, it is within your power to change.

You can turn your oral health around with natural strategies and healthy habits.

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