February 6, 2025 | Health Prepping: Vitamin D Prevents Tooth Decay

Vitamin D is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s already known to prevent cancer, heart disease, and dementia. And according to new research, it also prevents and/or fixes cavities.

Here’s an excerpt from a much longer article on the subject by Dr. Joseph Mercola:

Remember that sharp pain while biting down on popcorn? Or the dreaded dentist visit with the news of a cavity? Cavities, also known as dental caries, are a common problem affecting people of all ages. These tiny holes in your teeth are caused by a breakdown of tooth enamel, the hard outer layer protecting your teeth. Cavities are often painful, expensive to treat and ultimately lead to tooth loss.

But here’s some good news: research suggests a surprising ally in the fight against cavities — vitamin D3, also known as the sunshine vitamin.

How Cavities Ruin Your Teeth

Your teeth are like a fortified castle. The hard outer layer, the enamel, acts like a strong shield protecting the softer inner structures from invaders. Enamel is the hardest substance in the human body, made mostly of minerals like calcium and phosphate. This strong shield protects the more vulnerable dentin and pulp layers beneath.

But these invaders aren’t knights; they’re microscopic bacteria that love sugary foods and drinks. When these bacteria build up as plaque on your teeth, they produce acid. Think of plaque as a sticky film that constantly forms on your teeth. When you eat sugary foods or drinks, the bacteria in plaque feast on these sugars and release acids as a byproduct.

This acid erodes the enamel, leading to a process called demineralization, where essential minerals like calcium are lost, weakening your shield. This is how cavities form — tiny breaches in the enamel that deepen and cause pain if left untreated.

If the demineralization continues, the enamel breaks down, forming a cavity. Brushing twice a day removes plaque while flossing helps remove food particles hidden between teeth. However, optimizing your vitamin D levels is another important strategy to reduce your cavity risk.

Vitamin D3 Helps Build Strong Teeth

When your enamel starts to weaken due to demineralization, a process called remineralization helps reverse the damage. Remineralization is like repairing cracks in a wall. Minerals like calcium are deposited back into the enamel, strengthening it and even reversing early-stage cavities. This process maintains the integrity of your teeth and prevents further decay.

Research suggests that vitamin D3 plays a key role in this process. A study published in Cureus investigated the effects of oral vitamin D3 on remineralization of early enamel lesions. The researchers used extracted premolars and created artificial caries-like lesions on their enamel surfaces. They then exposed these teeth to saliva collected from volunteers who had taken 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 supplements daily for varying periods (three and six weeks).

The researchers compared these results to teeth exposed to saliva from the same volunteers before they started taking the supplements, as well as control groups (one with healthy enamel and one exposed to demineralization only). The study measured two key aspects: microhardness of the enamel surface and the weight percentage of calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P), the main minerals in teeth.

They used a Vickers microhardness machine to assess the surface hardness, a measure of how resistant the enamel is to damage. They also used X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry, a technique that precisely measures the amount of different elements in a sample, to quantify the calcium and phosphorus content.

The study found that teeth exposed to saliva from the vitamin D3 supplemented volunteers showed a significant increase in both microhardness and Ca and P content compared to those exposed to saliva collected before supplementation. This indicated that the saliva from the vitamin D3 group promoted better remineralization.

This study provided evidence that oral vitamin D3 supplementation indirectly enhances the remineralization of early caries lesions. By improving calcium absorption and availability, vitamin D3 supports the natural repair processes of tooth enamel. This means that having adequate vitamin D levels is beneficial for protecting and strengthening teeth.

Vitamin D’s Role in Adolescent Dental Health

Recent studies show that adolescents with insufficient vitamin D are more than twice as likely to develop cavities compared to those with sufficient levels. According to the researchers, “Our review suggests that improving vitamin D status could be a beneficial component of preventive strategies against dental caries in children and adolescents.”

How Vitamin D Protects Developing Teeth

One study highlighted the effect of vitamin D even before a child is born. Teeth begin to develop very early in pregnancy, and vitamin D plays a role in this process. If a mother is deficient in vitamin D during pregnancy, it leads to defects in the baby’s developing teeth, making them more susceptible to cavities later in life. This emphasizes the importance of pregnant women maintaining adequate vitamin D levels.

Beyond its role in tooth development, vitamin D also strengthens your body’s natural defenses against cavity-causing bacteria. It does this by boosting the production of antimicrobial proteins, which are like tiny warriors that fight off harmful microbes in your mouth. One of these warriors, called cathelicidin, is particularly effective at targeting Streptococcus mutans, a key bacteria involved in cavity formation.

Studies have shown that children with sufficient vitamin D levels have higher levels of cathelicidin in their saliva, providing them with extra protection against cavities.

Read the rest here.

John Rubino February 6th, 2025

Posted In: John Rubino Substack

Next: Central Bank Rate Cuts Not Road to Prosperity »