Sue (Arroyo Grande, Ca) on 08/27/2011

I now use a toothpaste without sodium lauryl sulfate and a rinse without alcohol. The rinse I use already has peppermint oil in it, but I add extra. As a tooth cleaner, I occassionally use calcium citrate powder with a little baking soda. Oh, and I drink my coffee with a stainless steel straw to avoid the kind of staining in the lower front teeth that I previously had.

At night before bedtime, I massage a mixture of oils into my gums.

In the past my enamel had been damaged by over the counter whiteners. They used to say that you can't regain enamel once it is damaged, but this isn't completely so. My enamel isn't as good as it once was, but it has improved from the point of the damage. It doesn't feel dry and rough anymore in the spots that had eroded. It feels smooth again, though thinner. I've tried so many things, so I can only think that it is just time and better hygene that improved the situation.

BTW, I still rarely floss. Sometimes I think it just grinds the food down further. I use a water irrigator, a gum stimulator and small interdental brushes to remove food particles that are stuck.

But I wanted to mention a couple more things. The quality of the water from our tap water is horrible in terms of bacteria. I suspect that a lot of dental problems start with the water. I use filtered or distilled water in my irrigator and add a cap full of hydrogen perioxide.

I have sinus problems and the light dawned that the gum disease and sinus drip are probably caused by the same bacteria. So it would seem that if you get rid of one problem and still have the other, you would be reinfected continously. So that's the other side of the coin I have to work on.