I found a trick that’s working for me.
And it doesn’t involve expensive, risky and painful surgery to cover exposed teeth with gum tissue taken from another part of my mouth.
Two years ago, my lower front teeth felt uncomfortably loose. Not painful, but insecure. I dreaded losing any of them.
In conventional dream interpretation, dreaming about losing your teeth means you’re afraid of losing power and effectiveness.
That’s just how I felt, but it was no dream. I worried about food pulling out one of my teeth.
And the fear was plausible because my lower front gumline began receding decades ago. The roots of my lower front teeth are exposed to the open air.
Fortunately, I found a solution.
Swishing my mouth twice a day with a solution of wheatgrass.
What is Wheatgrass?
It’s the young, freshly sprouted first leaves of the ordinary wheat plant – Triticum aestivum.
Wheatgrass has nothing to do with wheat grain. But don’t take it if you have Celiac disease or you’re sensitive to gluten.
It’s rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. And it’s a great source of chlorophyll.
That makes it antibacterial, which may account for the benefits of swishing it in your mouth twice a day.
Because it contains so much nutrition, wheatgrass is becoming a widely known “superfood,” and it’s taken by many celebrities. And juice bars sell shots of wheatgrass juice.
One scientific study demonstrated it’s effective against ulcerative colitis.
How Have I Made My Teeth Feel Super Firm in My Mouth?
I bought a cannister of Whole Foods organic wheatgrass powder – 7.3 ounces for around $12. A cannister lasts around 5 months, so this gum-and-teeth-saving technique is extremely inexpensive. It costs just about 7 cents per day.
In the morning, I eat breakfast and brush my teeth. I then put a 1/4 teaspoon of the wheatgrass powder into a small bottle with about 1-2 ounces of water. That’s about one “shot.” Nothing has to be exact here. Just use an amount of water you find comfortable holding in your mouth.
I swish it around, especially so it comes into contact with my lower front teeth and gums, while I count to 300 – about five minutes.
I spit it out.
That’s it for the morning. My mouth feels clean until I eat lunch.
Chlorophyll supposedly helps freshen your breath. But I admit I’ve never asked anyone to smell my breath and give me feedback.
Repeat in the Evening
I floss and brush my teeth about an hour after I finish eating. Then I swish with the wheatgrass powder.
Therefore, my mouth is clean and fresh all night while I sleep.
How Does It Work?
As far as I know, this hasn’t been scientifically studied. I wouldn’t write about it, except it’s worked for me.
While you swish the wheatgrass powder, your gums must absorb some of the nutrition it contains. That’s many vitamins and minerals, plus antioxidants – and, no doubt, some phytonutrients.
Science probably hasn’t even begun to start studying everything in wheatgrass. There are hundreds to thousands of phytonutrients in every plant food, and science currently knows of only the major ones.
We do know that poor teeth and gums are caused by bacteria growing in our mouths, including streptococcal (strep) and Lactobacillus. Lactobacillus feeds on the food people leave in their mouths when they fail to keep their mouths clean by flossing and brushing.
(NOTE: swishing wheatgrass in your mouth does NOT replace brushing your teeth twice a day and flossing at least once.)
And we know wheatgrass does kill Lactobacillus bacilli. Maybe that’s the only reason it works. I believe some of the antioxidants and phytonutrients play a role, too – and the chlorophyll. But science has not studied this.
If you tell your dentist you’re doing this, they’ll probably laugh at you – and then want you to undergo extensive surgery to cover the exposed roots of your teeth.
(ANOTHER NOTE: Standard dental science says it’s “impossible” to reverse receding gums. If that’s true, my lower front teeth will never be strong and healthy again. However, I refuse to accept that. Many things medical science used to believe have been proven false.)
Wheatgrass as a Superfood
I have NOT been swallowing any wheatgrass powder, but maybe I should. It’d be easy to add the powder to smoothies, sprinkle some on a salad or just drink a small glass of water containing it.
Whole Plant or Juice Powder?
Some of the gurus promoting wheatgrass say you should drink the juice. That is, what’s left when you take the fiber out of the whole plant. (Just like juicing an orange or apple.)
And if you can’t buy fresh juice from a juice bar, buy the wheatgrass juice powder – which is dried wheatgrass juice. That is, minus the fiber. The fiber in insoluble, these gurus point out.
For swishing your mouth to improve your dental health, wheatgrass powder is fine. You spit it out anyway.
If you want to eat some, I don’t see any reason not to eat the whole food powder either. So what if it contains some indigestible fiber? That feeds your gut bacteria. You eat insoluble fiber every day (or you should) in many fruits and vegetables.
Science has yet to do the research to back up the extravagant claims some wheatgrass fans make.
However, my personal experience says swishing with it twice a day strengthens your gums.
And adding more nutrition to your meals can never be wrong.
