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Comment by Heinleinian | Hacker News Reader

Random observation -- my family seems to have a gene that makes us basically immune from cavities. My father has, to my knowledge, never had a cavity, despite being born in the 1930's, when health care, hygiene and regular dentist check-ups were not what they are today.

I've gone months without brushing my teeth. Been to the dentist twice in the last 10 years - no cavities. (Of course, starting in college I realized I should probably brush in the mornings for breath reasons...)

I've often wondered if some clever bio hacker could figure out what protein my genes are telling me to include in my saliva and reverse engineer it. Perhaps these guys did something similar.

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One of the theories behind cavity formation has to do with the pH in a persons mouth being perfect for the bacteria to grow and break down your teeth.

However some people seem to have a pH in their mouths that is not appropriate to bacterial growth and therefore they get less cavities. You probably fall within this group and therefore have a smaller chance of getting cavities.

I have the same thing actually (a part of my family have perfect teeth even being over 60; i'm not there yet, but almost 40 and my teeth are still perfect in every way), but I do brush my gums (and teeth lightly) daily for hygiene and it just feels better :). I have plaque removed (which I don't have much) every few years as well.

I do think that obsessive brushing 3x / day which people do (after every meal besides breakfast and every morning when getting up) is crazy; I have seem more people ruin their teeth with that than forgetting to brush once in a while.

I think it really is genetic or at least individual to each person. I brush my teeth twice a day. I floss and/or brush lightly after eating. I have very healthy gums and almost no plaque buildup. My dentist told me I don't need to get the professional cleaning that she tries to sell everyone because my teeth are clean and my gums healthy.

But then I get all these cavities and I can't do anything against them and my dentist is as frustrated as I am! My Mom has the same problem. And my Dad never had a cavity. It's all very unfair.

I've said things about genes and cavities to the few dentists I've seen in my life. They get so pissy when you do that. And I understand - it's in their interest to have you in their office regularly.

At any rate, I've also known people with nary a cavity. One was a heavy candy eater. It absolutely must be genetic. The dentist can stick his little scraping tool someplace else. I've also known people that seem to do everything right but can't keep from having cavities no matter what. I'm somewhere in the middle: Keep them clean and scrubbed and flossed and I can pretty much stay out of the dentist's chair.

If you don't get cavities, by not brushing your teeth you will have perfect teeth, on the floor, because your gums went bye bye

Of course, depends on your diet, but for anything resembling modern diet...

Oral health is not about only teeth, you know

Gum disease.

Brush your teeth.

And, if they bleed, that's a sign you haven't been brushing them enough.

> I've gone months without brushing my teeth

Why?

If you never get cavities, the principal reason for brushing goes out the window. Humans survived for tens of thousands of years with plaque and yesterday's kill stuck in the teeth, even when poor dental was predominant.

The primary reasons to brush your teeth are to prevent cavities, plaque buildup, and smell. If you don't get the first problem, the others are easy to ignore. Pleasant smelling breath is a modern ascetic, so it's easy to imagine a scenario where a young man that hasn't had regular intimate contact yet ignores the bad breath. It's only afterword that the positive social benefits become understood.

Humans survived with poor dental care by dying before their teeth were completely rotted. If you plan to live longer than about 50, you'd better brush.

This is a very strong claim, and is not backed by the evidence.

Studies of surviving hunting-gathering societies suggest that their lives were much lower stress and life spans (barring violent accident) much longer than early agricultural societies. Even with accident included, their lifespans were better comparatively recently. (For instance the eskimos, despite living in one of the harshest environments on Earth, had about a 25% chance of surviving to 60.)

Whether or not they would lose their teeth varied by diet. Our diets have lots of sugar and grains in them which promotes tooth decay. Other diets differ. Early surveys of eskimos that had never eaten Western food showed that most never have had a cavity in their lives. The immunity was not genetic - those exposed to Western food had plenty of cavities.

See http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/07/mortality-and-... for a reference to the lifespan of eskimos. See http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm_library/price/price5.ht... for some evidence about their lack of tooth decay.

Ah, but strong claims are a good tactic for eliciting fascinating responses like this one - thanks!

As someone with the same habits as the poster, I would say negative reinforcement.

Every time I brush my teeth -- EVERY TIME! -- they hurt for about two days, and I get nasty bad breath. But if I go without brushing for weeks on end, things are fine.

I brush anyway, when I want to look nice for something, but usually I skip it.

I've always wondered if, when I brush, I wipe out whatever bacteria are taking up the niche the teeth-eating bad-breath-causing ones usually fill. I haven't thought of a test for that, but my continued experience with teeth that only don't hurt if I haven't brushed for a while doesn't seem to align with the conventional idea of how it works...

As I said above, I started brushing my teeth in the mornings in college for breath reasons, so this was when I was a teenager. That was a long time ago, so I don't know. I was staying up absurdly late, passing out, and then having to get up at 7am to catch the bus, so that probably had something to do with it.

Yuck?

Yes i agree, that's disgusting.

I had the same benefit until I started getting sicker and my immunity stopped. So, you can keep on doing this if your immune system keeps up with you.

it's diet too; how much refined sugar do you eat?

I do think this is key. My Dad drinks no sugary drinks of any kind, including not just soda but fruit juice, etc. And I've basically stuck to that. Not big on sweets either. That stuff is killing us, seriously.

The thing about soda isn't just the liquid sugar in the soda, but also the acids in the soda itself.

For example, most colas contain phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid is the same thing your dentist will swab on your tooth during a basic reconstructive filling procedure, because it softens the enamel a wee bit, ensuring a better bond to the filling.

More in that vein: http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/12/dr-mellanbys-t...

Also more, Dr. Weston Price: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html

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