Dantadhavana: Brushing of the teeth

After elimination of urine and feces before bathing, a person should clean their teeth with the tastes of astringent, bitter and pungent

If you read the article: https://trueayurveda.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/t-happens-the-bodys-natural-cleansing-system-why-do-a-morning-regimen/
prior to reading this you will be miles ahead and understand what the statement above means.

To make it really simple…… sweet taste is anabolic. It means it grows tissue. You eat alot of sweets and you grow, right? Excess sweet rots teeth, we all understand that. What are the taste of the toothpastes in the market? Sweet. And in the far past when you were a kid what were they? The further back you go the more you find what works and the closer to today you come it is about selling a product so toothpastes are made sweet. This is a view of Ayurveda is one of the main reasons why we see such a huge frequency of gum disease in the West. 

Bodaka kapha is the saliva, the mouth is one of the homes to kapha. The focus of the teeth and mouth treatments routinely, in Ayurveda, balance kapha unless there is a individuals problem to be treated. Pungent, Bitter, and Astringent do this and a lot more for the gums and teeth.

Action of tastes:

Sweet	Most acceptable taste, ­ strength, Gain weight, Good for Eyes, Throat, Hair, ­Immunity, Nourishes Senses, specifically promotes all tissues, Produces kaphaja disorders such as obesity, laxity, lassitude, heaviness, “abnormal growth in mouth and throat” V- P- K­+
Sour	­ Digestion, ­heart, ­appetite, specifically will sensitize teeth  V- P­+ K­+
Salty	­ Digestion, ­ moisture, – stiffness, V-, Clears subtle channels, specifically will create salivation in mouth, liquefies kapha, makes the inflamed part burst and teeth loosen and fall out. V- P+ K+­
Pungent	­ Digestion, cleanses mouth, – moisture, opens channels, scraping, specifically cleanses mouth, alleviates swelling, kills organisms V­+ P­- K-
Bitter	Gives taste, digest toxins, cleanses tissues moisture sweat urine stool, worms and parasites, dries moisture and fat, easily digestible, Specifically provides firmness to skin and muscles, gives rise to non-sliminess and dryness in mouth V­+P- K-
Astringent	Cleanses blood, dries moisture and fat, Stops flow, wound healing, size, scraping, absorption, not easily digestible, specifically union promoting, compressing, healing, absorbing V+P- K-

In care of teeth cleaning:
Benefits: removes foul smell, tastelessness and taking out dirt brings relish immediately. The toothbrush: Use astringent, pungent, and bitter taste teeth cleaning twigs for brushing the teeth. A fresh twig is made into a toothbrush by chewing the end so as to create a frayed, fibrous brush free from splinters. Plants recommended for toothbrush: “karanja, karavira, arka, jati, kakubha, asana and similar plants” Charaka Samhita Su5#71-74

Regular kavala (oil swishing with sesame oil) gives strength in teeth – Charaka Samhita Su25#40

Kavala (with sesame oil) provides strength in jaws and voice, development of face, maximum taste and relish in food. One does not suffer from dryness of throat, cracking lips, tooth cavities, pain in teeth, over-sensitivity of teeth on taking sour taste; teeth become firm-rooted, able to chew even the hardest food items. Charaka Samhita Su5#78-80
See article on Oil Pulling

Of course there are all sorts of details in treatments beyond this.

Taste of the herb and its potency is used as to the season and as the need of the individuals balance/imbalance.

Season – Taste, Potency – Herb

Summer – Sweet, Cold- Madhuka

Spring – Pungent Bitter, Hot- Karanja

Spring, Autumn – Astringent Bitter, Cold –Khadira

Winter and Rainy – Pungent Bitter, Hot – Arka

Autumn – Astringent Pungent Cold – Vata

A blend of herbs that makes a great tooth powder is Haritaki, Bibitaki, Amalaki, (those three are what makes triphala churna) Bakula, Babbula, Khadira, Kutaja, Nimba Twak (neem bark), Saindhava Lavana (rocksalt), Karpoora, Peppermint. You can order these in bulk or most of them and mix them yourself.

For the rest of us, we can use an Ayurveda tooth powder like Vicco, Vedica, Red or Monkey Brand and others. Baba Ram Dev has is Danta Divya product but it has black salt in it which there is no reason for. Everything else on the product labeling is correct. Ayurmere and others that are claiming to be ayurvedic but are sweet are just more of the same old same old modern world to making a cool product to sell. Your best bet is to stay away from anything popular. (my experience is that you cannot trust what is actually in a package vs what is written on a label much less the quality of the herbs or how old they are). Also, it has come to my attention that there is alum in one of these which makes complete sense because alum is very astringent. Of course this makes some people afraid due to the fear of aluminum but just to remark, India uses mainly aluminum pots and pans to cook yet the incidence of alzheimer’s and dementia is low. Interesting. 

The following tooth powder removes bleeding, itching, and pain:
Powder the following Tejohva, haritaki, ela, samanga, katuka, musta, patha, jyotismati, lodhra, daruharidra, kustha.
– Charaka Samhita Ci26#183

 

And here are three more recipes

• Powder of Pippli (Piper longum Linn.) or Dhataki Pushpa (flowers of Woodfordia frutiosa Kurz.) and Amalaki (Emblica officinals Gaertn) fruits with honey should be rubbed on gums, for easy dentation.

• Application of dry flesh (Mamsa) of certain birds like Batera (Pleasant) and Titir (Partidge) with honey helps the appearance of teeth and mouth appears with, teeth like lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn) with pollen.

• Use of Ghrita medicated with Vacha (Acorus calamus Linn.), Brihati (both Solanum indicum Linn. and Solanum surattense Burm.f.), Patha (Cissampelos pareira Linn.), Kutaki (Picrorhiza kurroa Royle ex Benth), Ativisa (Aconitum heterophylum Wall.), Motha (Cyperus rotundus Linn.) and drugs of Jivaniyagana (Nutrient decoctives)

 

 

Other diseases have their own treatment as well as what herbs to be using.

Uncutous smoking of herbs is also used for loose teeth.

Another toothpowder one can make theirself that is quite easy is taking triphala, get an iron pan and turn on the fan of the stove. Place some triphala in the pan after it reaches temperature and burn the triphala to ash. Collect this ash after it has cooled and use this for brushing your teeth.

 

In Ayurveda, the teeth are hereditary from your father much like the Western world states that the influential hair loss gene is carried on the X chromosome, which a male would only get from his mother, and which could have been passed on by her father.

 

In sitting with my teacher having casual conversation about life and Ayurveda, which we do a lot and of which I hold as some of the most blessed conversations and time I get to have in my life, he shared with me about how when he was a child they would take the charcoals from the kitchen after breakfast and crush them up with salt and use that as their tooth paste without a toothbrush. This was real india and village life back in the 70’s and early 80’s. This was followed by everyone he could think of back then before toothpaste was brought to India. He also shared with me that the health of peoples teeth were healthier back then than today. The groundwater level that is being consumed has something to do with that as well. Suffice to say, maybe what is thought of in the Western world as health, and that of tooth care should really be rethought. There is a Indian toothpowder brand called Monkey Brand that is a charcoal base with herbs that would be similar to what he mentioned.

More to state here is what is consumed is alot to do with the state of the teeth’s health. Back in my teacher’s time as a child in a village in India, there was no Westernized junk food. Everything was fresh and natural, including the sweets made of lots of sugar and ghee but the sugar is not the same as the processed sugar in the states. Which is why there were not health problems due to the amount of sugar consumed back then.

 

 

But wait……. there is alot more. The health of your teeth is more connected to the health of your bones and this brings up a serious indicator.

Signs of diminution of Asthi (bone)… falling of hairs, nails, beards and mustaches and teeth, fatigue and laxity of joints. – Charaka Samhita Su17#73

Meanwhile one who has excellence in medas (fat tissue) is seen to have excellence in teeth – Charaka Samhita Vi8#106 & 107

The teeth are predominantly Parthiva (earth element). – Charaka Samhita Sa7#16

The health of the bones show in the teeth as the teeth are a secondary tissue of the bones. Increase the bone health and increase the teeth health. They actually get whiter. The gums health is split between the bone health and the muscle tissue health. It can go either way or due to both.

 

When asthi dhatu (bone tissue) becomes deficient, a lower bone density t score, signs are hair density and hair loss which may be distributed throughout the scalp or in patches. The nails become thin and break easily. The teeth can be loose, become crooked and become stained more than usual.

 

Bone Density Test Results

1 and above	Your bone density is considered normal.
Between -1 and -2.5	Your score is a sign of osteopenia, a condition in which bone density is below normal and may lead to osteoporosis.
-2.5 and below	Your bone density indicates you likely have osteoporosis.

 

Asthi dhatu or bones are formed from the nutrients supplied by meda dhatu (fat) through asthi vaha srotas (subtle channel of bone). The nutrients in meda dhatu which is meant to nourish asthi dhatu are processed in asthi vaha srotas by dhatu agnis (digestive fire of the tissue). Dhatu agni (digestive fire of the tissue) and bhuta agni (digestive fire of the elements .. vayu, agni and prithvi ) bring about hardness and heaviness to these nutrients which form asthi or bone. Su. Sa. 15/5

Asthi dhatu’s (bone tissue) function is to support. This can understood in several ways. The bones serve to uphold all body tissues and give them kathinya (firmness) and a foundation. When it is sufficient, it gives confidence, stability, confidence, security, certainty and a good stamina. Asthi comes from the term “Stha” meaning to stand or “endure”. Su. Sa. 5/23-25

From this shloka you may see how the depletion of bone tissue also results in mental process of a person without all of these qualities.

Vata (air and ether elements) aggravation is initially going to be caused by either sangha (tissue blockage) or kshaya (tissue deficiency) and if not treated it will turn into to a vicious cycle of ever increasing vata and associated progressive bone tissue degeneration.

Diagnosis:
First off is their aama (toxic metabolic waste) in the system? Is the tongue coated deeply with this aama? Aamapachana (digestion of aama) is a prerequisite for any treatment of deeper tissues. Diet should be aama reducing to remove any accumulated toxic residues of improper digestion, and also agni increasing to ensure that no new ama is formed. Langhana (fasting) is done remove ama and increasing agni. This is also based upon the individual and is not as easy as following the very popular “kitchari cleanse” as there could be several things wrong with the digestion that those kitchari cleansing diets will create more of a problem with. The most effective way of cleansing the system and dealing with all of this, of course, is real panchakarma. (need a referral of a real place to do PK)

So in diagnosis….. when air or ether element has afflicted asthi dhatu the treatment is to increase the quantity of earth element in the diet. Earth is found in the largest amount in sweet and astringent tasting foods. Astringent is the better for bones. When water and earth has afflicted asthi dhatu, the treatment is to decrease the quantity of earth or water element depending upon what is going on and increase the quality of the air element. Generally increasing pungent and bitter tastes are best for increasing the qualities of air in the body. Also in general, the diet should be light. When fire and water has afflicted asthi dhatu, treatment is to decrease the quality of the fire element. Whole milk, wheat and other grains should be taken.

Is the water to high is the body and washing out the earth element or is the air element to high and has depleted (notice this is what all of the modern detoxing does to the body and what we will be seeing a lot of in the future!!!) Or maybe it is even more complicated and water and air are both increased in the system?????? Complicated huh?

In a Western world approach, the answer would be to eat foods that build bones and the newest thing might be to take probiotics and to eat yogurt but this is where it ends and this is also the problem. The yogurt is clogging to the channels (toxic if with fruit) and the probiotics will create a pitta imbalance if ya didn’t have one before. Most of the foods that would be building bones are heavy nourishing foods. This means that they are hard to digest so just looking on the web and coming up with foods that are good for bones and starting to eat them in excess compared to what you where previously is a great way to create new disease. The reason why the bones and then of course the teeth would be a problem in the first place could be numerous but most likely on the playing card of that the digestion is unable to digest those heavy foods for whatever of the many reasons it is and so dumping more of the heavy foods into the gut is actually going to lead to more problems of the same. The answer would be to first stop looking on the internet for symptom based solutions and learn deeper knowledge. There is far too much garbage on the internet to make sense of it all and is not a good place to learn proper knowledge. Second would be to build the digestion back strong which is not of this article but is found in others across this blog. What is going on with the digestion and the tissues is not something one can diagnose by them self.

What I can say in general is that one can simply lighten their diet. this will make the digestion function better. Eat at the proper times consistently when your digestive fire is strong, meaning you have an appetite. Eating several small meals or snacking is not a way to do anything but disturb your digestion. Eat twice or three times a day. Problem with this advice is that someone that has a bone density disorder can have it for a variety of reasons and by lightening the diet it can increase vata which will degrade the bone density even further. See, it is not all that easy and that is why you have people that are called doctors that have studied these things for a long period of time. Lol. Everything else is just blindly shooting at a target that you can’t see.

A nice way to build the bones would be to take arjun or even better make arjuna kshirapaka. But that of course would be dependent upon what is going on with the person. There is also a great ladoo recipe on this blog that has gum in it that is really good for bones.

I could easily go as far as to say very easily that doing meditation on grounding and focusing on your tailbone would be one of the necessary and easier ways to treat from multiple directions as the western lifestyle is a fast paced and embodiment and grounding is lacking highly in that lifestyle. There is also chi gung bone breathing that can be performed but in any case the earth element needs to be dealt with and stabilized.

So when your out there surfing the web, and reading those sites that state that this is good for this and that is good for that, trying to learn what to do for your health problems remember, they do not have your health in mind. It is normally connected to selling a product. You are an individual. Respect yourself as one. One needs to have a proper diagnosis by a competent well educated doctor to have proper treatment of the actual problem. Another thing, The above is how real Ayurveda works besides the bone density test which is just used to confirm diagnosis easily. So what does that state about all the nonsense out there. Most of it is just Ayurvedic herbs and foods being used in a Western nutrition and medical method.

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• 29/01/2015
• Ayurveda Articles
• 36 Comments