What Vitamins Can I Take to Strengthen my Teeth?
As we all know, proper dental care requires daily brushing and flossing as well as regular trips to the dentist’s office. But there’s more to it than that. Our teeth depend on the nutrients we take in through our daily diet to stay strong, but what happens when your diet isn’t giving them all that they need? We asked experts to weigh in on the most important supplements for keeping teeth strong and healthy for life. Here’s what they had to say.
Azza Shahid
Azza Shahid is the Content Marketing Executive at DSRPT- a smart home company with features and citations in MSN, CMS Wire, and Outwit Trade. Besides that, she is the mother to a 3-year-old daughter who is sparkly and adventurous when she is not throwing tantrums.
The three important vitamins
Calcium is not only important for bones, but it is also important for your teeth. It helps in maintaining healthy teeth. If you suffer from calcium deficiency this will result in early tooth decay.
Phosphorus works with calcium to keep your teeth strong and healthy.
Vitamin D is important because it helps absorb calcium in your body, which in return helps keep your teeth strong.
Dusan Goljic, PharmD
Dusan Goljic, PharmD, Co-founder of DealsOnHealth, is a board-certified pharmacist and a project manager in digital healthcare services. He worked for a decade in various pharma sectors, including as a manager for pharmaceutical companies and as a community pharmacist.
Calcium and Vitamin D
Calcium. The first and most beneficial supplement for teeth is calcium. Calcium is a mineral that is permanently deposited in our teeth.
Enamel is the hardest substance in our body, and it consists of 95-98% inorganic matter—mostly minerals. The main mineral in enamel is a crystalline calcium phosphate called hydroxyapatite. When the enamel is weakened, calcium supplements help harden it and even repair it to some extent. It also strengthens the jaw bone, improving tooth retention.
Vitamin D is an essential vitamin for bone strength. It enhances the absorption of calcium, which is why it’s frequently recommended to take both vitamin D and calcium at the same time. Research has linked vitamin D deficiency with periodontal gum disease. It appears that vitamin D is an essential vitamin to take for gum immunity.
Theresa Quitto-Dickerson
Theresa Quitto-Dickerson has over 15 years of experience in tech and wellness and is the Founder & CEO of The Natural Mixx Company, an eCommerce tech company exclusively focused on organic health and wellness.
Adding Cinnamon Bark as a vitamin
A little known vitamin supplement that does wonders for teeth strengthening is Cinnamon Bark. This supplement is high in aldehyde content, making it a strong antiseptic and antimicrobial supporter for oral health. This oil, found in supplemental capsules, is also an astringent, due to being high in tannins. This provides teeth the extremely valuable benefit of reducing irritation and inflammation on the surface as well as strengthening and firming oral tissue. Adding Cinnamon Bark as a vitamin supplement enhances the creation of a protective barrier against infection.
Lisa Richards
Lisa Richards is a nutritionist and author of The Candida Diet. She has been featured on Today, US News, Women’s Health magazine, Huffington Post, Healthline, the San Francisco Chronicle, Reader’s Digest, Lifehack, Insider, and Well+Good, among others.
Vitamin D supplement
Vitamin D is essential to the process of the body using calcium to support bone growth and health, and this includes teeth. When vitamin D levels are low, this process is not as efficient, and our bones can become weak. While we may not notice this initially, the side effects of our chronic vitamin D deficiency may show up later in life through fragile bones and poor dentition.
Supplementing with vitamin D for healthy teeth is almost useless unless you are also taking in enough calcium. You can supplement with calcium as well or take it in through your diet.
Megan Wong
Megan Wong is a Registered Dietitian whose focus has been on working with the geriatric population and in public health disease management. She is currently working with AlgaeCal - a company that works hard to help others regain bone strength naturally.
Vitamins that strengthen your teeth
Calcium - Calcium helps strengthen enamel, the protective layer of your teeth. Damage to this outer coating is one of the main causes of cavities and can even lead to yellow discoloration, crowns, and root canals.
Vitamin D - There really isn’t a point of focusing on calcium unless you’re also focusing on vitamin D. Without vitamin D, you won’t be absorbing much calcium. Vitamin D can also help decrease gum inflammation, which can lead to periodontitis.
Vitamin K - Vitamin K2 activates two proteins that are key to healthy teeth and bones: osteocalcin and matrix Gla. Think of these proteins like traffic directors - they direct calcium to bones and teeth and keep it from depositing in unwanted places. These proteins also help to mineralize teeth and defend them from bacteria.
Phosphorus - Around 85% of the total phosphorus in our bodies is found in bones and teeth. Naturally, if your teeth are made of phosphorus, it’s important to make sure you’re eating enough to keep your teeth strong!
Cristina Svec
Cristina Svec is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with West Oakland Health in Oakland, CA. She provides Medical Nutrition Therapy for the clinic’s patients who have been found to have diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, as well as for those who want to learn how to better manage their weight.
Four Important vitamins and minerals
There are four vitamins and minerals that are the most important in terms of tooth health. Those are calcium, vitamin D, phosphorus, and vitamin A.
Calcium helps with bone formation, and it strengthens tooth enamel. It is found not only in dairy foods, such as yogurt, milk, and cheese, but also in leafy greens, some beans, almonds, sesame seeds, or salmon canned with bones.
Vitamin D helps deposit calcium in the bones that support teeth. Vitamin D is not widely found in foods unless they are enriched with vitamin D, but it is easily formed in the body from the sunlight. Some food sources of vitamin D are fatty fish, milk, and breakfast cereal.
Phosphorus is very important for tooth enamel, and it can be found in meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, nuts, beans, and dairy products.
Vitamin A also helps build tooth enamel and is important for gums' health. It is found in cod liver oil, eggs, fortified fat-free milk, as well as orange and yellow fruits and veggies (sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, bell peppers, carrots, and squash).
Aside from these four vitamins and minerals, vitamin C is also important for gum health, due to its role in the formation of blood vessels and in controlling bleeding. Citrus fruit, berries, bell peppers, and tomatoes are all good sources of vitamin C.
Caleb Backe
Caleb Backe is a Health & Wellness Expert for Maple Holistics.
Vitamin K is a must-have
Vitamin K - Vitamin K blocks substances that break down bone, your teeth included. It’s also a calcium-binder which makes it essential for strong teeth. Combining these two factors means that vitamin K is a must-have to strengthen your teeth and generally improve overall oral health. You can find this vitamin in leafy greens, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.
Phosphorus - One of the main dietary contributors to oral health is phosphorus. This mineral helps to absorb calcium and vitamin D, both of which are essential for your teeth. If your body is not getting enough phosphorus, you may experience chipping or breaking of the teeth. Phosphorus works to build strong tooth enamel. You can find this mineral in protein-rich foods such as meat, fish, eggs, and poultry.
Jonathan Bowman
Jonathan Bowman is a third-year dental student at the Dental College of Georgia. He is passionate about his patients' entire health and believes that proper care of the mouth is an incredibly important aspect of this goal.
Vitamin C
Your teeth are not as unchangeable as you may think! Similar to how your bones remodel themselves over time, your teeth are also in a perpetual process of recreation through remineralization/demineralization cycles.
Acidic foods and acidic byproducts from the bacteria that live in your mouth have a pH low enough to break down the outer surface of your teeth. This leaches away calcium and phosphorus that make up the hardest substance in your body. In order to initiate the 'remin' cycle (remineralization), those minerals need to be available for your body to use. Ingesting these minerals through supplementation and whole foods is key to keeping a cavity-free mouth.
Vitamin D3's role in calcium utilization in the liver is especially important and often a supplement recommended for elderly patients. Another aspect that is not a mineral but essential for oral health is Vitamin C consumption. Vitamin C is necessary for the formation of collagen, the group of proteins that are present in your tooth structure as well as the ligaments holding your teeth in your gums and attaching them to your bone. This is why historically, patients who had scurvy (a collagen-related disorder resulting from low levels of Vitamin C) would frequently lose teeth that had no cavities but would simply detach from the bone. Supplementing with Vitamin C is especially helpful in patients who refuse to consume adequate fruits and vegetables.
One final key that should be considered is that one-half to two-thirds of our teeth are below the gums being held in the bone. Anything you would supplement to maintain healthy bone, including phosphorus and calcium, which make up a large component of bone matrix—or even zinc, which helps with recycling bone, will ensure your teeth continue to serve you for decades to come!
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors are not necessarily affiliated with this website and their statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.