Oral health

For each one: how to use it, the best version, how to prepare it, what it does, and where it goes wrong.

Hydroxyapatite

The stuff your enamel is made of, as a toothpaste without fluoride. You choose it not because fluoride fails, but because fluoride builds up somewhere you would rather it did not.

How to use it: As your daily toothpaste, twice a day, in place of your fluoride paste. Not alongside it and not alternating: then you know what neither of them is doing.

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Oil pulling

A spoonful of coconut oil pulled through your teeth. Against the rinse a dentist prescribes it held its own, and it does not stain.

How to use it: A spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth, let it melt, pull it through and between your teeth for a few minutes, and spit it out. Then brush.

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Xylitol

A sweetener the bacteria cannot digest. The evidence is real, and it is weaker than the packaging suggests.

How to use it: As gum or a lozenge after eating, or as xylitol in your toothpaste. Not as a sugar substitute in your coffee: that is not what it was tested for and not where the point is.

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