Vitamin A: The "Architect" of Teeth, Gums, and Saliva

Vitamin A: The "Architect" of Teeth, Gums, and Saliva

Vitamin A (retinol) is often known as the “vision vitamin,” but it could just as easily be called the architect of your teeth and gums. This nutrient plays a guiding role in the early design and ongoing maintenance of oral tissues. From prenatal tooth formation to childhood cavity prevention, vitamin A is absolutely foundational.

Building Teeth and Bones

During tooth development, vitamin A orchestrates the formation of the enamel and dentin by directing specialized cells (ameloblasts and odontoblasts) to do their jobs correctly. Think of vitamin A as the foreman making sure the tooth’s blueprint is followed. If there isn’t enough vitamin A, the enamel-building cells can’t lay down a proper enamel layer, and the dentin inside the tooth may form with defects. The result? Teeth that might look normal but are structurally weak or oddly shaped. Researchers in the 1920s demonstrated this dramatically: Dr. Edward and Dr. May Mellanby found that animals raised with a vitamin A deficiency developed malformed teeth and jawbones. In their famous experiment, puppies deprived of vitamin A were born with delayed tooth eruption, teeth that came in crooked, and enamel so soft it was prone to decay. Essentially, without vitamin A the “construction crew” of the tooth couldn’t build a sound structure. Further studies in rats confirmed that when mother animals lacked vitamin A, their offspring’s teeth had thin enamel and were prone to cracks and cavities. In humans, true vitamin A deficiency in pregnancy is uncommon in developed countries, but even marginal levels might lead to subtler issues – perhaps a slightly narrower jaw or weaker enamel in the child.

Gums, Saliva, and Immune Defense

Vitamin A doesn’t stop at building teeth. It’s also critical for forming and maintaining the soft tissues of the mouth. This vitamin keeps the cells of the gums, inner cheeks, and tongue healthy and robust. One of the signs of vitamin A deficiency is a dry, keratinized skin or mucous membrane – in the mouth, that could mean dry, rough gums that heal poorly. Children who don’t get enough vitamin A might experience gums that become thin and dry and are more susceptible to infection. Adequate vitamin A ensures that gum tissue remains moist, resilient, and resistant to bacteria. Moreover, vitamin A is key for the development of the salivary glands. Saliva is like nature’s mouthwash: it continuously bathes teeth in minerals and contains proteins that help neutralize acids and fight microbes. Vitamin A deficiency can lead to underperforming salivary glands, meaning a child will have less saliva to protect their teeth. On the flip side, a child replete with vitamin A typically has plentiful saliva and healthy pink gums – creating an oral environment where bacteria have a harder time causing trouble. Vitamin A also contributes to the overall immune function; it helps maintain the integrity of all mucous membranes and supports the production of immune cells. So, from the standpoint of oral health, vitamin A fortifies the “walls and moat” (gums and saliva) that defend teeth from invaders.

Historical Insights and Weston Price’s Observations

The crucial importance of vitamin A for oral health isn’t just theoretical – it’s been observed and applied in real life. In the early 20th century, as nutritional science was emerging, researchers suspected that something in cod liver oil and butter (both rich in vitamin A) was protecting children’s teeth. Weston A. Price, traveling dentist-researcher of the 1930s, found that virtually all cavity-free indigenous diets were high in vitamin A. In Swiss villages he studied, for example, children consumed daily servings of rich alpine butter and creamy raw milk – foods loaded with vitamin A – and they had almost no cavities. He identified vitamin A as one of the key “activator” nutrients that enabled proper growth and disease resistance. In his nutritional clinic work, Price would give malnourished children high-vitamin cod liver oil (for vitamins A and D) along with a concentrated butter oil from grass-fed cows (for vitamin A and another factor, now known as vitamin K2). The results were astounding: tooth decay often halted in its tracks, and in some cases, cavities actually started to remineralize. Gums became healthier too. Price noted that cod liver oil alone helped, but the best results came when vitamin A was abundant and paired with other fat-soluble vitamins.

Another interesting historical note: before antibiotics were around, some dentists treated persistent infections like dental abscesses with vitamin A–rich cod liver oil. That’s because patients given cod liver oil often showed improved ability to fight off infection and heal. It was a crude early form of immune therapy – essentially “nutrition therapy” – and it underscores how vitamin A boosts the body’s defensive power, even in the mouth.

Dietary Sources of Vitamin A

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient, meaning we must get it from our diet (especially the active form, retinol, which is readily used by the body). The most potent sources are all animal foods. Top of the list is liver – whether from beef, lamb, chicken, or fish. Liver is nature’s multivitamin and can be extremely high in vitamin A. For instance, just a few ounces of beef liver can provide many times the daily requirement of retinol. Cod liver oil, as the name implies, is another superb source; it was the supplement of choice for generations specifically because of its vitamin A (and D) content. Other excellent sources include egg yolks, which contain retinol especially when hens are allowed to roam and eat pigmented plants, and dairy fat. Butter, cream, and full-fat cheeses from grass-fed animals are rich in vitamin A – you can often tell by the deep yellow color of grass-fed butter, which comes from carotene and retinol. Raw unpasteurized whole milk (not skim) from grass-fed cows also carries vitamin A. Some seafood, like fish roe (fish eggs) and shellfish, can contribute vitamin A as well. Traditional people, as Dr. Price documented, intuitively prized these foods. For example, he noted that groups in environments with few plant foods available would trade for dairy products or dried fish to get enough fat-soluble vitamins.

Vitamin A truly is an architect in the mouth – guiding development, maintaining structural integrity, and supporting immune defenses. If there’s one fat-soluble vitamin to focus on for growing children (and for pregnant moms), vitamin A is a strong contender. Of course, it does its best work in tandem with vitamins D and K2, but it all starts with A laying down the plans. To leverage vitamin A for your family’s dental health, consider incorporating liver into your meals (even a small amount, hidden in a sauce or meatball, can provide a huge boost), using butter or ghee generously, and including egg yolks regularly. For those who can’t stomach liver or eat enough of these foods, desiccated liver supplement, like ToothKare by KareFor, can be very helpful!

KareFor’s own ToothKare formula harnesses the power of real-food vitamin A by including grass-fed liver extract – a convenient way to get this “tooth-building” vitamin without having to fry up liver for dinner every week.