The whole argument about Fluoride

FLUORIDE.

“The whole argument about Fluoride.”

Really!?In just one blog article. Here goes...

PART 1

( ANECDOTAL and CLINICAL EVIDENCE )

I have been a dentist for 40 years. In 1980, as a dental student, age19y, one of my teeth was diagnosed on an xray with an early tooth decay lesion. Enamel acid damage, from Strep mutans, due to dietary sugar and no flossing as a teenager. Instead of drilling it, one of the Professors in the??“ Preventive Dentistry” Department suggested to treat it with concentrated fluoride. He gave me a little bottle of stannous fluoride and I applied it regularly with a cotton bud until the bottle ran out. Here I am 42 years later, and that tooth has never needed a filling.

In fact, the enamel looks more mineralised today, then it did back then.

So why do people argue about “ fluoride”?

Most dentists endorse it and some dentists don’t. Some people know that their teeth are great because their teeth contain a little bit of fluoride, and other people will make sure that no fluoride enters their mouth, and even filtering it out of their drinking water.

So, right here, in 2024,

I am going to try to position an educated modern statement about dentistry and fluoride.

Perhaps, I shouldn’t say anything.

Perhaps that would be the easy answer.

or Perhaps if I use my knowledge, I am well positioned to give a fully informed answer for the modern world, 2024, right now.

Therefore, this post will be very long.

Hopefully, people who are really interested, will take the time to read, and analyse, and think about what they need personally for themselves and their families, maybe speak up and engage in an educated discussion with other people

The short version is:

Tooth decay is NOT due to a nutritional lack of Fluoride.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a massive public health crisis in developed countries. Patients and government health centres were facing huge costs from one simple problem

> tooth decay<

Unlike other contagious epidemic diseases, there was no antidote, or vaccination, or medicine for " tooth decay ".

In the 1950s, people were starting to expect to keep their teeth, and not end up with dentures. So, the Dental Profession and Government bodies took on a public health “Prevention” step, that was ground breaking. Compared to the Medical Professional, that was focused at the time on “Treatment ” of diseases and health symptoms, the Dental Profession chose to adopt public health Prevention.

Based on scientific evidence and clinical presentation, people who lived in any area with about 1ppm Fluoride naturally present in the water, had really great teeth.

That is because in the last trimester of the mother’s pregnancy, the mother drank that water, and this built all the baby teeth, that would erupt over the next 2 years of the baby’s life.?

Some of those teeth have to last until age 13y.

And the water that the young child drank until about age 8y, formed the rest of the adult teeth, that erupt from age 6y until about age 14y, made by the mineral content in those formative years, built into their teeth, for the rest of their lives.?

( * Wisdom teeth take till about age 12 to form )

So the question is:

Do you want to give the child’s teeth a good start or a bad start?.

It depends on where you live.

I was born in Brisbane. The mineral quality of Brisbane water is appalling. My baby teeth were drilled and my adult molars were drilled. The naturally occurring fluoride content of Brisbane water is 7% of optimal for teeth.

I asked my mother whether she gave me “ fluoride tablets “.

She said “she couldn’t remember, she had 6 kids, I was number 5, and she also heard about “thalidomide” and thought that perhaps she shouldn’t supplement.”

Right there, is the problem.

Supplementation by the Parent Adult responsible is very difficult.

It is very easy to give TOO MUCH or not enough.

Even 1.2ppm is TOO MUCH.

Giving the supplement every now and then, aka " NOT EVERY DAY " is almost as bad and produces patchy looking teeth.

My first job was in Barcaldine, Central Queensland, where the ground water had 1.2ppm fluoride, naturally present. Many locals had no tooth decay, but they had too much fluoride in their teeth. Too much fluoride in teeth will cause mottling. Their teeth were very resistant to tooth decay, but the teeth were very white with a patchy appearance.?My job in Barcaldine was to look after all the tooth decay in the “ blow-ins”, the local term for all the school teachers, bank johnnies, and Main Roads people who had come from Brisbane, to work, but weren’t born locally. The Locals never had any toothdecay, unless they had an unusually high daily "sucrose diet ".

Oral health is based on a foundation of “ building good teeth “ as a child.

This is not about genetics, or “my dad had bad teeth, so I will have bad teeth ”.

It is about your drinking water. ( and the water where your irrigated vegetables are grown )

It’s about getting all your trace minerals, all 40 - 80+ trace minerals a day, that your enzyme systems, and bone , cartilage, nerves, hair, nails, teeth, collagen, and brain needs to grow, develop, ?repair, and function EVERYDAY.

Lets talk about Zinc.

If we were all worried about not getting enough Zinc for our nails and hair, and skin, and helping us absorb Vit D, would it be a Big Political issue ?

NO. ???Why?

Well for a long time we all drank rainwater from zinc galvanised water tanks so zinc deficiency wasn’t a problem.?

Why is there so much emotional / political /non-factual / non-reasoning antagonism, about a public health promotion to improve Fluoride as a public health supplement ??

So, if we were worried about our Teeth, why not worry about improving the formation of the enamel by having 0.7 ppm Fluoride in your drinking water ?

Is Fluoride a dietary trace mineral or not?

The human body needs molybdenum and selenium, why wouldn’t it also need strontium and fluoride, as trace minerals.

Okay, what if the ONLY body structure that benefits from a tiny bit of fluoride are the teeth.

Tooth decay is THE NUMBER ONE WORLDWIDE INFECTIOUS DISEASE of children.

Not dysentery, or malaria, typhus, cholera, polio, HIV, or Co-vid.

In Albany Creek Brisbane, where I had a dental practice over 30 years, we have many people who have moved from a “ fluoride optimised “ water supply like Perth, Melbourne or Adelaide or from ?Overseas where the fluoride content was about 0.7 - 1ppm. They had moved to Brisbane when their children were 1 , 2 , 3 years old.

Teeth form over many years like rings on a tree, before they erupt and come down into your mouth fully formed. Many people who moved to Albany Creek , moved from an optimal trace mineral water supply to a Brisbane water supply, and their children were still young and still forming teeth. Those children got teeth that had formed a nice enamel edge ( optimally fluoridated ), and thin yellow enamel body colour from Brisbane water ( poorly fluoridated ) on the rest of their front teeth,

aka “ striped teeth “.

It is all about mineral content in your drinking water.

A long time ago people grew up in the same place. Some places had people with fantastic teeth, other places had people with thin enamel and weak teeth.

Someone sent me a research study recently that listed " fluoride " as an environmental toxin. Besides the fact that fluoride is a very common naturally occurring element on Earth, and present in ALL water, this research study of over 80 pages only mentioned " fluoride " in a couple of statements relating to some Chinese studies of ground water from wells. These wells had a fluoride concentration of over 2 ppm and sometimes up to 10 times the recommended optimal amount that is good for teeth.

The same argument could be made for strontium, or selenium?or even zinc, or sodium, or any water with very high iron or copper content.

In the 1960s, selenium was rated a " toxic chemical " by the USA FDA because of high selenium levels in some areas of agricultural land in the USA. Then after about 40 years of research, selenium was shown to be is a very important trace mineral for the enzyme systems, immune systems, and cardiac health of humans. In some places in the world, low selenium levels in soil, led to higher than normal cardiomyopathy in the resident rural population eating off the land.

I recently examined a 25y old male. He had all 32 teeth and they looked fantastic. He had NEVER been to a dentist in his life. He came because he had moved to Brisbane for work in construction and he had an impacted wisdom tooth. His teeth did NOT look like Brisbane teeth. ?It was SO obvious, that I asked him " where were you born ?". ?

He came from Cyprus. In Cyprus, as a child, he drank the ground water coming off the mountains, and they eat the vegetables grown in the mineral rich soil. The water and soil is mostly alkaline, and rich in strontium, fluoride and calcium and magnesium and zinc.

Tooth enamel is the hardest biological structure in existence. and survives for thousands of years, even beyond bone. Its uses calcium, magnesium and many trace elements to produce hydroxy apatite, almost as hard as diamond.

Archaeologists regularly analyse the mineral radio-isotope content in fossilized teeth to?determine ??" where a person came from during their childhood ".

That means that the " built in " mineral content of the water and food that you ate when you were a child, will be easily analysed from?your teeth when you are really, really a long time dead.

So this whole " fluoride " argument is very, very narrow minded, and very short term, in terms of the whole genetic history of the dietary requirements of humans.

Perhaps one day, people will look back with a long term perspective and dig up our archaeological remains, and wonder why >

in about 1700 -2000 AD, humans lived longer because they had solved their infectious sanitation disease problems , but they were?addicted to this useless sugar foodstuff with no nutritional value that caused tooth decay, and needed “ artificial restorations “ in their teeth.

The only living organism on the planet that needed its teeth fixed, ON MASS??<

They will do some chemical analysis and find a statistical prevalence of this tooth decay,?correlated to,

1 20th century urbanisation, and sugar loaded diet???????????????????????????

2 mineral content of the teeth, poor diet from the Mother??????????????????????????????????????????

3 presence of Strep mutans in the oral biofilm

?

Some trace minerals including Fluoride at about 0.7-1ppm in the drinking water, make the enamel thicker, whiter, more acid resistant, harder, more resistant to bacterial attack.

1960s Brisbane water made thin enamel, more transparent ( yellower teeth ), less acid resistant, more easily attacked by Strep mutans, and more likely to get “ tooth decay “ and need restorative dentistry.

?

PART 2

THE REAL REASON FOR TOOTH DECAY

Did ancient humans suffer from “ tooth decay ?

No.

Tooth wear maybe, from grit in the food and a fibrous diet. Periodontal disease maybe, from poor nutrition during famine and starvation times ( lack of vitamins, minerals, and basic nutrients )

but not tooth decay.

There is a bacteria called Streptococcus mutans. It is called “ mutans “ because it jumped species. It used to be Streptococcus Ratti. It was a germ that lived in the mouths of rats.

Archaeologists have found the DNA of Strep Ratti around the teeth of skulls in “ Abyssinia “, being modern day Upper Egypt, Ethiopia / Sudan, from about 6000 y BC.

Strep Ratti jumped species into humans around about the rise of the Egyptian civilisation and the rise of grain fed culture. Grain breeds rats, means Egyptians bred cats. Cats like to show you their kill, and lick themselves. Stroking the cat, and poor hand to mouth hygiene easily infects the human.?Strep mutans arrived, and is very contagious.

But Strep ratti and Strep mutans can’t breakdown the sugars in grains easily. Honey contains many anti-bacterial ingredients (including hydrogen peroxide ), and so honey was used to treat wounds and preserve food for thousands of years. Yet gradually more and more people were infected by Strep mutans.

It wasn’t until the 1700s, when the Europeans sailed home in their galleons, bringing tea, coffee, tobacco, cacao, spices, and CANE SUGAR, that an explosion of a new disease ,“ tooth decay”, hit Europe. Sugar, coffee, tobacco, chocolate from South America, and tea and spices from the East Indies.

Imagine the scene at the “ coffee shop “ or at the “ bakers shop “.?It must have been wondrous.

All these bitter but “ uplifting “ substances, could be “ sweetened “ with this magic white stuff.???and Confectionary and Patisserie were born ( gob lollies, cakes, sweet biscuits, sweet puddings, meringue, toffee, caramel and chocolate sauce, ice cream ), all from the alchemical culinary magic of “ Cane Sugar “.

Unfortunately, Streptococcus mutans loves Cane Sugar (sucrose/molasses/raw sugar/refined/ castor/icing sugar) and Strep mutans is very contagious.

Disease happens when a Host is infected, and the “ virulence x pathogen numbers” outways the host defences.

In the 1700s, the Europeans started growing sugar in the Caribbean and imported African slaves to do the field work. Sugar was big business.?

An epidemic of Strep mutans oral infection occurred, across urban area of Europe, and within 50 years, an epidemic disease “ tooth rot “ happened across urban Europe. Initially with the wealthy, because “ sugar “ was a luxury item, for the wealthy.

Barber Surgeons started tooth pulling with no anaesthetic, because people presented in acute pain. Barber Surgeons did treatment for minor injury and infection, like “lancing boils”, “ blood letting “, “drawing teeth “,?????and also cut your hair.

In mid 1700s, the Surgeons Guild separated from Barber Surgeons, but somehow Barber Surgeons kept hold of the “ teeth “, and so “ Dentistry “ was born, ??and we still use the “ barbers chair “ to this day.

In England, the wealthy started to " buy " good teeth, " pulled " from street people that couldn't afford SUGAR. The barber would pay a street person who had good teeth ( but perhaps loose teeth from periodontal gum disease ), a few pence to pull their good tooth, and then charge the rich person to pull their rotted tooth and implant the new one. It was a great business model. Unfortunately, biology tells us that this idea doesn’t work.

Teeth are not actually necessary. George Washington had no teeth. ?????????????

You can fall in love with a person with no teeth.

But most people actually think that teeth are really important, and somehow linked to the personal self-evaluation of esteem, and a sense of worth in the eyes of others.

?

PART 3

So why is this all linked to Fluoride ?

Optimisation of the natural level of fluoride in drinking water is the easiest, cheapest and most effective public health answer to the fact that

TOOTH DECAY IS THE NUMBER ONE INFECTIOUS DISEASE OF CHILDREN IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. and has been for decades.

and the therapeutic correction of this rampant public disease is VERY COSTLY.

By doing epidemiological studies in the USA, 1 ppm Fluoride in an individual’s day worth of drinking water, ( 1/2 gallon being about 2.4 litres ) was set as a maximum. The safeguard was that most people dont drink more than this each day.

It is almost impossible to overdose Fluoride from drinking “ Fluoride Optimised “ water at 0.7-1ppm.

The thicker, harder, more acidic resistant enamel formed by drinking water when you are a child, has a protective effect that lasts the rest of your life.

?

Sure, you can dissolve tooth in white wine, citric acid, chewing Vit C tablets, but the main problem is the direct acid attack from Streptococcus mutans.

If you dissolve a tooth in citric acid , it doesnt “rot”.

Strep mutans takes only 20 minutes to absorb sucrose, pump out “goo” aka plaque, and start pumping out acid. The “ goo” is a protective layer against normal alkaline saliva, and provides a lovely breeding ground. This bacteria thrives in acids, and excretes lots more acid, when fed cane sugar (sucrose ). This regular acid damage dissolves away the minerals in the tooth, until the germ can live inside the tooth.

If Strep mutans gets through your protective tooth enamel, the inside dentine turns to rotted collagen with 6-24mths. This creates a lovely smelly mess of rotted proteins that lots of other nasty pathogens love to live in. Eventually, all Strep mutans friends invade your tooth pulp/nerve and infect your jawbone, get into your bloodstream, and start compromising your immune system.

Because baby tooth enamel is thinner, it takes about 6mths to 1 year for Strep mutans to eat into a baby tooth to the nerve. Once Strep mutans gets through adult enamel, it about 1-2 years for the pulp to be compromised. ( dependant on sugar supply, plaque removal, and the dissolving effects of dietary acids )

This Strep mutans infection of the mouth, is about the only infection that can get directly into bone and the blood stream, without a major bone fracture injury sticking through your skin.

Before antibiotics, a dental abscess could cause septicaemia and death.

called“ Ludwigs Angina “.

?

Tooth decay is a contagious oral disease process that is caused by Strep mutans germ and its friends. It has been going on now over 300 years, such that the disease is not an epidemic anymore. It is pandemic and endemic, meaning it is so entrenched that people think it is normal.

A highly contagious bacteria that is now being fed its favourite substrate “ Sucrose “ via BIG manufactured Food suppliers, is now spreading into the last remaining places where Humans never had Strep mutans, and never had “ tooth decay “ in all of human history.

It is no longer a dietary disease of the wealthy.

It is mostly a dietary disease of the underprivileged, because “ sugar is cheap “. The BIG manufactured FOOD industry realised that “ sucrose / sugar “ has built in FOOD ADDITIVE,

cheap calorie value.

cheap preservative

cheap addictive ingredient consumer return/ buyer loyalty

Manufactured food has to have a “ calorie value “.

Manufactured food has to have a preservative.

One of the cheapest is “ sucrose/cane sugar “.

That’s why Jam lasts forever. Most healthy normal germs dont like sucrose.

Sucrose is an addictive food additive ingredient, that holds NO nutritional value, just calories.

Sucrose also lights up “ Diabetes” and many “ Cancers “.

This is a BIG problem.

Part 4

WHY CANT WE ADDRESS THIS DISEASE ?

The University of Qld in the 1980s showed that tooth decay is an infectious, contagious disease. Strep mutans infection is passed on by your mother, or the kids at day-care.

You arent born with it, but once you get it, the more cane sugar you feed it, the more likely you will get holes in your teeth. If you dont feed Strep mutans cane sugar, it goes dormant or non damaging, because you have reduced the population, by reducing its substrate.

Your parents might also get you to brush your teeth after breakfast and before bed.

In Australia, in 2012, there were nearly 20,000 kids under 10 y old, put into hospital for a general anaesthetic, for baby teeth to be extracted because of tooth decay.

The reason is: > the child was infected with Strep mutans, and dietary exposure to sucrose/cane sugar enabled the germ to thrive.

Allow enough numbers in dental plaque, feed the germ enough of its favourite food, dont have the best enamel defence due to poor enamel formation, due to lack of developmental dietary minerals and nutrition, and the child soon has “ tooth disease “,

Not just one or two teeth, Almost every tooth !!

For a long time, the dental profession called this “ rampant caries “.

The treatment: > a general anaesthetic surgical operation to extract multiple teeth, to treat a little child, because of a dietary issue that is entirely up to the parents choices <

It is no wonder, that governments wanted an easy public health answer.

This infection and disease is painful, damaging, emotional, costly, and has lasting impact.

That is why Government bodies looked for a public health solution, and the easiest public health answer was to optimise the drinking water so that teeth were more resistant.

Governments looked to water fluoridation, and low concentration fluoride in toothpaste, as a low cost preventive measure.

“Fluoridated water supplies” suggests something unnatural. Yet, in truth, fluoride is a very common element in nature, and is present in ALL water.

“Fluoridation” of water should be more accurately called “ Fluoride Optimisation”, because some water has 4 -10 parts per million( ppm )?like the Chinese water studies,?and some water, like natural Brisbane water has 0.07ppm. ( a tenth of what would be optimal ).

So far we have been talking about water. That is because the main source of trace minerals in the human diet is water. But the other source is vegetables grown in mineral rich soil.

Australian soils are very mineral poor in general, lacking magnesium, selenium, and fluoride for example. Some of our best volcanic soils have been turned from market gardens into housing estates. Australia has very few mineral spring fed soils, or ice melt glacial soils. Modern Australian farming relies on scratching the soil and adding super Phosphate and two or three other minerals, using crops bred to endure these harsh conditions, and we have been very, very successful at producing food that is deplete of all our essential minerals.

Your diet may have fresh veg, but you may not be getting your essential trace minerals.

?“Water Fluoridation” is now trying to optimise municipal supplies at 0.7ppm, ten times the natural Brisbane water, and a third of the natural Barcaldine water. The reason why the " optimal fluoride drinking water level " has been reduced from 1ppm to 0.7 ppm in recent years is because, it is now recognised that many foods are being water irrigated in areas that are outside your municipal water supply, from water that has an optimal amount of fluoride.

??????????????????????????????????????????????

?Part 5

??????????????????????????????????????Topical Fluoride

Here in is a whole new issue, and a whole new argument.

What if we have a person who grew up absorbing all the nutrients in the water and soil, at an optimal level.

Do they need extra “ topical “ aka “directly applied to the teeth” fluoride?

How much topical Fluoride is actually absorbed by the tooth?

How often and how much concentration ?

What is the risk of applying a high concentration Topical Fluoride to the teeth?

It’s an absorption gradient.

Wherever the surface has lost a Ca+ ion, a F+ ion will attach

The surface has lost Calcium and Phosphate, and readily absorbs Fluoride to produce “fluoroxyappatite”, which is harder, lower surface tension, more acidic resistant, more wear resistant.

The fluoride ion goes in easily, anywhere that acids have been attacking the surface.

The more you push in, the more acid resistant your surface enamel becomes, and also high concentration Fluoride will stop “ root rot “, even when the root of your tooth has no protective barrier.

But there is only so much that you can “ push in “.

Hence the idea that a little bit, but often = > “ modern toothpastes “

Domestic Toothpaste with Fluoride is regulated to contain less than 2000ppm.

Because, if you swallow it, it is a poison.

Therefore, all “ children’s toothpastes “ are regulated to be “ low Fluoride “.

and as most Dentists and Parents know, a child either hates the taste and refuses to have their teeth cleaned ( too minty ) or loves the taste and > eats the toothpaste ! <

Eating toothpaste is a REALLY BAD IDEA, because at 1000- 2000 ppm, Fluoride is a poison.

The antidote to Fluoride is “ Cow Milk “. The calcium phosphate in the milk binds the Fluoride.?

Swallowing toothpaste is not just a bad idea for a child.

The low grade swallowing of fluoride toothpaste for an adult is a direct assault on their Iodine receptors, and their Thyroid. ( keep in mind that the Chlorine in your municipal water is a major worse threat, and the Bromine in your bread is also a problem ).

This is why the advice “ dont rinse off your toothpaste “ after brushing is a stupid idea.

We as Dentists know that 5000ppm Fluoride toothpaste is fantastic at stopping rampant? “ tooth decay “ and we prescribe it for people with no good saliva, highly acidic diet, methadone patients ( no saliva ) Sjogrens Patients ( no saliva ) , and generalised “ root rot “ where the Strep mutans is going to town on the persons exposed root dentine.

Strep mutans doesnt like Fluoride. When it ingests Fluoride, it disrupts its metabolism.

Fluoride attaches into anywhere that the tooth has lost some Calcium and Phosphate, and binds the tooth back together even better than before.

Any Preventive Care Dental Practice for the last 50 years, has provided health minded patients with a “ Regular 6 mth Health Review appointment “ called ?a “ Check- up and clean “.

Remove all the hard calcium scale, remove the plaque, show the patient where they need ????????to clean better, and then do a “ topical Fluoride application “ at about 10,000 ppm.

WHY ?

Because, resistance to Strep mutans is a key factor.

Applying a highly concentrated “ Fluoride Treatment “ has a huge public health effect.

It case hardened the tooth against acid or bacterial attack.

A case hardened “ fluoride absorbed “ tooth surface is more acid resistant, lower surface tension ( slipperier ), surface plaque bacteria absorbs the fluoride and has its metabolism disrupted.

BUT there is a maximum absorption threshold. It is a concentration gradient.

The tooth has a surface NEED and when you fill that Need, the tooth doesn’t absorb any more. You cant push Fluoride into the surface, unless acid has dissolved out Calcium or Phosphorus.

You could apply 10,000 ppm Fluoride to teeth, but the teeth will only absorb as much as they need. Therefore, for the average person, a 10,000ppm fluoride application once or twice a year by their ‘ Oral Health Professional “ is enough?aka “ OPTIMAL “.

A little bit at lower concentration everyday ( in toothpaste ) became the public health mantra, because it is known that at least 40% of the population don’t go to the Dentist EVER, unless they have a major tooth emergency.

In other words, the average person doesn’t understand “ Oral Health “ even if they NEED it.

Really, now that this Infectious Disease has become so endemic, it is all about RISK Management.

The average person using a 2ppm toothpaste, swigging some Listerine, and eating 15+ grams of Sucrose a day, is fighting a losing battle.

?

Part 6

What is the Answer

So, we started talking about Fluoride, and now gained a better perspective.

So, now we have to talk about the real problem.

So a Re-brief.

Tooth decay is NOT a nutritional lack of Flouride.

Tooth decay did not exist before “ cane sugar “ entered the diet.

Strep mutans is a bacteria that jumped species from rats, to cats, to humans about 6000 years ago in Egypt, when grain agriculture was first invented. Strep mutans is highly contagious and spread throughout the ancient world, especially regions that relied on grain agriculture.

In the 1700s, when cane sugar hit the European diet, Strep mutans went “ viral “, because??Strep mutans loves sucrose, and spread rapidly, wherever sucrose was pushed into the diet,??and the world wide epidemic of tooth decay was the result.

It is increasing in underdeveloped countries, that had no historical experience of rampant tooth decay 70 years ago, because of refined foods with “ refined wheat flour, sucrose, and refined corn syrup”, sold by BIG FOOD multinational food companies pushing the manufactured “ packaged food “ “ food nutrient “ model, fundamentally based on “ cane sugar “.*

*refining the starches in grain, and refining the sugars in corn, makes it easier for Strep mutans and its friends to break the sugars down and use these substrates as food.

Even, people with a good natural water supply are now suffering.

So, it is not really just about Fluoride.

?

The mineral quality of your drinking water when you are a child, affects how resistant your teeth are to the bacterial acid attack.

In many ancient population areas, the water comes from snow melt mountains, or bubbling springs through granite, or off some volcanic source of the river system. This gives these people the best mineral supplement imaginable.

My patient who lived in Cypress all his life, >?his teeth had hard thick hard white enamel.

Unlike mine, because I was born in Brisbane, and during my mother’s pregnancy and during my first 8 years, I drank poor mineral quality Brisbane tap water through rusty iron pipes.

He drank ground water all is life. He had NEVER needed a filling.

I spent my childhood at the dentist, and I have grey yellow brown teeth, with thin enamel, and 8 teeth affected by Strep mutans.

In my first job in Barcaldine, the locals never went to the dentist.

Because their teeth had so much mineral content from drinking the local water, no-one got any tooth decay.

The reason why I was paid to be the dentist in town, was to treat the itinerant employees of the banks, school, and main roads, who had mostly come from Brisbane, and had poor enamel from drinking Brisbane water.

Many years later, I worked at Brunswick Heads Holistic Dental Centre. I asked the Principal Dentist what the word “ Holistic “ meant.

He said > no Amalgam, no Fluoride.<

But this isn’t an holistic answer.?( The Amalgam is a problem, I agree, but tooth decay is a more widespread, debilitating issue, especially for children. )

At the time, here in Albany Creek, we were providing a truly holistic, biocompatible approach to dentistry based on preventive care, and tooth decay and gum disease prevention, and long term restorative methods, without using Dental Amalgam. We were checking gum care, oral cancer, growth issues, breathing, snoring, tonsils, food intolerance, occlusion, TMJ, providing and personalising home care, providing tooth guards for conditioning/remineralisation/ or whitening., checking for Strep mutans, and prescribing an effective method to get rid of this germ out of our patients mouths.

My wife was born in the Brunswick Heads region, and I was amused by the fact all the older Brunswick Heads locals who drank the local water from Rocky Creek Dam, had very low tooth decay issues. Their grandchildren and the “ blow-ins“ seemed to have not understood that they were benefiting from “ fluoride optimisation “.

The local water supply had naturally an optimal fluoride level from the soil, and was naturally rich in many trace minerals from the volcanic soil. The locals ate locally grown food.

However, the more recent locals, in general, adopted an “alternative health model “, and an anti-fluoride stance, and didn’t even realise the huge physiological benefit that they have been given by just living in the right place. Because of this, most of the?younger population?now drank bottled water, sourced from some other place and " purified of all minerals". *

*if they drank water at all. Most people now, younger than 20 don’t drink enough water. Instead, they drink “ sports drinks “ which are marketed to make them think that drinking an acidic sugar water with a few electrolytes will help them “ perform”, like Gatorade, or they drink acidic “ caffeine based supplements with sucrose “, like Sports Drinks, or they drink a caffeine based milk drink ( great!, not as acidic, but still sucrose ), or they go to the “ no Sucrose “ NO-SUGAR Diet soft drinks, that are actually more acidic, and usually contain artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, a known trigger from migraines.

Many patients at Brunswick Heads were “anti-fluoride” but had benefited from optimal fluoride in their natural drinking water and soil.

Because they had fantastic teeth, and they didnt realise that they had benefited from the natural fluoride and trace mineral content of the volcanic soil via their drinking water, and vegetables, they had adopted a stance that prevented other people from access to the same benefit.

?Prevention of tooth decay is about the mineral quality of your teeth, ( PROTECTION )

and your Dietary cane sugar,?( a MAJOR RISK )

?and your Personal care habits. ( RISK Reduction measures )

?????????????????????????????????????????

Part 7

So Fluoride or not?

If you have thought about this, you will understand that what is necessary, is

SAME, SAME,

Every municipal water supply in Australia, cuts the Fluoride, or augments the Fluoride to 0.7ppm.

The best statement that should be made about Fluoride.

“ Fluoridation is a personal choice.”

Perhaps, like my mother, you are afraid of dietary supplementation.

Perhaps, you have a political, or public health agenda.

So, you want to be a responsible parent and prevent tooth decay,

for your children and also for yourself.

?

Lets just require as part of public health policy, that ALL municipal water supplies

are cleaned of blue green algae, giardia, amoebas, and provide a balanced mineral content

calcium, magnesium, zinc, iodine, iron, copper, cobalt, selenium, chromium, manganese, boron and fluoride.

Currently, In Australia, in Brisbane for example, the Chlorine content in domestic tap water is enough to kill fish.

Forget about the .7ppm fluoride content, the Chlorine content is Brisbane water is so strong you can smell it in the shower.

Chlorine in the water is much more of a problem to your thyroid, than the tiny bit of Fluoride in the water, or the Bromine in your bread. All of these “halogen “ substances compete with your body’s ability to use Iodine for your Thyroid and metabolism.

Australian soil is deficient in Iodine.

?

PART 8

Here is the answer:

There are NOW, BETTER, personal choice oral health methods to prevent tooth decay.

Prevention of “Tooth decay” is provided by personal choices of diet and habit.

This is about personal responsibility, not government public health responsibility.

Each and every person needs to understand that tooth decay is an expensive disease to treat.

And it is 100% preventable.

Instead of looking to government regulations, YOU are responsible for your own health,

and YOU could adopt healthy preventive methods.

1 Drink more good quality alkaline mineral water. ( makes better saliva )

??If you cant find good quality alkaine mineral water, at least > DRINK MORE WATER <

??It will make your body healthier, than Gatorade, or Energy Drinks, or Coke.

2 Stop eating cane sugar.( stops feeding the tooth decay germ ) ( stops feeding diabetes ) (stops feeding Cancer )

3 Brush and floss all your teeth, two or three times a day, after meals. ( reduces the germ population )

4 Use clever toothpaste that uses “ Xylitol ”. ( feeds the germ the wrong food )

Xylitol is a plant sugar. It is just not Sucrose. Xylitol feeds Strep mutans a sugar that it cant digest. Xylitol reduces plaque, inhibits Strep mutans, and actually alkalizes the mouth.

Go to your dentist and ask them to prescribe a treatment to remove Strep mutans from your mouth.

CTX4 > 2 part “ biofilm disruptor “, made by Carifree in the USA.

This was researched and provided 20 years ago. This product strips out Strep mutans. It cant survive in a mouth that is highly alkaline.

I provided my patients with a simple swab test, and prescribed them this therapeutic CTX4 “ home care “ product, since 2004. The products work. My “preventive care “ regular patient base stopped having “ tooth decay “.

No Dentist in Australia has access to these products anymore via the Dental Supply companies.

But YOU, can buy their products on-line, now even via Amazon.

An alkalising, xylitol rich , contains Bicarb, but no petrochemicals or Fluoride, water based mouthrinse.

Once you do 1-2 months of “ Treatment Rinse “, you can then tone down to “ CTX3 Maintenance Rinse “.

This is how you get rid of Strep mutans.

Stop eating so much cane sugar. Use Xylitol in your coffee and tea, and your baking.

Find a toothpaste that contains Xylitol , a mild abrasive like hydrated silica or caolin clay ?( not titanium doixide ), no SLS ( a detergent ), or PEG ( a petrochemical anti-freeze ), and contains ??real anti decay and gum health agents and contains no harsh abrasive, no foaming agent,

Unlike Colgate and Oral B and Macleans, which contain titanium dioxide (harsh abrasive), SLS (foaming agent), petrochemicals (PEG humectants), Triclosan ( a broad spectrum anti-bacterial agent that accumulates in your body).

Most basic supermarket brand toothpastes contain nothing useful. They are just grit and detergent which contain a lot of harmful substances that absorb through your mouth into your liver.

Please make your own research.

?

Part 9

So here on is part of the long answer.

Make up your own mind, and take control of your own oral health.

?

Even Einstein recognised that there was a difference between information and wisdom.

The role of your health practitioner is to enable YOU to be responsible for your own health.

Posted below are a sample of the facts easily attainable through a search on the modern internet.

?

FLUORIDE FACTS:

The fluorine compounds decompose into products including fluoride ions. Fluoride ions in water are identical to naturally occurring fluoride.

In areas, where water is fluoridated,?there is an issue with potential over dosage. Fluoride is also naturally present in a wide range of foods, in a wide range of concentrations. The maximum safe daily consumption of fluoride is 10?mg for an adult.

Data taken from United States Department of Agriculture,?National Nutrient Database

?

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a statement requiring the optimal fluoride level should be dropped. This new recommendation is for a single level of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per litre of water, and 0.7 ppm in water.

The change was recommended because most people in the United States have access to more sources of fluoride than they did when the guidelines were first put in place.

"The adjustment in amount is more representative of the current needs of the population. Due to the increased use and accessibility?of other fluoride sources (toothpaste, mouth rinse, etc.) and other improvements in oral health.”

Elemental fluorine is highly toxic to living organisms. Its effects in humans start at concentrations lower than?hydrogen cyanide at 50 ppm, and are similar to those of chlorine , a significant irritation of the eyes and respiratory system as well as liver and kidney damage, which occur above 25 ppm, which is the?extremely dangerous to health. Eyes and noses are seriously damaged at 100 ppm, and inhalation of 1,000 ppm fluorine will cause death in minutes, compared to 270 ppm for hydrogen cyanide

All of these amounts are more the 100 times the natural exposure level.

Fluoride is a halogen, and competes with chlorine and iodine and bromine.

Normal thyroid function requires iodine. Iodine receptors are blocked by Chlorine, Bromine and Fluorine.

Bromine is readily supplied in bread, Chlorine is very readily supplied in tap water, Fluorine is minimally supplied in water, but may by chronically ingested in toothpaste.

Modere toothpaste is edible.

Unfortunately, in Brisbane, the amount of chlorine in the municipal water is 20-30 times higher than during the 1960s. The amount of free chlorine, that people are exposed to is higher because of home swimming pools and hot showers.

?

?

Water fluoridation is the topping up of the levels of naturally occurring fluoride in the water to strengthen teeth against tooth decay. Fluorides are minerals found very commonly in the earth's crust and in all water supplies. American scientists in the 1930s found that people living in towns with higher levels of fluoride in the water experienced less tooth decay than people living in areas with much lower levels of fluoride. Community water fluoridation began in America in 1945 and spread rapidly once its effectiveness against tooth decay became obvious.

Most Australian towns and cities were fluoridated in the 1960s and 70s, and today around 90% of Australians enjoy the decay fighting benefits of water fluoridation. Fluoridated water means fewer fillings, fewer extractions, and fewer visits to the dentist - resulting in healthier teeth, better smiles, and less pain and suffering.

?

A major 2012 Australian study analysed all studies published worldwide from 1990-2010, in any language, which reported the effects of water fluoridation. The authors found 59 studies from 10 countries, yielding 83 separate evaluations into the effectiveness of water fluoridation (30 for primary teeth and 53 for permanent teeth). Thirteen of the studies were conducted in Australia. Every one of these 59 studies without exception showed a significant reduction in tooth decay from water fluoridation, with most showing reductions of around 20-60%. It is important to note that fillings have a limited life span, and are regularly replaced or repaired. Preventing one permanent tooth cavity in a child may prevent not just one cavity, but a whole lifetime of treatment on that tooth, with each successive treatment becoming larger, more complex and more expensive.

Fluoride ions in artificially fluoridated water are identical to those already found naturally in the water.

Dental caries ( tooth decay )can be prevented with means other than fluoridation, thereby avoiding the adverse effects of fluoride.

Dental caries ( tooth decay )?is?caused by demineralization of your teeth (enamel and dentin) by the acids formed during the bacterial fermentation of dietary sugars. Demineralization is countered by the deposit of minerals from your saliva, or remineralization, which is a slow process. Enthusiasts report that fluoride prevents dental caries by enhancing mineralization. However, dental caries is?not caused by a lack of fluoride, just as depression is not caused by a lack of Prozac. Some of the primary causes of tooth decay cited in the literature include:

·????????Consistent use of refined sugar, sugary soft drinks, and processed foods in general.

·????????Children going to bed with a bottle of sweetened drink in their mouth, or sucking at will from such a bottle during the day

·????????Poor dental hygiene and poor access to and utilization of dental health services, usually related to socioeconomic status

·????????Mineral deficiencies, like magnesium which can weaken bones and teet

·????????More than 600 medications promote tooth decay by inhibiting saliva.

By far, excess dietary sugar is the most significant factor.?

?

?

Tooth decay is generally believed to be caused by acids in your mouth, typically created from sugar being metabolized by bacteria (Streptococcus mutans). You typically don't find dental caries in primitive societies that don't consume excessive sugar. Environmental chemist and anti-fluoridation activist?Dr. Paul Connett?agrees that sugar is a huge problem, stating:

"We need education, not fluoridation. That education would have a double dividend. By avoiding high fructose sugar, we'll not only score a huge benefit with dental decay but also with obesity and health."

Dr. Osmunson has some interesting insights on the cause of tooth decay as well. He explains how historic studies on fluoridation showed that naturally occurring fluoride also happens to be found in areas rich in calcium and other minerals. This higher mineral content, as opposed to higher fluoride, might be?the real reason?some people have lower levels of tooth decay.

Fluoride is present in virtually all waters at some level, and it is important to know the fluoride content of your water,?

Mangrove Mountain Springs?natural springwater comes from a spring located high upon the beautiful Central Coast plateau. Our springwater is certified pure and contains no added chemicals or any other artificial additives. No chlorine is used in our production process. The water does contains trace elements from the earth such as fluoride and iron at natural levels. This water contains 23 trace elements essential for good health.

Fluoride

No fluoride is added to?Mangrove Mountain Springs?natural springwater.

Fluoride occurs naturally in seawater (1.4mg/L), soil (up to 300 parts per million) and air (from volcanic gases and industrial emissions). Naturally occurring fluoride in water depends on the type of soil and rock through which the water drains.

Naturally occuring fluoride concentrations are typically less than 0.1mg/L but the range lies between 0.05mg to 1.5mg/L. You can see from the?Analysis?Chart?below that the naturally occuring fluoride level in?Mangrove Mountain Springs?natural springwater is at the very low end of this spectrum at 0.05mg/L. Fluoridated tapwater would typically contain between 0.7 to 1mg/L.

?

Fluoride?can?occur?in drinking?water naturally?as a result of the geological composition of soils and bedrock. Community?water?systems are required to ensure that levels of?fluoride?in their drinking?water?are less than 1.0 ppm in order to be in compliance with EPA drinking?water?regulations.

Fluoride?is the name given to a group of?compounds?that are composed of the naturally occurring element fluorine and one or more other elements. Fluorides are present naturally in water and soil at varying levels.

In the 1940s, scientists discovered that people who lived where drinking water supplies had naturally occurring fluoride levels of approximately 1 part fluoride per million parts water or greater (>1.0 ppm) had fewer dental caries (cavities) than people who lived where fluoride levels in drinking water were lower. Many more recent studies have supported this finding (1).

It was subsequently found that fluoride can prevent and even reverse tooth decay by inhibiting bacteria that produce acid in the mouth and by enhancing remineralization, the process through which tooth enamel is “rebuilt” after it begins to decay.

Published by

?

Dr David Stephenson

Dentist

Published ? 7y ago and reedited 2023