At their recent meeting, the ADA made a big to-do over the 70th anniversary of fluoridation. “This is the most effective weapon in dentistry, I believe, to prevent not only tooth decay but mouth disease in general and overall health,” stated Raymond Gist, DDS, past ADA president, in a press release. Quite a claim about […]
tooth decay
From the Archives: Curing or Preventing Tooth Decay: Which Makes More Sense?
Originally posted April 23, 2015 One of Dr. Glaros’ colleagues recently told us about a man who had contacted his office about getting his mercury amalgam fillings removed. He said he didn’t want them replaced, though. When asked why, he said that he was going to “remineralize” his teeth instead. He’d read all about it […]
“Very Little Contemporary Evidence” Supporting Water Fluoridation, Says New Review of the Science
Just because you say something is so doesn’t make it true. It doesn’t make mercury dental amalgam safe. It doesn’t make root canal teeth sterile and inert. And it certainly doesn’t make fluoridation an effective practice for preventing caries. The sore lack of evidence supporting fluoridation was brought into the foreground again with last week’s […]
Curing or Preventing Tooth Decay: Which Makes More Sense?
One of Dr. Glaros’ colleagues recently told us about a man who had contacted his office about getting his mercury amalgam fillings removed. He said he didn’t want them replaced, though. When asked why, he said that he was going to “remineralize” his teeth instead. He’d read all about it online. Whether this prospective patient […]
Sugar-Spun Dentistry
We all know – for we’ve heard it often enough – that sugar causes tooth decay (among a host of other health problems). That’s because it’s the preferred food of oral pathogens – bacteria such as S. mutans, fungi such as Candida and others. Their metabolic activity – eating, eliminating and multiplying – creates acidic […]
One Less Sugar Experience
Long ago and far away, before Facebook, before blogs, before email…there was the office newsletter. Recently, we ran across some issues of the one we published back in the 1980s, which we called Bite-Sized Pieces. Re-reading these after so long, we thought it might be fun to occasionally bring back some of Dr. Glaros’ articles […]
Xylitol Chewing Gum: Potentially Good, Not Magic
You hear it all the time: If you can’t brush your teeth, chew some sugarless gum. And these days, the advice often mentions xylitol-sweetened gum in particular. Because this sugar alcohol is believed to combat tooth decay, there are those who tout it as a kind of dental wonder, almost magic in its ability to […]
Fluoride Is “Your Friend”? No Way!
You don’t really expect to see a defense of fluoride on a website devoted to a healthy, green lifestyle. But there it was, in all its glory: Yet the very day this piece claimed that fluoride “causes people to have fewer and less severe cavities and suffer less pain associated with tooth decay,” this story […]