{"id":319,"date":"2012-12-03T13:56:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-03T13:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/?p=319"},"modified":"2013-06-09T13:31:39","modified_gmt":"2013-06-09T13:31:39","slug":"dentist-part-2-alice-zizi-discuss-fluoride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/dentist-part-2-alice-zizi-discuss-fluoride\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dentist part 2 – Alice and Zizi discuss Fluoride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“Ok,” says Alice “I understand that we both have healthy teeth – according to our dentists – and I understand that we don’t know which of us has the healthiest teeth<\/a>. \u00a0But what about fluoride, doesn’t it make our teeth healthier?”<\/p>\n

“You use fluoride?” asked Zizi.<\/p>\n

“Of course I do. \u00a0It’s in the water, it’s in the toothpaste and when I go to the dentist – it’s impossible to avoid fluoride.”<\/p>\n

“I don’t use fluoride” Zizi responds. “I don’t believe it’s healthy. \u00a0It’s difficult, but not impossible to avoid it. I value my health and my\u00a0health freedom<\/a>.” I tell my dentist – no fluoride on my teeth.<\/p>\n

“I can understand that fluoride treatments are a bit like ‘painting’ or ‘bleaching’ my teeth, so maybe they don’t “grow healthiness”, but what about fluoride in the water? \u00a0Doesn’t that \u00a0help our teeth to grow healthier?”<\/p>\n

“To tell the truth, no one has tested if fluoride makes our teeth healthier. \u00a0There have been a few tests to measure if it decreases illness, but none that measure healthiness,” Zizi responds, “The original study was very short and limited – it only tested incidence of caries or cavities, and then governments decided to put fluoride in the water.”<\/p>\n

“Wasn’t there a big ‘meta-study’ in Australia a few years back?” asked Alice.<\/p>\n

“Yes, the famous Melbourne meta-study. It has quite a title ‘Review of Water Fluoridation and Fluoride Intake from Discretionary Fluoride Supplements<\/a>‘ and quite an ambition: ‘to gather and evaluate the scientific evidence since\u00a01990 in relation to the health effects of fluoridated water and fluoride from other\u00a0sources’. \u00a0But they didn’t understand their mission statement.”<\/p>\n

“What do you mean, ‘they didn’t understand” asked Alice.<\/p>\n

“Their mission statement said ‘in relation to health effects<\/strong>‘, but they only studied illness effects<\/strong>. \u00a0They didn’t study any health effects,” Zizi explained. “They studied caries, a disease of the teeth. \u00a0They studied research into fluorosis and enamel defects, a disease of the teeth caused by excessive fluoride. \u00a0 They studied bone mineral density and fractures and osteoporosis. They studied fluoride as it relates to bone cancer and other cancers, as well as reproductive toxicity, gastro-intestinal toxicity, and hearing defects. They studied cases where water fluoridation systems have failed, poisoning a small town and killing at least one person. They even have a complete section \u00a0with the title ‘FLUORIDE – HEALTH EFFECTS’, where they reference many other research studies, but the research only talks about caries. \u00a0There is no attempt to measure \u00a0tooth healthiness, only tooth illness.”<\/p>\n

“What about fluoride toothpaste,” asked Alice. \u00a0“Every toothpaste has fluoride, surely there have been studies into the health of fluoride in toothpastes.”<\/p>\n

“Not! \u00a0The Melbourne study reported that ‘No randomised controlled fluoride toothpaste studies used negative controls.<\/em>‘ As near as they could determine, there was no research evidence that fluoride toothpaste reduced caries. \u00a0Research studies had concluded ‘weak but not significant caries benefit’, and ‘no difference in caries’, to ‘a 26 percent decrease.. using a modified toothpaste technique which increased contact with the teeth.’ \u00a0No studies measured fluoride toothpaste vs non-fluoride toothpaste. \u00a0No studies measured the healthiness of teeth – only the illness of teeth.”<\/p>\n

She continued, “Their final conclusions are no less confusing, the first is ‘Significant benefits in preventing dental caries in deciduous teeth from\u00a0<\/em>water fluoridation.<\/em>‘, but the last says ‘Increased caries demonstrated in those with higher fluorosis scores. Increased dental caries in children with calcium deficiency and high water fluoride intake.<\/em>‘ Duh. It’s clear that, without studies of healthiness<\/strong>, with just the studies of illness<\/strong> – the result is nonsense. \u00a0A half truth, the sick half truth, and nothing but the sick half.”<\/p>\n

“You mentioned osteoporosis,” Alice interrupted, “Does fluoride create stronger \u00a0bones as well as stronger teeth?”<\/p>\n

“According to the Melbourne study, ‘evidence of the benefit of fluoride in the treatment of osteoporosis is inconclusive’. It appears that fluoride increases bone density, but that the increased bone density is weaker – so at best it’s a wash. \u00a0Of course it might be true that fluoride makes your bones less healthy – but no-one has tried to measure healthiness of bones.” \u00a0Zizi waved her hand.<\/p>\n

“So what doe fluoride actually do?” asked Alice.<\/p>\n

“It sells toothpaste. \u00a0That’s the only thing we can be sure of,” replied Zizi.<\/p>\n

“of which we can be sure” corrected Alice. \u00a0“That’s really complicated… But what did the Melbourne actually recommend?”<\/p>\n

“That’s the most confusing part,” Zizi sighed. “They list 5 different ways to reduce fluoride consumption in the section called FLUORIDE – HEALTH EFFECTS. And two more ways to reduce fluoride consumption in the next section where they discuss the ‘rising incidence of fluorosis. \u00a0Then they delivered a two part message. \u00a0part 1: continue to fluoridate water supplies, part 2: avoid excessive intake of fluoride from other sources. \u00a0They close with the traditional butt-covering qualifier: ‘However, this requires monitoring and more purposeful research.’ ”<\/p>\n

“Has anyone actually studied how to actually make teeth healthier?” asked Alice.<\/p>\n

“Weston Price did some very interesting research by documenting dental health in many countries and communities. \u00a0His conclusion was that nutrition was a much larger factor than bacteria or brushing. \u00a0And Ramiel Nagel, did lots of research into the works of Weston Price and others – and wrote a book called ‘Cure Tooth Decay’, it’s an interesting book, but not well accepted by medical science nor dentist associations.”<\/p>\n

“Why not?” asked Alice.<\/p>\n

“There are probably many reasons. \u00a0First, it’s not a pretty book. \u00a0There are lots of black and white photos of good and bad teeth. \u00a0It’s not aimed at dentists, it’s aimed at normal people who want to make their teeth healthier. But perhaps most important – there is no science of dental healthiness,” Zizi replied.<\/p>\n

“No science of dental healthiness?”<\/p>\n

“There are many people studying dental illness – drilling holes, developing new fillings and glues, pulling teeth with minimal pain, dental surgery, braces to force teeth to grow straighter, extractions to make room for large teeth in a small jaw, etc., but no one studies dental health seriously. \u00a0Also, it’s difficult to ‘market’ dental health. \u00a0Much easier to market toothpastes, dental floss, bleaching and other cosmetic applications. \u00a0You can get instant results by bleaching your teeth – but you might not notice if you make them healthier,” said Alice. She continued, “Actually, there is some science, but it is largely ignored by the dental profession. \u00a0The Weston A Price foundation has lots of research into healthy teeth and much of that research was used by Ramiel Nagel as he write ‘Cure Tooth Decay’.\u00a0Dr. Ralph Steinman’s<\/a> research demonstrated that bacteria does not cause tooth decay, that glands in the jaw send messages to mineralize or demineralize the teeth. \u00a0But this research is pretty much ignored – even though Dr Steinman, a Canadian, won a Nobel Prize in medicine for some of his other work. But, his research doesn’t help market toothpastes and mouthwash, so you’ve probably never heard of it. \u00a0And neither has your dentist.”<\/p>\n

“Well then,” asked Alice, “why should I want to make my teeth healthier?”<\/p>\n

“Healthy teeth last longer, truly get fewer cavities, and can heal when small problems arise. \u00a0Can you imagine if you cut your finger and the surgeon said ‘the best plan is to cut out a larger area so we remove all of the damaged flesh, and then we will glue in a patch of plastic skin replacement’? \u00a0That’s what dental fillings do. \u00a0If you visit you dentist regularly, they can often see the caries BEFORE they become a cavities. \u00a0Dentist know that caries can heal, but they don’t study how they heal. They study ‘dental surgery’, not ‘tooth health’. Dentists often make tooth health worse, not better. Dentists treatments are designed to stop pain. But healthy teeth, and healing teeth is the most effective way to stop dental pain,” Zizi summarized.<\/p>\n

“So,” asked Alice, “which of us has the healthier teeth?”<\/p>\n

“Our dentists can’t tell us,” replied Zizi, “but, I can.”<\/p>\n

—————————————————————–<\/p>\n

You can learn more about the health of Alice and Zizi in these posts:
\nThe Health Test: Alice and Zizi \u2013 Part 1: Who is the healthiest?<\/a>
\nThe Health Test: Alice and Zizi \u2013 Part 2 The Common Cold
\n<\/a>\u00a0The Health Test: Alice and Zizi \u2013 Part 3 The Immune System<\/a>
\nZizi Gets a Cold, Or Not?<\/a>
\nThe Health Test: Alice and Zizi \u2013 Part 5 The Flu<\/a>
\nAlice and Zizi part 6: A visit to the Dentist \u2013 Whose Teeth are the Healthiest?<\/a><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Ok,” says Alice “I understand that we both have healthy teeth – according to our dentists – and I understand that we don’t know which of us has the healthiest teeth. \u00a0But what about fluoride, doesn’t it make our teeth … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healthicine.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}