Semidey Dental Podcast
Welcome to "Semidey Dental," the podcast that delves deep into the fascinating world of oral health and its profound impact on your healthspan. Join us on an enlightening journey as we explore the intricate web of connections between your oral health and the health of your entire body.
In each episode, we'll unravel the latest research, expert insights, and personal stories to shed light on the link between your mouth and your body. You'll discover how your smile can lead to a healthier, fuller life.
Your hosts, Dr. Alex Semidey and Jeremy Wolf, will sit down with leading dental professionals, healthcare experts, and individuals who have experienced firsthand the transformative power of optimal oral care. Together, we'll bridge the gap between dentistry and holistic health, unveiling the role that your teeth and gums play in maintaining total body wellness.
For more information, visit: www.semideydental.com or call (954) 581-0120
Semidey Dental Podcast
EP #3: Fluoride Unveiled: Dental Benefits and Beyond
Unlock the secrets of dental health with Dr. Alex Semidey and co-host Jeremy Wolf as we navigate the complex role of fluoride in preventing tooth decay and its unexpected effects on other parts of the body. Learn how fluoride, introduced in the 1950s to curb the rise in cavities due to sugar-laden diets, acts like a mortar to strengthen your teeth by promoting remineralization. Discover the fascinating history of fluoride's journey from a public health measure to a household staple, alongside the evolution of oral hygiene tools over the past century.
But the conversation doesn't stop at your teeth. We delve into fluoride's potential impact on the pineal gland and its role in sleep regulation. Could excessive fluoride exposure be affecting more than just your dental health? We weigh the benefits and risks of fluoride, exploring alternatives like MI Paste and emphasizing the crucial role of nutrition in maintaining oral health. As some South Florida communities reconsider fluoridation, we encourage an ongoing dialogue about health, nutrition, and the broader implications of fluoride in our daily lives. Join us for a deep dive into the balancing act of fluoride usage and its place in modern dentistry.
For more information follow us @Semideydental or visit our website https://semideydental.com/.
Welcome to the Semide Dental Podcast. We're here to provide you expert insights on how dentistry can improve your quality of life and extend your health span. I'm Alex Semide and I'm a practicing dentist, and I'll be your host, along with Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Enjoy the show. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Semide Dental Podcast. I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolf, joined by none other than your, of course, dr Alex Semide. Dr Alex always a pleasure to see you, my brother, how you been Likewise my man Doing great.
Speaker 1:How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I am living la vida loca, as per the usual.
Speaker 2:All right, as per the usual arrangement. Yes, yes. So we got a fun one for everyone today. Dr Alex and I we like to run, and we were out on our run Saturday ago maybe two Saturdays ago and the topic of fluoride came up. I've been on this kind of spiritual journey post-40. And I've heard a lot about fluoride and how it affects your pineal glands. So I started talking about that, and I know very little about fluoride other than the fact that it's applied to my teeth when I go to the dentist for cleaning. But Dr Alex here, he is pretty well-versed in this topic, so we thought what a good topic to get into. It is a buzzword nowadays. So, with that being said, why don't you start off by explaining what exactly is fluoride, because I think most people out there probably don't really understand exactly what it is, and then why it's become such a big part of dental care?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, absolutely yeah. Fluoride it's the new F word, right? Definitely a trending search, given some concerns that this new incoming administration has shared regarding fluoride, and it's been on the radar quite a bit and it's been a topic of discussion for the last forever really. Folks that like to take more of a holistic approach to their health care have generally had concerns about fluoride and its toxicity and things like that. So I think it's important to take a little bit of a step back and really do a deep dive into the pros, the cons, where it can be helpful, where it could be toxic, right.
Speaker 2:As a bad and ugly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly as dentists going through dental school. Fluoride is one of our key weapons in the endless fight against tooth decay. So in today's show we're going to talk about how fluoride impacts our oral health and potential systemic toxicity related to it. So before we get into the nitty gritty of fluoride, I want to take a little bit of a step back right and talk about our teeth and the structure of our teeth, and then I think people will better understand how fluoride works into the whole thing. So the way I always explain it is if you were to zoom in a really powerful microscope onto the surface of our teeth, the enamel, the protective layer of the teeth, would look like a brick wall right, and those bricks are all minerals very tightly packed in together. Now on our teeth there's this constant tug of war happening right, where we lose some of those minerals, like it's almost like bricks are removed from the wall and then those minerals are put back in right and that process is called demineralization and remineralization, and the things responsible for removing bricks are things like bacteria, the stuff we brought. So the acid that bacteria leaches. Minerals from the enamel, acids from our diet can also do the same thing, so we're constantly weakening that enamel and then our saliva comes in with all of the minerals that it has and pushes those minerals back in to the tooth, basically rebuilding that brick wall. Right now, fluoride almost serves like a mortar for those bricks to strengthen the wall and hold those minerals in place On a surface level. Fluoride is fantastic. It really helps strengthen our teeth, fight off cavities, so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:Now fluoride really got introduced into the world in the 50s and what happened was 150 years ago, when our diets were, you know, crackers and cheese and salted meats and you know some sort of fermented beverage, the risk for cavities was pretty low. Like tooth decay just really wasn't a thing. Right, sweets and carbs and things like that that lead to tooth decay through the production of acid and so on and so forth was a lot rarer than it is now. Right, like right now, post-industrial revolution, our diets are super saturated with sugars, refined carbs, all of the things that are karyogenic and that's the fancy term for cavity producing. That industrial revolution happened circa 1900.
Speaker 1:And we went from eons of having generally really healthy mouths to starting to see a lot of tooth decay happening and to the point where public health officials were like whoa, what's going on? We need to do something here to stave off this epidemic of tooth decay. So they thought, all right, we know fluoride can have an impact on the health of the enamel. Let's just put fluoride into the water supply so that everybody's getting fluoride Fluoride all the time, right, and we're going to cut down the risk for cavities and people are going to have healthier mouths. Sounds like a great plan, right.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that. Well, let me stop you there. I want to, because that's counterintuitive. I'm on a roll, Jeremy, I'm talking fluoride man. No, I would have thought that people would have had more dental issues. And what you're saying makes sense now with all the processed foods and the sugars and everything. But like, at what point did people start actually brushing their teeth? Like, when did that become a thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, toothbrushes have been around for a really long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the preponderance, the really oral health and like at home care and toothbrushes and tools and toothpastes and all of that also started really gaining momentum, Like middle of the last century, middle of the 1900s, the last century Can you believe that? 1900s last millennium too? But yeah, so it was always a thing, but not nearly as common as it is nowadays.
Speaker 2:So the government decides to just put this stuff into tap water, basically, okay, basically. So what could go wrong there? What could go wrong? So there's definitely a big distinction in your mind between topical fluoride and then ingesting fluoride into the body, into the bloodstream, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:So fluoride works to be a two different mechanisms right. It can either work topically, just placed on the surface of your teeth, to serve as that mortar, right? Or it can come from, like the inside out, right. So if you ingest fluoride and this is particularly applicable to kids that fluoride actually gets embedded into the enamel of the teeth as the teeth are developing, so it's almost like you're supercharging these teeth for the future to avoid tooth decay. Sounds pretty straightforward. Now, the issue with that is that too much of this fluoride can be toxic, right, and it's a very, very, very delicate balance and delicate level that needs to be achieved to get the benefits of the fluoride from your tap water right, versus overshooting your mark and it having at reaching toxic levels.
Speaker 2:And how could they possibly determine what that happy medium is? Because everybody has a different body, everybody has a different composition. It's got to affect different people differently. So just to impose like a blanket amount of fluoride on everybody and say you're good with 0.08, whatever that is, that might be good for somebody. It might be bad for somebody else, Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it lacks the take into consideration things like all right, like how much tap water are you consuming? That?
Speaker 2:as well, yeah.
Speaker 1:If I'm trying to be healthy and drinking a gallon of water a day from my refrigerator like dispenser, right that has a carbon filter built in that doesn't filter out any fluoride, like you could be ingesting a lot more fluoride than you need, right for the dental benefits of it. Now, the dental benefits of ingested fluoride for adults is like nil, right. So we're really exposing the entirety of the population to something that, and that's not to mention that you're counting on these local municipalities to do a good job at regulating the fluoride levels, right. There's been studies done that have shown certain community water sources that have fluoride levels that are way too high, that are really potentially toxic. It's important for folks to understand that the people responsible for maintaining those fluoride levels are local communities, right, and sometimes equipment malfunctions, sometimes people overlook things and folks could be exposed to dangerously high levels of the substance, and this is at the state and local level, correct?
Speaker 1:At the very local level.
Speaker 2:So, as many communities are starting to remove fluoride from water supplies from where you sit, do you see that as a step forward or backwards for public health?
Speaker 1:That's a good question. So I'll be perfectly honest. I was trained as a dentist and in dental school, fluoride is like one of the biggest tools in our belt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to fight the good fight against tooth decay. And unfortunately, right, like with every other profession, you fall into trappings and you learn a certain thing in school and that's just like your mindset. And yeah, fluoride is good. We recommend it this, that and the other. Over the last few months I've been doing a deep dive into fluoride and maybe reconsidering my personal stance on what our use should be. So I think exposing folks to systemic fluoride with little control is maybe not the best approach anymore. This was done in the mid-50s to stave off the epidemic of tooth decay and it was effective. We saw the results that we had intended, which was to cut down the amount of cavities that people were getting. We got that effect Right. We just like with everything else in medicine, sometimes we lack the foresight of what else could happen with this thing. Right, you intend you've got your original intention, but what's the fallout from it?
Speaker 2:What's the unintended consequences?
Speaker 1:And I feel like now is when we're starting to have those discussions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very interesting and fascinating topic. There's so many different. I don't want to do a deep dive into the FDA and the other things that are put in our food, but it just seems to me, with all the information that's available out there now, something like that shouldn't be blanket imposed on everybody. We should all have the decision to apply this or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll tell you for myself personally, as I've altered my views on the whole fluoride thing over the last few months. I've made changes in my house. Right, I purchased a reverse osmosis filter that will remove the fluoride from the water that my kids are drinking all the time. Is still a phenomenal tool to help reduce our risk for tooth decay, because our diets are very karyogenic. Right, our diets are very cavity inducing. Everything that we eat has sugars, has refined carbs. All of those things lead to cavities. That wasn't the case in the 18, but it is now.
Speaker 1:Unless we're going to radically change our diets, we do need to bear in mind our dental health. Right, and what can we do to improve our dental health? Because nobody wants to get cavities, nobody wants to lose teeth because of decay. That leads to other health issues as well. So I think it's still an important tool, but I am glad that we're starting to reconsider just blanket fluoridation in our water supply.
Speaker 1:Fluoride is a great tool when used topically, when used in a controlled way. I can speak for myself and how I've started to alter and adjust the way we go about things at home. I've started to cut down on how much fluoride I use with my kids. I have two kids six and two and, like I said, getting the reverse osmosis filter, eliminating that ingested fluoride source and incorporating toothpastes that don't have fluoride for nighttime brushing. We still use fluoridated toothpastes once a day because it is so helpful in rebuilding that enamel and strengthening it. But taking small steps like that to cut down the amount of fluoride that we're exposed to, I think is a really good idea and we'll get into why that's important in a second here.
Speaker 2:I was going to actually ask about that, the daily use of it. I recently started using a non-fluoride toothpaste not always but sometimes, so being that it's already in the water. If you're consuming water and I guess technically I'm not, because I have the bottled Zephyr Hills thing unless they're putting it in the hills of Zephyr, I guess I'm not getting it in the drinking water. But again, this came to my mind because of a good friend of mine who's big into the spiritual world and he told me a while ago oh, you shouldn't consume fluoride because it's bad for your third eye or pineal gland. So there is a growing concern about that. Obviously is part of the reason why we're talking about it. Can you explain a little bit more about? I thought it was fascinating. While we were running you were talking about the pineal gland and how fluoride does affect that. Get into that. Talk about that for a little while. Let's go down that rabbit hole. It is really fascinating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really is. So fluoride is a mineral right and if we ingest it it builds up in certain tissues in the body. And speaking specifically of the pineal gland, which a lot of folks hear pineal gland and they start hearing woo automatically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, woo, woo alert. It is a real thing. And it does have biologic processes that it's responsible for, most importantly, regulating our sleep, right? So the pineal gland makes melatonin that helps us fall asleep. It regulates our circadian rhythm, the sleep-wake cycle, and sleep is really important, right? Sleep is what ultimately regulates all of your hormone functions in the body, and if we're not sleeping well, if we are interfering with our quality of sleep not sleeping well, if we are interfering with our quality of sleep our health suffers.
Speaker 1:Now, what fluoride does in the pineal gland is it binds calcium and it basically like sticks to the pineal gland. So it calcifies the pineal gland. Now, some pineal gland calcification is normal, and people that are opponents of this argument or train of thought will say some calcification is normal, right? Adults all show some pineal gland calcification. Yes, that's true. The problem is that fluoride speeds that process up tremendously, right? So it builds up a lot more calcium and basically like bogs down the pineal gland to where it can't do what it's responsible for doing. So it starts affecting our ability to sleep, starts affecting, you know, everything that comes downstream from that too, right? Some woo folks ascribe some more powers to the pineal gland.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to get into that, but from a basic biological standpoint, there is good science that warrants, that substantiates the fact that fluoride does interfere ultimately with the function of this very important gland.
Speaker 2:Aside from stopping the intake of fluoride entirely. Let's say you're still consuming fluoride and it's contributing to some degree to the calcification of the pineal gland Is there anything else you can do to decalcify the pineal gland? Is there an like you get the fluoride coming in? Is there another supplement you could take that kind of balances that out that you know of?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there are some supplements out there that will. That will decalcify or defluoridify I think we just made up a word, the pineal gland and show that it can bring back some of its function. I'll let folks do their own research into that, but there are some over-the-counter supplements that could help with that. My personal opinion is, though, if it's something that is toxic and building up, let's just regulate how much we're taking in of that, so that we don't have to take something else to undo that damage.
Speaker 2:That makes sense and everything, for the most part, everything in moderation, right is okay within reason. Now you did a whole blog on this and there were some things that you referenced in the blog that I wanted to clarify. You had mentioned dental fluorosis. What exactly is that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so dental fluorosis is what we see when kids get too much fluoride exposure. And now, so the kids get all this fluoride exposure, they ingest this fluoride. The fluoride actually gets embedded into the enamel of their teeth.
Speaker 2:as the teeth are developing, but wasn't that a good thing, though to some degree.
Speaker 1:To have a degree right. But dose makes the poison right. So when we have too much of it the enamel actually doesn't develop properly. It'll look mottled and stained and pitted. Healthy enamel should be vibrant and shiny and smooth.
Speaker 1:If it gets too much fluoride when it's developing it becomes the exact opposite and you're left with fluoride that isn't, or tooth enamel that just isn't very strong or resilient and it's actually even more prone to tooth decay. Those folks will generally need some level of aesthetic dentistry to correct the problem, because it's generally doesn't look great but it's not necessarily much beyond the aesthetic impact that it's going to have some minor elevated risk for tooth decay. So that's really in a nutshell the negative, like toxic impacts of fluoride when it comes to your teeth. Where it really starts getting hairy is the systemic exposure. What happens when that fluoride gets into your overall system and what is it damaging on that front? So things like the pineal gland, other organs that start taking in a lot of this of the fluoride, they start losing function too.
Speaker 1:It really is. It's something that's a great tool. It just needs to be used, like you said, in moderation, the right dose and generally ingesting a bunch of it through our tap water. It just doesn't let us regulate how much of it we're getting, but served its purpose in the fifties of staving off tooth decay. But I think we're getting smart to the fact that maybe we need to reconsider this and be a little bit smarter about how we go about utilizing it.
Speaker 2:The fluoride ship may have sailed as far as no man, it's still as far as ingesting into your bloodstream. I said may have In your opinion. I know at your practice you are very patient, specific. You treat the. You do. You treat the patient right, you don't. You look at their history. What's in your opinion? What's the best way for parents to safely introduce fluoride to their kids?
Speaker 1:That's a great question, so I'll tell you what I did with my kids. The number one step when it comes to introducing fluoride. Right, obviously, this whole tap water conversation notwithstanding. Right, because it's probably in the next few months, except, most of our south florida communities are going to remove fluoride from the water.
Speaker 2:That's happening, that's happening, that's happening is that something that was voted on or they're just doing that? Do you know what's that? Was that something that required a vote of all the people, or is that something that was, like it, decided at the, at the city level? You know I'm talking about? Yeah, was that on the, on the ballot, so to speak? Or is that something they just did?
Speaker 1:I'm not I haven't seen it on the ballot but I see reports of more and more. I think delray is removing it in the next month or so from their water source. Since the whole fluoride thing is very community specific, I'm sure every community has a different way they go about it. But, yeah, we're definitely going to see less and less of community fluoridation. But what I was going to say is a very important thing, right? So we want to make the distinction between topical and systemic fluoride, right? Like fluoride touching your teeth is a good thing, right, that is going to strengthen I got fireworks with it. It's such a good thing. That is going to strengthen. I got fireworks with it. It's such a good thing. It's going to strengthen the enamel on your teeth and cut down your risk for tooth decay.
Speaker 1:Now what we want to avoid is a systemic use of fluoride. That makes sense toothpaste with fluoride. So I did a lot of training with my kids. I have trainer toothpaste that don't have any fluoride Like until they were able to spit out the toothpaste really well, I didn't introduce fluoridated toothpaste because I don't want them ingesting all of that extra fluoride. So we train them up right. Once they're able to spit their toothpaste out, we start introducing fluoride, right? So little things like that. Like I said before, I don't use fluoridated toothpaste twice a day anymore. We use it in the mornings to get that benefit, spit it out really well, and then at night we'll use a non-fluoridated toothpaste to remove the plaque and food and things like that that have built up before we go to bed. So it's little steps like that. Really. Let us fine tune the level of fluoride that we're getting exposed to get the benefits without the risks.
Speaker 1:Now, in the practice, we do recommend fluoride. We still use it. I'm a firm believer that when used topically and used in the right way, it's one of the best tools we have right. So, all of our patients, we do what's called a caries risk assessment, right, and we take several factors into account, from how much saliva they produce to what their cavity history is and things like that. And we assign a certain risk level, right, and we do this every year and based on that risk level, we'll either recommend topical fluoride or not. And the topical fluoride is placed in a very controlled way, right, it's done when you come in for your hygiene visit. It's placed by the hygienist in areas where it's going to benefit you the most but expose you the least.
Speaker 2:So is that when you go to the dentist and you guys apply the topical fluoride, I'd imagine that's a significantly larger concentration than what's in toothpaste alone. Otherwise, if you were getting the same amount from the toothpaste, what would be the point of giving the full dose of it? So okay, that makes sense. What about you had talked also in the blog about alternatives to fluoride, things like cpp, acp, right, cpp, acp, cpp, acp can you explain what that is and how it works? Phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphate say that 10 times times fast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't. I had to read it ACP for short. And what ACP is? It's like a fluoride. It also serves as a mortar for that brick wall analogy. It's not quite as effective as fluoride, truth be told, but it still provides a lot of those same benefits. So it is something that I've also introduced at home for myself and the kids as part of the remineralization process to rebuild that brick wall to keep the enamel strong. It's primarily found in a product called MI Paste that we use and recommend.
Speaker 2:So it's, another toothpaste basically, basically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't taste great, it doesn't feel great, but it works well.
Speaker 2:It's not all minty like the toothpaste.
Speaker 1:They have all sorts of flavors, from tutti frutti to vanilla.
Speaker 2:The one I'm using right now that has no fluoride. It tastes like baking soda straight up, it's not very pleasant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really makes you want to brush.
Speaker 2:I've actually brushed my teeth several times with it and had a nasty taste in my mouth and actually re-brushed my teeth with the minty toothpaste, because I'm so used to it. I'll do a brush, I'll start working. I'm like I got a funny taste in my mouth.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2:You were saying before I interjected.
Speaker 1:No, the ACP is a great tool. It's definitely something folks should look into. It's something that I encourage all my colleagues to incorporate into their practice and share with their patients. I think dentistry is going to be taking a long hard look at fluoride and just how much we're recommending it and maybe being a little bit more judicious with how we use that very powerful tool. Right Like everything in life, like you said, everything in moderation. There are benefits to be derived from fluoride, but we just need to be better stewards of it.
Speaker 2:And I love that you're on the cutting edge of this right. It really speaks to the time you put in educating yourself around what you're doing, which is huge, man. What would be one piece of advice if you had to pick one thing that you'd like to leave listeners with about this topic, about fluoride and oral health? What?
Speaker 1:would that be? Guard your fluoride intake, right, your systemic fluoride intake, but don't be afraid of it. Hopefully you will find a dental home that is on the same page and taking into account all of the factors that we discussed previously. And find a dental home that is on the same page and taking into account all of the factors that we discussed previously, and find a dentist that's going to help you find that right balance. Right, like how much do we need for the intended benefits, without getting into dangerous territory where it could be affecting your overall health?
Speaker 2:Did we miss anything? Was there any other topics or any other pieces of the puzzle that we didn't address here?
Speaker 1:I wanted to know if you had any other specific questions about it. It's always helpful for me to get outside of my dentist head, because we sometimes think about things in a particular way, miss the forest for the trees. We get so into the specific details about things that we don't. We sometimes lack the ability to really convey these things to our patients and the general public.
Speaker 2:I think I have a better understanding and you've clarified quite a few things with me and, if nothing else, just talking about this topic has raised awareness in my mind. So I'm a little just a little bit more self-conscious about this topic, which is really all we could do, because a change like this is going to take time, and I think having discussions like this not just about fluoride, but about everything that we're putting into our body are very important, because there is obviously a growing epidemic in the country about people's health in our country.
Speaker 1:So the more we can talk about these topics One last thing I would like to add on that topic is we incorporate the fluoride because of that. That carries risk factor. The best thing, the best way to lower that risk, is to modify our diets and improve our hygiene. Right. And modifying our diet is going to have impacts far beyond your dental health is going to have impacts far beyond your dental health. Right, eliminating things like processed carbs, sugars, excess sugars in the diet those are the things that lead to tooth decay and so many more health issues, right? So if we're addressing root causes, let's talk about nutrition, right, let's get serious about those conversations and then downstream, we're going to need a lot less fluoride because we're just not going to be as risk prone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the nutrition is so huge, probably one of the easiest things to fix about your health and also, at the same time, one of the most difficult things. One of the hardest for sure, especially in the society that we live, where you go to Publix looking for groceries and everything is packaged to look like it's healthy and then you look at what it's composed of You're like I don't want to die.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a gram vat of sugar. Like where the hell did this come from?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy man, but that definitely is a topic for another. Another day we can go on a go down a rabbit hole on that one. Cool man. All right, this was really informative Everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. If if you have any experience with this, leave it in the comments below. Leave your stories, anything that you've encountered about this topic. We're interested to hear what you have to say. Appreciate you all joining us on this journey and we'll look forward to seeing you next time, yeah. Keep smiling folks the Semiday.
Speaker 1:Dental Podcast.
Speaker 2:Everyone take care.
Speaker 1:Have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next time. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Semiday Dental Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and follow us on social media for the latest episodes. You can find us at Semiday Dental. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We're always happy to help. Until then, keep smiling and stay curious.