Why Is Fluoride So Good For Our Teeth?

We dentists make a pretty big deal about fluoride and how good it is for your teeth. Truly, fluoride is the best cavity fighter out there, helping our teeth stay healthy and strong!

But how exactly does fluoride do such an awesome job at keeping our mouths cavity-free?

Fluoride Prevents And Repairs Tooth Decay

Bacteria that are in plaque produce acids that seep into tooth enamel and break it down. This process of breaking down enamel is what causes cavities over time. Where plaque breaks down the tooth, fluoride builds it up!

Fluoride, a mineral that occurs naturally in many foods and water, protects teeth from cavity-causing bacteria by making tooth enamel more resistant to bacteria’s acid attacks.

Fluoride also helps repair tooth decay in its early stages by building up the tooth in a process called remineralization. This cavity-fighting mineral even reduces the ability of plaque bacteria to produce acid in the first place!

Fluoride Is Available In A Variety Of Forms

Fluoride can be directly applied to the teeth through fluoridated toothpastes and mouth rinses. In fact, toothpaste with fluoride has been responsible for a significant drop in cavities since 1960.

Dental offices also offer fluoride application to teeth as a gel, foam or varnish. Getting a fluoride treatment periodically is important because it contains a higher concentration of fluoride.

Fluoride Intake Is Important At All Ages

Exposure to fluoride can be especially beneficial for infants and children. Between the ages of six months and 16 years, fluoride becomes incorporated into the developing permanent teeth, protecting them from cavity-causing bacteria.

However, adults and children alike need to get enough fluoride to protect their teeth. Just as important as strengthening developing teeth is fighting tooth decay, which fluoride will help you do even after your permanent teeth have come in.

Increased exposure to fluoride can be beneficial for people with certain health conditions. For example, if you have dry mouth, gum disease or a history of frequent cavities, your dentist may recommend additional fluoride treatments or supplements. Ask us if you could benefit from additional fluoride.

Video Transcript

Chlorine and fluorine are some of the most dangerous, most reactive elemental gases on the planet. But, of course, elements act very differently depending on what sort of compound they’re in. I mean, add sodium to chlorine and you get table salt. Add sodium to fluorine and you get… something that’ll strengthen your teeth? Yeah — that stuff your dentist calls fluoride is really sodium fluoride, or maybe another similar compound, like stannous fluoride or sodium monofluorophosphate. What these substances have in common is that they contain fluoride ions.

But for a long time, nobody knew why fluoride helped prevent tooth decay, because like so many other great discoveries, it happened entirely by accident. It all started in 1901, when a dentist named Frederick McKay moved to Colorado Springs. Being a dentist, McKay spent a lot of time looking at other people’s teeth, and to his alarm, many of the local teeth were spattered with brown stains — even teeth that were otherwise in perfect health. But, despite their nasty looking teeth, the locals seemed to have more of a resistance

to tooth decay. He’d never heard of anything like this, and neither had any of his dentist friends. And it took him and his colleagues thirty years, but eventually they figured it out: The people of Colorado Springs had gross-looking, but healthy teeth because their water was full of naturally occurring fluoride. In time, other researchers discovered that as long as water’s fluoride concentration was kept below 1 part per million, it would protect the teeth against cavities without those nasty brown splotches.

Which is awesome, because I like my teeth the color they are now. Based on this evidence, in 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first city in the United States to intentionally fluoridate its water. And for the next fifteen years, researchers kept track of the rates of tooth decay among the city’s children. The number of cavities dropped by sixty percent, and soon everybody was fluoridating their drinking water and toothpaste. But still… dentists weren’t sure why the fluoride worked. But by 1962, they’d figured it out.

It turns out that fluoride’s effectiveness has a lot to do with the chemical composition of tooth enamel, which is the hard outer layer of the tooth. Enamel contains a compound called hydroxyapatite. When bacteria on your teeth start digesting the sugars in your mouth, they can produce enough acid to actually dissolve this hydroxyapatite — which then produces calcium and phosphate ions. Fluoride works by combining with these ions, producing a different compound, fluorapatite, which is actually incorporated back into the tooth as re-formed enamel.

And since it takes a higher concentration of acid to dissolve fluorapatite, this new enamel is much more resistant to decay. So fluorine might be super dangerous, but fluoride is the best way to protect your teeth. Thanks for asking, and thanks especially to all of our supporters on Patreon where if you support us at four dollars or more per month you can submit your questions to be answered right here on SciShow Quick Questions. And if you want to keep getting smarter with us, don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishow, and subscribe.

Tooth Decay Is Preventable

The take home message is this: fluoride helps prevent tooth decay. If you have any questions about fluoride, call us or come in! We would love to hear from you!

We love our patients and their smiles!

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Share this Article