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  • Tooth Decay in Kootenay Kids

    One of the reasons I went into dentistry is that I don't really have to give people any sad news like "real doctors" do. But one thing that really gets me down is having to tell parents that their child has to go to the hospital to get their tooth decay treated under general anaesthesia. It happens too often. Tooth decay in kids is a big problem in the Kootenays. The Kootenay Lake Hospital has a multiple month waitlist for kids needing treatment for teeth decay in the operating room, usually under a general anaesthetic. This is with the local hospital dentist going once or twice a week for a full day! A study published in 2013 by the Canadian Institute for Health Information looked at day surgery rates to treat cavities in children 5 years old and younger across Canada and the results for our area were very disappointing. 19.6 out of every 1000 children 5 and under in the Kootenay Boundary Health Region required a day surgery under general anaesthesia (2010-2012 data) to treat tooth decay. This is 42% higher than the provincial average and over 2 times higher than in the East Kootenays. These are kids 5 and under; just little ones! Across Canada, treatment of tooth decay makes up almost a third of all day surgeries for children 5 and under. It is a big deal. So what can I do to help prevent this from happening to my child? 1st dental visit by year 1: The first thing is to go to the dentist preventatively, not when you see a dark spot, or your child is in pain. As soon as there are teeth in your child's mouth you should go and talk with a dentist about proper dental home care and healthy dietary habits. A visit to the dentist a couple of times a year, however, is not enough; you need to be an active participant in your child's oral health care plan. Diet: In other areas, we might have to say, "feed your kids healthy snacks". But who are we kidding? We live in the Koots! Most kids aren't eating junk. They are organic, sugar-free, eating from the garden, outdoor playing healthy kids! Yet.....we have bad tooth decay here. Diet is important, but it is not enough in the fight against tooth decay in children. I see plenty of little ones who's parents feed them healthy food yet have aggressive cavities. Toothbrushing: You have to brush their teeth for them! Two times a day. Send them to school with a toothbrush and toothpaste. Use a plaque indicator from time to time to see what spots are being missed regularly. I know they fuss, but get it done. Toothpaste: Use a toothpaste that says "fights cavities". If it doesn't, it is not protecting your child's teeth. Do not fall for the natural trap like many parents have. I get it. You want to protect your kids from the evil, pineal gland calcifying, IQ dropping, mind controlling rat poison that is put into the big pharma toothpaste products. But.....fluoride works the best and it is safe. Tooth decay in kids is too aggressive to treat with a natural toothpaste, and most of the kids I have had to send to the hospital do come from fluoride-free households. Does it stop 100% of cavities? Of course not.... But dentistry is expensive! There are various programs that can help you access dental care for your kids . Check these out to see if you qualify: Healthy Kids BC: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/policies-for-government/bcea-policy-and-procedure-manual/health-supplements-and-programs/healthy-kids Canada Dental Benefit: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/dental-benefit.html?utm_campaign=hc-sc-dental-22-23&utm_medium=sem&utm_source=ggl&utm_content=ad-text-en&utm_term=canada%20dental%20benefit&adv=2223-348800&id_campaign=19028624151&id_source=143154882479&id_content=637268023675&gclsrc=ds Interior Health Dental Health Services: https://www.interiorhealth.ca/services/dental-health-services/locations?lid=L267 Tooth decay in kids is a troubling scenario but the good thing is that it is preventable! Do it for the children! Thanks for reading, Dr. Dave

  • Article Review: Sodium Fluoride and the Rat Brain

    Ok, you guys are going to start wondering if I actually do any dentistry or if I just spend my time reading irrelevant articles about fluoride. This will be a quick one because it is just silly. There is an often-referenced article that found that sodium fluoride (NaF) can damage the rat brain. Sounds scary, right? You can find a link to the original paper on my favourite source for articles on fluoride: https://fluoridealert.org/studytracker/?search=afifi&fulltext=&fantranslation= The article is from 2009 and is an experiment on 20 rats, split into 4 groups of 5. One group was a control, one group got Vitamin B6, one group got NaF, and another group got NaF and Vitamin B6. So right off the bat it is rats......and not humans, and very few of them, but the kicker is that these rats were force fed 10mg/kg of NaF daily. 10mg/kg! Putting that into human perspective.....say you take a 70kg person and have them eat 10mg/kg NaF, you are looking at 700mg daily ingestion of NaF. A child's tube of toothpaste is 75mL and 0.24%NaF, meaning it has about 180mg of NaF in it. So this study would be like force feeding a 70kg human almost 4 tubes of children's toothpaste everyday! Siiiiiiick. This is just plain animal cruelty. The amounts of NaF in this study simply do not represent realistic human scenarios, and the number of days that the rats were fed wasn't even stated in the article. It is not surprising that the rats were experiencing ill effects. This is such an extreme dosage that it does not even make sense to reference it, but it is cited in dozens of popular articles. One thing that also gets me about these NaF studies is that the writers only focus on Fluoride, but do not even mention the fact that there is a larger amount of Sodium being administered (by weight). Surely ingesting that amount of Na on a daily basis would have deleterious effects as well. There is no background given on the effects of sodium (even though one of the proposed mechanisms is impairment of a Na/K channel), or any attempt to control for sodium; it is just dealt with as a non-factor, which is not a correct assumption. Does this article prove that NaF makes rats very sick? Yes. Is it a realistic situation that humans would find themselves in? Not at at all. Once again, please do not stop brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste because of this article. Thanks for reading! Dr. Dave

  • Article Review: Fluoride in the Human Pineal Gland

    One of the websites that patients always direct me to when trying to educate me on the dangers of fluoride is the "Fluoride Action Network's" www.fluoridealert.org. Honestly, they have done a great job of collecting a huge wealth of research articles on the topic of fluoride. Analyzing the research without bias, however, is a different story. A well known article from 2001 about human pineal gland calcification is available on their site to read, but not in PDF form. Find it here: https://fluoridealert.org/studies/luke-2001/ We will review that today. So.... In the late 1900's a study was performed on 11 aged human cadavers in the UK where they analyzed the fluoride and calcium content of their pineal glands. A bulk of the article describes the treatments used on the glands to be able to measure their fluoride content, and then they analysed the correlation between fluoride and calcium. Their findings were that there was a strong correlation (0.73) between the fluoride and calcium concentrations in the pineal gland, and that the concentration of fluoride was higher in the gland vs the concentration in the bone. This comes as no surprise as it is well known that fluoride loves to bind to calcium containing tissues. The authors confirm that by stating, "The high fluoride levels in the pineal are presumably due to the large surface area of the HA crystallites both intra- and extracellularly." and, "the extremely high level of substitution in the crystal structure of pineal HA [hydroxyapatite] by fluoride illustrates the readiness with which fluoride replaces the hydroxyl ion in the HA crystal." The authors did not indicate that they were able to assess if the subjects had any pineal gland disorders or associated illnesses. In actuality, the average age of the cadavers was 82, so they lived long lives. The average life expectancy in the UK was just under 78 in 2001 when this article was published, so surely any calcifications did not shorten these people's life spans! But again, like in many articles found on the FAN website, without their primary research pointing towards any sort of pathology, the authors conclude..."In fact, calcification of the developing enamel organs and the pineal gland occur concurrently. If fluoride does accumulate in the child’s pineal (this needs verification), the pinealocytes will be exposed to relatively high local concentrations of fluoride. This could affect pineal metabolism in much the same way that high local concentrations of fluoride in the developing enamel organ affect ameloblast function. Research is presently underway to discover whether fluoride affects pineal physiology during childhood: specifically pineal synthesis of melatonin." Their study has nothing to do with children, so why they bring them up at this point is perplexing, and they state unverified "facts" that are not supported by their primary research. The introduction of new concepts in a final paragraph would be a no-no in even the most primary of classes. These are extremely biased, unsubstantiated conclusions, which unfortunately will be the snips that people love to copy and paste when they are arguing about the dangers of fluoride. Please do not stop brushing your teeth with fluoride because you read this article. Thanks! Dr. Dave

  • Article Review: Fluoride in the Pineal Gland of the Goosander

    I am not kidding. I have actually had to read up on the effect of fluoride on the pineal gland of a Merganser. Believe it or not, this article often up comes when when people are discussing the harmful effects of fluoride on the brain. So here is my review of it. Find the article here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10653-014-9615-6 Once upon a time (2010), in an estuary in Poland with confirmed pollution due to decades of effluence from mills and chemical and fertilizer plants, 45 Goosanders became trapped in a fishing net and alas became expired, and researchers decided that it was a great idea to freeze them, chop out their brains and bones, and then to measure the fluoride content of these organs/tissues. Poor birds. What these researchers found was that fluoride indeed accumulated in the bones and the pineal glands of these birds, and to a much lesser extent, within their brains. This is not new information; bones, teeth and the pineal gland are all tissues that have calcifications, and fluoride is well known to bind to these minerals. That is really the extent of this study: they measured the amount of fluoride in these tissues. There was no assessment to see if the birds were sick, if they were neurologically or physically impaired, if they had reproductive damage, if the fluoride caused the calcifications,....nothing. These birds simply died because of dumb human error. In fact....the authors presented various references that indicated that the effect of fluoride on these birds is not even really known. They state, "The causes of such a high concentration of F- in the brain of wild ducks and the potential effects on this most crucial organ are not known." And also, "there are no known and environmental consequences of this phenomenon in birds." Yet........the authors conclude that "The total negative effect of these trace elements and F- and their interactions in the bodies of birds may be one of the environmental reasons for the drastic decrease in the number of some species around the Szczecin Lagoon, including the goosander and the velvet scoter." While this article does reference other studies looking at the potential harmful effects of fluoride, it does not provide any primary evidence to support those claims. It is merely a study looking at the concentrations of fluoride within the tissues of these birds and had no further evaluation on their health status. For them to jump to the conclusion that fluoride is contributing to the decline in bird population is dramatic, is not supported by their findings, and demonstrates their bias. It is a statement that should have been re-evaluated at peer review. And of course....it is that final line of the article that will get cited over and over again by people trying to prove that fluoride is bad for your brain.....even though this article does nothing to prove that fluoride is causing these calcifications, or that these calcifications are causing any harm to the birds. It is frustrating to have to even consider this article as an argument against brushing one's teeth with fluoride toothpaste but it is the sad reality of the pervasiveness of logical fallacies and misinformation. Please do not stop brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste because of this article. Thanks for reading! Dr. Dave

  • Article Review: Pineal Gland Calcification

    It is a bit embarrassing how much I have read about pineal gland calcification. Over and over again I have patients who are concerned about brushing their teeth with a fluoride toothpaste because they are scared that it will harm their pineal gland. So I read up on it to see if there is any truth to their fears. I have done this so much, I figured why not start summarizing this literature. So let's start with the infamous pineal gland calcification. There is a very comprehensive review on pineal gland calcification. You can find it here: https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/23/2/301 This is a deep dive into what pineal gland calcifications are, theories as to why they occur, and suggestions on how to prevent and to potentially remove them. There are over 300 articles cited in this literature review, which is a massive undertaking. They describe the pineal gland as a secretory organ which "primarily synthesizes melatonin" but is also responsible for the creation of peptides such as DMT, and steroids such as testosterone to a lesser extent. Although the gland is highly vascular, they propose that the calcifications are actually synthesized in the gland, as opposed to as a result of filtration. They review both viewpoints of whether these "acervuli" are pathological in nature, or are part of the normal metabolic processes of the gland. For example, people with Alzheimer's and schizophrenia tend to have higher levels of pineal gland calcification, but..... it is also found in neonates, and there is plenty of research showing that these calcifications "failed to impact the melatonin production and its circadian rhythm". In terms of how these calcifications are formed, the authors describe it as an organized secretory process, similar to bone production but with a chemical composition more akin to enamel and dentin, due to a high concentration of hydroxyapatite. They review various proposed cellular pathways to the formation of these calcifications, both from pinealocyte and non-pinealocyte origins, but conclude that they "cannot definitively answer this question". They do offer three potential pathological mechanisms: 1) chronic vascular inflammation 2) brain tissue hypoxia 3) intracranial pressure. Do note that there is not a single mention of fluoride as a causative agent in this section of the article. As for removing these calcifications, they review surgical transplantation of pineal glands, and also the direct application of chelators to the gland, which is obviously something reserved for lab animals. Therefore, they conclude that in humans it may be best to "retard it's calcification or to recover the function of the calcified gland". And here is where they lose me...15 pages and 290 references into a scientifically dense microbiological and histological evaluation of the pineal gland, they finally mention fluoride. It was not described in any of the previous hundreds of articles looking at proposed mechanisms of pineal gland calcification, but they recommend avoiding fluoride because was found in calcified glands of geese and in aged humans...without a further discussion of these articles. These calcifications are composed of hydroxyapatite, so it makes sense for fluoride to be bound to it! After hours of complex reading, it is horribly disappointing to see the authors just toss in these, now classic, articles without reviewing the causation/correlation discussion. And it is invariably these few lines that are always quoted to me by people who are concerned with fluoride in their toothpaste, when they in no way prove that fluoride is actually causing these calcifications. This article is an amazing review for anyone looking to learn more about the pineal gland and it's function, but in no way does is support the avoidance of fluoride toothpaste due to risks of pathological calcifications. We will review the goose study and the Luke et al study another day..... Thanks for reading. Check out that article if you have a couple of free hours to review brain chemistry. Dr. Dave

  • We are keeping our COVID-19 protocols!

    I get it. This has been a bad year. Restrictions are stifling. Wearing masks is frustrating. There is nobody more aware of the struggles that people have been going through than me and my team here at the office. But the end is in sight! Vaccinations have been working! Restrictions are loosening! It is going to be great to finally be past this. Our office, however, will not be lifting the COVID-19 protocols that we have implemented since the beginning of the pandemic. We believe that the best way to keep our patients and teammates safe is to be as strict as possible when it comes to health and safety initiatives. This means that we are KEEPING THE MANDATORY MASK requirement to enter the office, and will also be expecting people to sanitize their hands upon entry. To be honest.....this is likely going to be a forever thing. As always, if you are medically unable to wear a mask, we kindly ask that you give us a heads-up when you are booking your appointment and we will find the safest time for you to visit the office---we will not permit entry without a mask without advanced notice. If you have questions about this policy, please get in touch with me: drdave@nelsonavedental.com but.... please do not harass me or my team with "plandemic" or "human rights violation" or "don't you know restrictions have been lifted" messages.....it has been a hard year and aint nobody got time fo that. If you object to this......simply do not visit our office. Thank you to everyone for helping us keep our community safe! Dr. Dave

  • Let's "cancel" Dr. Westin Price......

    You guys have heard of "cancel culture", right? Where suddenly "woke" persons are calling out people, places, and hobbies as now inappropriate or politically incorrect? Even people that died decades ago? Well.....I want to add a name to the list...... Dr. Westin Price. Who was Dr. Westin Price? Dr. Westin Price was a Canadian dentist who lived and worked in the USA and published books in 1920's-1930's. He travelled the world completing anthropological and nutritional studies in dental and systemic health. There are many websites that call Dr. Westin Price "the greatest dentist in the world" and there is even a foundation in his name that focuses on healthy living. But is he deserving of that title? What does his research say? Much of his research focuses on the role of diet and nutrition in human development, and specifically the loss of nutrients from soils and water sources in urban versus rural and isolated areas. He also wrote on the correlations between dental infections and systemic illnesses. Much of his work has been disproven but serves for historical reference. Just like many of you, I found myself with a whole bunch of spare time this spring due to the COVID19 pandemic lockdown, so I read his books. As many as I could get my hands on. I wanted to see what the hype was about. There was a lot that I agree with. He LOVED butter! I love butter! He loved butter from free range cows living away from cities. I do too!!! He emphasized the importance of healthy agriculture for healthy living. I love growing my own food in my organic garden. But.....there was a side of his research that I just could not get past. Dr. Price's unethical and racist research Dr. Price spoke of non-white and rural and isolated people as "primitive racial stock" and stated that "unpure" genetic lineages through interracial mixing would lead to anatomical deformities, which in turn would lead to criminal behaviour and low intelligence. He performed unethical research on institutionalized children with Down's syndrome, or "Mongoloid Idiots" to use his terminology. In one case, he expanded a child's palate orthodontically and aggressively (it would have been extremely painful) and claimed that it increased the size of the boy's genitals and turned him from a boy into a "modest man". There are countless images of fingers prying open the mouths of indigenous peoples from around the globe to demonstrate their teeth; totally non diagnostic and treating them as research specimens! I could go on and on giving examples of offensive experiments on the disabled, and derogatory descriptions of non-white persons. This research reeks of the arrogance of white medical professionals of the turn of the century and parallels the eugenics movement of the era. I know that this was "how things were back then", but, should we be praising him now? Read his books Even though I found myself thoroughly offended at his research, especially as a Latino-Canadian with Indigenous, Spanish and Italian heritage, which would put me into both his "primitive" and "unpure" genetic categories, making me destined for delinquency and deformity, I powered through a few of his books, only to find more and more infuriating examples of unethical practices and beliefs that could only be interpreted as superiority of the white race. But do not listen to me; read them for yourselves and make your own opinions: Link: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration Link: Dental Infections: Oral and Systemic Link: Dental Infections and Degenerative Diseases Download Link: The pathology of Dental Infections and it's Relation to Dental Diseases After reading these books, I hope the next time you see someone refer to Dr. Westin Price as "the greatest dentist ever" that you cancel them and call them out for not recognizing the racist and unethical past he had---even if it was the norm for the time. Thanks for reading! Dr. Dave

  • Can you repair your teeth?

    I am sure you have seen commercials for toothpastes that claim that they can "repair enamel". Or maybe someone at the local health store has recommended a product that is supposed to strengthen teeth. Is this true? Can enamel be repaired? In order to answer this, we must go over a bit of tooth development. The outer layer of the teeth, the enamel, is a highly mineralized, non-living tissue that is created by cells called ameloblasts. These cells are shed after they perform their job and are not replaced by stem cells; the human body therefore can not regrow enamel! This is why it is very important to protect your teeth from damage. Once the enamel is gone, it is gone. So can enamel be repaired? Yes and no. If you lose a chunk of enamel biting on a fork, or taking a puck in the teeth, that damage is not repairable. A dentist will have to replace the missing enamel with a filling or a crown. In terms of tooth decay, however, the answer is……..it depends. "Demineralization" Dental caries is the bacterial infection that causes tooth decay; this process is better described as demineralization. When bacteria in the mouth metabolize sugars present in the human diet, they create acid which dissolves the minerals in the enamel. The enamel does have the ability to take up minerals and to reverse this damage, but if the time in between these acid challenges is not long enough, there will be a net mineral loss and the tooth will begin to break down. So yes, the enamel can "remineralize" itself…...to a point. It cannot "rebuild" itself. “Cavities” When the loss of minerals weakens the tooth sufficiently, a defect forms in the enamel and it becomes cratered and soft. This is what a dentist calls a “cavity”. Once the tooth gets to this point, the tooth needs a filling. Nothing on the market can repair cavities. Demineralization can be seen on a radiograph (x-ray) BEFORE the surface becomes permanently damaged, so dentists can see where cavities are starting and can get an idea of the dental caries activity over time. Can you strengthen enamel? The only thing that actually STRENGTHENS enamel is fluoride. The main mineral of the tooth is hydroxyapatite, which usually dissolves at a pH of around 5-6. Adding fluoride to toothpaste, mouthwash, drinking water or even to the diet allows the tooth to absorb it and to chemically change this mineral to a much stronger version, fluorohydroxyapatite, or fluoroapatite. This new mineral dissolves at a pH of 4-5! This is a huge increase in the acid resistance of enamel! Fluoride changes the mineral composition of your tooth to a stronger version! Nothing else does that. What about the other stuff? There are many products on the market that can help the tooth absorb minerals. They basically act as a reservoir of calcium or hydroxyapatite that come from different sources. You could also benefit from products that help reduce the activity of the bacteria, such a xylitol. You may also find products such a vitamin K2 that claim to “strengthen” teeth and bones. The clinical evidence behind this is totally lacking and the support for this is theoretically based on bone metabolism pathways. Do not think that a product like this will help you fight tooth decay because they are not proven to do so, even though the person selling it to you may say so. Products that can help repair demineralization and reduce bacterial load and activity are always great recommendations but nothing is as effective as fluoride, because it is simply the only product that strengthens the enamel. There are hundreds of studies supporting this. Would you rather be good at bailing water, or have a stronger hull that is less prone to leaking? What is the best thing to do? Dental caries is very aggressive and anyone with teeth is susceptible to it. It is one of the most common communicable diseases in humans. It is best to use a comprehensive approach of diet, hygiene and medicine. Do not feed the bacteria! Avoid snacking on simple, sticky sugars and use sugar alternatives like xylitol. Remove that bacteria! Brush and floss your teeth and go for regular professional cleanings. Strengthen your teeth! Use fluoride. Replace that lost mineral! Use products that contain nanohydroxyapatite and calcium. Catch demineralization before it is too late! Go for dental checkups and do not decline x-rays because you think things look ok. Once that enamel is gone, it is gone, so please take care of it! Thanks for reading! Dr. Dave

  • How to Care for Your Child's Teeth

    One of the drawbacks of living somewhere away from major centres is that specialized healthcare may not be available in the area, forcing us to travel for hours if something complicated arises. This is a significant challenge for parents with children who would be best seen by a specialist in dental care for kids. There is no pediatric dentist in town and nobody flies in to provide these services. When a child presents to our office with complex dental needs that are beyond our scope of practice, the best local resource is the community dentist that works at the hospital. They have been great at providing an important service to children in the area, but are now overwhelmed with a big waitlist. Hospital dentistry in Nelson is backed up until the end of the year! Just as COVID-19 shut down many non-urgent medical procedures at hospitals across the province, the dental unit at the Nelson hospital was put on pause, resulting in the postponing of many appointments. Children referred to the hospital for their dental care are being scheduled for late 2020. This is a significant time for a little one to wait when their teeth hurt! Every year, over 125 kids are seen in the hospital here in Nelson for their dental care. This is a concerning amount as a baseline, and the coronavirus pandemic has stressed this system even further. So please…..help keep your child’s teeth healthy with these following steps: Brush and floss your child’s teeth for them. They may not like it, but they need it. Until they are coordinated enough to get things super clean on their own, including flossing, it is on the adults to make sure this happens. Avoid constant snacking on sticky sugary foods. Those vegetable puffs? Sticky carbs. Goldfish or crackers? Sticky carbs. Fruit snacks? Sticky carbs. You get my point. These types of foods get mushed into the nooks and crannies of teeth, giving the bacteria plenty to feed on. It is disappointing to see how many kids snacks are bad for teeth. Fluoride toothpaste. Please just use fluoride regardless of what they tell you at the health store. Nothing else actually strengthens teeth and tooth decay is way worse than any potential risk of tooth brushing with fluoride. By the time your child has cavities, the disease process has started; it is much easier to prevent dental caries than to stop it once it has taken hold. This has been a frustrating issue since moving here so if you have questions, please contact me or check out my articles on fluoride. Talk to your dentist about how much and when to start using fluoridated toothpaste with your kids. Go to the dentist. A professional cleaning and checkup is vital to promoting healthy teeth. Get the x-rays that are recommended. All of the offices in town are back up and running so give one a call if you do not have a dentist, and if cost is a factor, there is a low-cost dental clinic (the TEETH clinic). We are very lucky to have many good options for general dental care in our community. It is cliche, but it really breaks my heart when I meet a child for the first time and I see their teeth full of holes, or even abscesses and infections. Kids may not complain about pain until things are really bad, so parents may not know how advanced the decay is until we show them on the x-rays. It is super important to keep a close eye on your child's dental health, starting with keeping things as clean as possible. I hope everyone is trying to make the best of this COVID-19 situation and is spending quality time with their social bubble, and is doing the things we need to do to keep our community safe. Thanks for reading! Dr. Dave

  • Does Fluoride Calcify the Pineal Gland?

    One of the main reasons that patients tell me they avoid fluoride toothpaste is because they heard that it calcifies the pineal gland. Is this true? Does fluoride calcify the pineal gland? Let’s look at the science. What is the pineal gland? The pineal gland (or organ) is a very small “pea sized” structure that lies in the centre of the brain. It’s main role is to secrete melatonin, which is a chemical that is primarily recognized for regulating sleep and mood. Melatonin is also an antioxidant, is anti-inflammatory, and has many more proposed effects, including the modulation of bone metabolism and sex hormones. In primitive creatures, the pineal organ has/had light receptors which help the animal regulate circadian rhythms, but in more advanced organisms, this photoreceptive ability is questionable, and melatonin release by the pineal gland is controlled by a network of areas in the brain. This activity does remain related to exposure to light, with increases in melatonin release by the pineal gland noted during the night. Many tissues in the body can release melatonin, but the pineal gland is unique in that it lies partially within the third ventricle of the brain, allowing it to release melatonin directly to the cerbrospinal fluid, the liquid which bathes and nourishes the central nervous system. In addition to synthesizing melatonin, the pineal gland/organ is said to release DMT, steroids and other chemicals. Does the pineal gland calcify? Yes, as creatures age, calcium deposits (acervuli) accumulate within the tissues of the pineal gland. Similar to the kidneys, the pineal gland is highly vascular and senses concentrations of chemicals in order for the body to perform important homeostatic regulatory functions. The pineal gland, however, appears to calcify based on its own metabolism, and does not accumulate calcium via filtration. Melatonin itself is implied in the activation of bone creating cells within the pineal gland which increases calcium deposits! Calcium accumulates in the pineal gland in the form of hydroxyapatite; the same crystal that is found in the dentin and enamel of the teeth. Is pineal gland calcification dangerous? It is still debatable whether or not calcification of the pineal gland is part of a pathological process or if it is a natural outcome of the metabolic aging of the body. It is clear that as animals and humans age, the amount of calcium deposits in the pineal gland increases. It is also known that as humans age, melatonin levels decrease, but it is not clear whether or not this is directly due to the calcifications themselves, or due to changes in signalling pathways upstream in the activation process. Calcification of the pineal gland has been correlated to various neurological conditions, and so have decreased levels of melatonin, but we must remember that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Does fluoride calcify the pineal gland? No. Fluoride does not calcify the pineal gland. Calcium calcifies the pineal gland. The pineal gland accumulates hydroxyapatite crystals in it as we age, and fluoride has a high affinity to this mineral. Wherever you find calcium accumulations in the body, you will find fluoride bound to it. In teeth and bones this is a healthy change because it strengthens them (to a point). The more fluoride that the body absorbs, the more fluoride that you will find in these calcium deposits, so it is logical for highly calcified pineal glands to also have high levels of fluoride in them. There is no evidence that shows that fluoride initiates calcification, nor that it increases the rate of the calcification, or that avoiding fluoride reduces the rate of calcification of the pineal gland in humans. Studies looking at fluoride toxicity and the pineal gland primarily focus on ingested (swallowed) fluoride in food and drinking water (in rats); I could not find any evidence that brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste is at all related to pineal gland calcification. The pineal gland calcifies on its own as you age and fluoride chases calcium. Can you decalcify your pineal gland? No. Please do not try to decalcify your pineal gland by avoiding calcium. Calcium deposits are not accumulated in the pineal gland because of high concentrations of calcium in the bloodstream. They are deposited as part of the metabolic processes that occur within the pineal gland. The longer you live, the more calcium will be found in your pineal gland. Even healthy older adults will have calcium deposits in their pineal glands. Circulating and intracellular levels of calcium are highly regulated in the human body. There are multiple organ systems, tissues, hormones, and enzymes involved in keeping this mineral in check. Depriving your body of calcium to try to cleanse your pineal gland can be a dangerous experiment that will not have positive outcomes. There are no medications or herbs that draw the calcium out of your pineal gland, or at least I could not find any scientific evidence for this. Surely if something worked there would be actual proof, because these calcium deposits are readily visible in non invasive imaging techniques. All it would take is a simple before and after scan. If you know of any studies proving decalcification, please send them my way! The only thing that works to remove calcium from the pineal gland is the surgical application of chemicals to the surface of the gland to directly chelate the calcium. So yes, in theory it is possible to remove calcium from the pineal gland, but who is going to have brain surgery to do this? Those poor rats. Many people visiting my office have grave concerns over this caclification of the pineal gland and refuse to use fluoride, even if they have a mouth full of tooth decay. The risks of dental disease are clear, painful, sometimes dangerous, are usually very expensive to manage, are extremely prevalent, yet are primarily preventable. Fluoride toothpaste is a key weapon in this fight and is not shown to calcify the pineal gland. If you are concerned with fluoride intake, you should look at dietary sources and not the tube of medicine that is helping you fight one of the most common, communicable bacterial infections that humans suffer from. We can talk fluoride in food another day. Thanks for reading. Dr. Dave

  • Is fluoride safe or toxic?

    By now I am sure you must have seen some sort of post online about fluoride being a poison. “Fluoride calcifies your pineal gland!” “Fluoride lowers IQ!” “Fluoride is industrial waste!” And on the other side, you will have people like me arguing that fluoride toothpaste is not as harmful as people make it out to be, and that tooth decay is hurting children more than fluoride ever will. As a dentist who sees children with tooth decay everyday, and as a dental specialist who deals with the long term outcomes of oral diseases, fighting tooth decay is critical and breaking the cycle of misinformation is part of the battle. If one thing I have learned from this COVID19 is that people really stick to their prejudices, even in the face of scientific proof. But.....we will try to discuss.... is fluoride toxic, or not? We study fluoride toxicity indirectly Current medical ethics do not allow researchers to have humans ingest fluoridated toothpaste to assess for negative outcomes, although it was not too long ago that unethical research approaches were being taken in medicine and dentistry. Read these articles: Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Vipeholm Caries Experiment So how do we know if toothpaste is toxic if we cannot study it directly? Much of what we know about fluoride toxicity is from environmental or workplace exposures to fluorides, or studies on rats. A toxic spill in Alaska. Children living by smelters in China. People drinking improperly tested well water. Geese living in a pond with high natural fluoride levels. Forcing rats to drink fluoridated water. Etc...... While this is valuable information, there are many estimates and assumptions that are made, which leads to broad interpretations of what levels of fluoride are considered to be dangerous, and none of this information directly relates to toothpaste. As a healthcare provider, this is frustrating. Who do you believe? The World Health Organization? Health Canada? The Environmental Protection Agency? The Fluoride Action Network? I guess it depends on where your biases lie….. For those of you with time on your hands, you can start here, and yes I did read these myself, including the references: CDC Fluorides Health Canada Water Fluoridation Can fluoride from toothpaste harm you? Yes, of course. Anything in large doses can harm you. If your child swallows a tube or two of toothpaste by accident or on purpose, yes, please call poison control. The most common side effect of fluoride “overdose” is gastric distress, which if it turns into severe nausea and vomiting should receive medical attention. It is no different than your child getting in to the liquor cabinet. Alcohol is a poison, yet we drink it. How common do injuries arise from toothpaste? With the amount of hysteria around fluoride, one would think that people are regularly going to the hospital because of toothpaste ingestion and that people are suffering serious injuries. It is really just that, hysteria. Ever since the poison control warning was placed on tubes of fluoride toothpaste, tens of thousands of people contact poison control (US Statistics) every year with concerns of swallowing toothpaste. Of those, however, only one or two people need serious medical intervention because they ate too much toothpaste. There are hundreds of millions of daily users of fluoridated toothpaste, and most people know not to eat large quantities of the stuff, so really, the concerns with acute poisoning are minimal. These are facts that are directly from a popular anti-fluoride website too by the way.....http://fluoridealert.org/issues/dental-products/toothpastes/ The benefits of fluoride toothpaste outweigh the risks. Hundreds of kids are hospitalized because of tooth decay every year in our own tiny community of the Kootenays, and fluoride is the best medication to fight this disease. Tooth decay hurts children much more than fluoride does. What about the long term effects of fluoride toothpaste? This is very hard to study because of the difficulties of accounting for non-dental sources of fluoride. People ingest more fluoride from drinking tea and certain foods than from their toothpaste. Dietary fluoride intake is a major confounding variable when looking at the long term effects of toothpaste. In the hundreds of clinical studies on fluoridated toothpaste, however, looking at hundreds and thousands of kids, the side effect that is most commonly reported from fluoride toothpaste is something called fluorosis, which is staining that happens to teeth (infrequently!). Teeth with fluorosis are actually more resistant to tooth decay, unless it is severe, at which point they do become brittle. Fluorosis is how the benefits of fluoride were discovered! Teeth do get stained (mottled) in dental fluorosis, but it is not harmful if mild or moderate; it is primarily an aesthetic concern that has fairly simply treatment options in the dental office. Mild fluorosis can occur in people that swallow too much toothpaste when brushing and it can be more moderate if they have been exposed to other sources of ingested fluoride. Moderate to severe fluorosis is rare and occurs in people who have been ingesting high amounts of fluoride for some reason. It is not really caused by dental products, unless they are being misused. Fluorosis is much less harmful than tooth decay! But I heard about it affecting IQ and the pineal gland? Yes, I heard that too, and that is an entire topic that will be the next blog article. Until then, think of what calcification really means…... If you are concerned with fluoride in your toothpaste, treat it like an over the counter medicine to fight a very aggressive, very common disease. You wouldn’t give you child free access to ibuprofen, or essential oils? Fluoride toothpaste is the best medicine to fight tooth decay, but use it properly :) Thanks for reading Dr. Dave

  • Tooth Decay in Kids

    ***NSFW warning: There are some potentially disturbing images in this article*** Part of my role as a dentist is to promote oral health wellness, which is the reason I take the time to put up articles on our website. One big aspect of this is caries prevention. Tooth decay is a lifelong battle and good habits need to be implemented early. Along with a healthy diet, good homecare, and regular professional dental cleanings and checkups, the use of a fluoride toothpaste starting in childhood is recommended because it is the best medication available to help fight this disease process. Again with the fluoride? The amount of misinformation about fluoride (and many other wellness related topics) being promoted online is really disappointing from a health professional’s standpoint. When adults come to the office with strong viewpoints that fluoride is a toxin and that other products work as well, I really do not spend too much energy trying to convince them. If they have tooth decay and they are not using fluoride, I make my recommendation, they object, and I don’t push any further, unless they are open to a non-confrontational, evidence-based discussion. They are adults and have the right to control their medical choices and I do not want to create a feeling of hostility, but I am available to provide scientific support if they want. The tough part is with parents. I get it. I am a new dad. I want the best for my daughter and don’t want anything to harm her. So I understand why people would be avoiding fluoride if they thought it was hurting their child. But people are not getting good advice about fluoride and the risks of tooth decay are being downplayed. But baby teeth fall out anyways! Kids get tooth decay. They get it quickly and it is a serious health concern. Too many children are suffering from aggressive tooth decay, and avoiding fluoride only increases the risk of cavities. This is not an opinion. It is proven by hundreds and hundreds of scientific articles and is a reality in my own dental practice. Tooth decay in children is not harmless; it is painful, they can get dangerous abscesses quickly from it, and even though their baby teeth do fall out, missing and tooth decay damaged teeth can have long term impacts on their smiles, their bites, their adult teeth, and even their airways, although that last one is a hot, debatable topic in dentistry. Many parents do not realize how serious tooth decay is until it is too late, and often the teeth can look healthy from the outside, so I want to show you some real images, from real kids, from all over the country and the US. Kids from all sorts of backgrounds. Even a couple of big cavities can cause problems Even just one tooth with severe decay can have a big impact for the rest of that child's life. This is a 15 year old with great homecare and diet, but who’s mother refused to use fluoride because of fears of calcification of the pineal gland (which will get it’s own entire article btw). This tooth looked ok from the outside, but we took an x-ray and saw a huge area of tooth decay, approximating the nerve. We were able to fix this with a filling, but for sure they are going to need a root canal and crown at some point early in their lives because no dental treatment lasts forever, especially in someone with dental caries. She had 3 teeth like this, so she is looking at thousands of dollars of dental care over her lifetime. Would fluoride have stopped this? Maybe not. Would it have lessened the chances of such extensive decay? Yes! Aggressive tooth decay is very common That was someone with just a couple of areas of tooth decay, but what I really want to show you is the heartbreaking stuff. Now please understand that the following images are graphic and bothersome. But you need to see what pediatric specialists and hospital dentists see EVERY DAY. This is not extreme outlier dentistry. It is what we see all of the time, in people from all backgrounds. Every dentist has seen too many children in this situation. This is what tooth decay in kids looks like: This is not a scare tactic. This is reality. Here in Nelson over 100 children a year have to be seen at the hospital for their dental care under sedation, and sometimes under general anaesthesia. And things are only getting busier. When a little one has tooth decay, we try our best to provide as much of the dental treatments in our office, but sometimes the work requires multiple difficult appointments or the child just cannot be managed in a private office. Providing dental care to a frightened child is one of the most stressful things that dentists do. If we fail, we could set up a scenario where that person has dental phobia for the rest of their lives. The challenging thing is that, even after being provided this type of information, some parents continue to put up objections. They refuse fluoride, they refuse to take x-rays, they refuse to believe that it is a big problem……. and some just get up and leave. It breaks my heart seeing kids that are in pain, with visible holes in their teeth, and their parents still think we are trying to poison them or are just recommending unnecessary care. We are really trying to help your kids. I hope that the next time someone tells you that fluoride is poison and that it is just part of some scheme to sell products, and that kids teeth fall out anyways, that you think back at these photos and realize what tooth decay in kids actually looks like. It is a battle that we are losing. Please do not be part of the spread of bad information. These risks are real, and many kids out there are suffering. Thanks for reading, Dr. Dave ***Thanks to all of my colleagues that sent me photos. I did not put credit up there to help preserve patient confidentiality, but you know who you are!***

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