Tooth is Stranger than Fiction

Here at Hamlin Dental Group,we're often struck by just how strange things can occasionally become out there in the world. Up can sometimes really feel like down and down can be downright unrecognizable. What does this have to do with matters of oral hygiene? It was just two disparate, teeth-related news stories that got our attention this morning.

The first was that Dr. Michael LeFevre of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced that his organization is recommending that pediatricians apply a fluoride varnish to the teeth of infant children. The USPSTF also is reinforcing an older recommendation that fluoride supplements be given to young children in areas where drinking water is not fluoridated.

The other story no dentist in Northridge, North Hollywood, or Van Nuys could ignore was in USA Today and discussed the popularity of something called "oil pulling." Reportedly based on an ancient Indian practice, the idea is that swigging olive, sesame, or coconut oil will somehow remove whatever nasty substances are responsible for such terrors as bad breath, discolored teeth, and hangovers. USA Today reports that this is drawn from an ancient practice designed to root out the demons believed responsible for gum disease in ancient India.

You would think that the fact that we now know that gingivitis is caused by bacterial plaque, which we suppose is sort of demonic in its way, and the mountain of evidence backing fluoride's efficacy in terms of fighting tooth decay would mean that the first report would have a great deal more currency than the second. Maybe we're cynical, but we wouldn't bet on it.

If you've seen Stanley Kubrick's classic jet-black 1964 comedy/political thriller, "Dr. Strangelove," then you might have learned how mid-century right-wing conspiracy theorists viewed fluoride as a Kremlin-back communist plot designed to sap America's will to resist. While the villain in the (utterly crazy) story might have changed along with the politics of the conspiracy theorists since then, fluoride is still looked up with suspicion despite the fact that no one seems to have suffered from it in the many decades it's been widely in use. At the same time, we're sure there are folks out there who are ready to swig oil with little or no evidence of any benefit.

We suppose the oil swigging is kind of in the category of  something that's probably harmless and potentially slightly helpful like, say, chicken soup. As the saying goes, it can't hurt and it might help -- as long as you don't accidentally swallow a giant mouthful of oil, anyway. We just hope people take the fluoride news slightly more seriously.