Why Fluoride?
Fluoride plays a role in preventing cavities in three separate ways:
Protection 1 - Fluoride promotes tooth remineralization.
You may never have heard of it but there’s a process called “remineralization” that plays a giant role in helping to slow down the rate of cavity formation. It’s a bit like tooth decay in reverse.
Not only does fluoride help to make the repair but it also speeds up the repair process and aids in taking it to a higher level of completion.
Protection 2 - Fluoride helps to make teeth more decay resistant.
When remineralization occurs in the presence of fluoride that some of the fluoride itself replaces the kinds of minerals that were originally lost during the demineralization process (such as calcium).
What we didn’t mention is that this replacement process results in the formation of a new type of tooth mineral(FLUORAPATITE) that’s actually “harder” (more resistant to demineralization) than the tooth was originally. And that’s an astoundingly important factor in the prevention of cavities.
Protection 3 - Fluoride has antibacterial properties
Research has shown that when dental biofilms (deposits of dental plaque) contain just 1 to 5 ppm of fluoride (a level that can be reached by simply using an OTC fluoridated toothpaste) it inhibits the metabolism, growth, multiplication and adhesion of the kinds of bacteria that cause cavities.