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Comment by nextos | Hacker News Reader

Taking care of teeth is important, but I feel we are misinformed in a number of ways.

If you spend time reading the literature, you may reach the conclusion the pros of getting fluoride don't outweigh the potential damage done to other organs. Same goes for professional dental cleaning, it erodes enamel quickly, but advantages are not very clear to me.

I think keeping the oral microbiome healthy is a much more fundamental step towards true dental health. You want a healthy balance of bacteria, yeast and phages. And you want them to be generating healthy metabolites. That's why I emphasize a good toothbrush plus a good technique, pocket irrigation, calcium salts, and probiotics. And a good diet.

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I've been lucky with my oral microbiome.

37 years old. No cavities. No fillings. Brush my teeth once a day in the morning most of my life. Use regular toothpaste. I prefer ultra soft brush, and usually soften them up more with hot water.

The color of my teeth depends on my diet, when I was doing keto or slow carb, it whitened them quite a bit.

You are very lucky like my girlfriend in that respect. She cleans her teeth twice a day and does minimal care and has one minor filling which was done a couple of years ago.

I have always spent a long time cleaning and flossing my teeth and have lots of minor repairs and fillings done over the years.

I have had some cavities filled in the past, but somehow nowadays I can brush twice a week and haven't had any cavities for more than a decade. (I brush a bit more often than that to prevent bad breath.)

Can you please cite relevant studies. Especially around dental cleaning.

He does it: http://freakonomics.com/2008/03/11/is-tooth-cleaning-a-scam/

Dental cleaning is backed by years of scientific research, so if you're going to make claims like that, I would expect it to be also backed up by similar research.

Please provide references for your own claims.

The burden of proof is on the person making the absurd claim, not one that is well accepted in the scientific community. I love how HN is super critical about anything tech related but is basically the flat earthers of hygiene.

Regardless of where the burden of proof lies, it seems silly to say "Dental cleaning is backed by years of scientific research" and then balk at providing any reference on "procedural" grounds.

Didn't the United States government remove flossing from their official health recommendations because there isn't actually any scientific evidence in favor of it, and the law required the government only make recommendations backed by science? From what I understand much of dentistry isn't actually backed by science but is rather just the opinions of dentists. So I think it's justified to ask where you are getting the evidence for the empirical claims you are making.

Can you elaborate on “calcium salts”? Are you referring to stuff like:

http://www.calciumtherapy.com

That's an interesting perspective to have - are there any studies that have informed your view on the oral microbiome?

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