A-mazing. Simply amazing. That is what I thought when I took a look at one of my patient’s mouth today. It wasn’t something I expected to happen after interviewing the patient.

You see amongst many other things I always ask the patient if he uses fluoride toothpaste. This patient didn’t. And the reason for not using fluoride was a fear of the side effects and the fact that he has never had decay. He was 36 years old. I was sceptical of course. I was certain what I was going to find. If you have read my post Anti-Patients you know what it is. If you haven’t and you are about to click the link, do scroll down to the paragraph Anti-Fuoride when you get there.

So today I was certain that I was going to find decay. At least the early stages of it. Or dental erosion. And I was prepared to go through the routine of informing the patient about the consequences of not using the fluoride toothpaste.

But. A big but. The teeth were in immaculate condition. No plaque, only tiny amount of tartar and definitely no decay. No matter how hard I tried to find even the smallest evidence of it – of the patient being fool not to use fluoride. But he was no fool. Far from it. He had good eating and oral hygiene habits and he attended the dentist regularly. That made him very wise.

Both me and the patient had the same question in our minds. Why isn’t there a toothpaste which contains only calcium for the patients like this one. They don’t need fluoride. Would calcium be enough? But then again, do they need toothpaste at all?

And for those not using the fluoride toothpaste by choice, remember that it really is one in a thousand that will get away with it. Most people will get problems with decay or dental erosion.