Caries is a modern disease that attacks our teeth. We know the bacteria that causes it. Why don’t we eliminate the bacteria and cure the disease? In this course will attempt to answer this question.
We had the disease under control back in the early seventies when Fluoride was introduced into the community water supply. I was in practice then. I was not seeing new decay, rather I was replacing old amalgam fillings with composite and crowning teeth that were fractured or had very large amalgam fillings. The children coming up were not inflicted with the disease.
I thought I would be out of business in ten years, but then things changed. Bottle water appeared on the market and soon everyone was drinking it. The bottle water did not have the fluoride and decay became rapid once more.
If we go back further, several thousands of years, people did not have decay lesions on their teeth. They did have periodontal disease, but no decay. It was not until the advent of carbohydrates (sugars)....