Live data from Hacker News

Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

mcgill.ca

141–150 of 169 posts

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#141
post #55
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno that it's awkwardness so much as the discomfort of watching someone with pretty messed up teeth forcing too-large ID brushes in between them

This exactly. I don't think the average person is as comfortable as a medical professional at starting at videos/images of messed up teeth, injuries, disease, etc. It's not exactly what we want to stare at when learning.

Also, while I'm at it, I'd suggest maybe putting an hour or two of research into how to make content… exciting? I know you're a dentist and a software engineer, not a YouTuber, but it's worth looking up a bit about what YouTubers and entertainers know about how to hold an audience's attention. Just a few small changes can probably result in a 1.5-3x improvement in the number of people who make it to the end of a video.

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#142
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA, however, is not regulating the spread of the 800 other known species of oral bacteria as well as presumably numerous unknown ones, which do cause some known harm. The extreme suspicion of commercially introduced anthropogenic agents seems a bit ridiculous in both natural ecology and the human microbiome. Prove this compound conclusively safe, but not these other ten million compounds we're just going to allo…

All of those other oral probiotics are based on published research about naturally occurring bacterial strains already present in the environment , and in some cases have the evidentiary support of human trials. Lumina is a genetically modified bacteria. It has no research supporting its effectiveness because the original inventors never bothered to conduct a human trial; they just said that it probably works based o…

> research supporting its effectiveness because the original inventors never bothered to conduct a human trial; they just

If you had read the article you would know that they did bother but the regulatory body set requirements for such a study so high that they couldn't perform it.

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#143
post #47

Wow, the FDA is worse than useless. So much regulatory red tape. These guys had every single reasonable safeguard in place and the FDA kept putting requirement on top of requirement until literally no one would qualify for the study. 20-30 years later and humanity has had precisely zero benefit because of the FDA's simply absurd, technically impossible level of overcaution in this scenario. It is incredible how much…

Left out of this rant against the FDA is that the original product failed because it wasn't effective enough in rats to justify the expenses of a human trial. There was a slight, statistically significant decrease in cavities. That's meaningful at the population level, but at the individual level you're better off just using mouthwash or flouridated toothpaste.

> Left out of this rant against the FDA is that the original product failed because it wasn't effective enough in rats to justify the expenses of a human trial.

Source? The article says something else.

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#144
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents both have fillings in almost every tooth, my sister and I have none. Neither of us did anything particularly special, my parents were quite strict about sugar (for the UK in the 80s/90s) and we brushed our teeth twice a day. I never flossed regularly, though I have started doing it more in the last few years.

Kids ate like crap in the 60s and 70s. Everyone in my family from that generation has dental issues. Both sides of the family. Just from drinking soda like its water.

Yes this is exactly my point. Simple lifestyle changes are really all that's necessary. I still see kids walking around drinking soda, I have to fight tooth and nail to prevent my little one from being given sweets and fizzy drinks on an almost daily basis (we moved to Czech republic, I don't want to be rude about my adopted home but the truth is they are quite behind on children's health and nutrition)

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#145
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, fluorosis isn't demineralization of teeth, it's hypermineralization, way on the other side of the spectrum. Second, you'll get water poisoning before you'd get fluorosis from tap water. I challenge you to find anyone who has gotten fluorosis from tap water alone

So long as the tap water is correctly treated, it's not going to give you fluorosis, but in the event the plant breaks and no one is testing the water, it can happen https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/where-water-turned-d...

Sure, their can be industrial accidents. But just because some company made a radiation therapy device that accidentally fataly irradiated people, doesn't mean that radiation isn't an effective treatment for cancer

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#146
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FDA, however, is not regulating the spread of the 800 other known species of oral bacteria as well as presumably numerous unknown ones, which do cause some known harm. The extreme suspicion of commercially introduced anthropogenic agents seems a bit ridiculous in both natural ecology and the human microbiome. Prove this compound conclusively safe, but not these other ten million compounds we're just going to allo…

Breathing an 80/20 nitrogen/oxygen mixture is also not regulated, yet breathing mustard gas is. So biased.

For testing, we do what we can within practical limits. What those limits should be, is where contention lies. The FDA will come around, especially if someone else does trials under less strict conditions. Won't happen today.

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#147
post #16
post #9

I have a feeling that the people who would trust a product like Lumina are probably the same people who will never use flouride.

Can you explain a little more about where your "feeling" comes from? I preordered Lumina months ago and I drink fluoridated water, brush regularly with fluoridated toothpaste, and intend to keep doing so indefinitely.

I socialize with a lot of international entrepreneurs who go to places like Prospera where Lumina was started. In those circles, it's not at all uncommon for people to see fluoride as an evil thing. I've even seen women in their dating profiles advertising that they won't date a man unless he's "unfluoridated".

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#148
post #147
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain a little more about where your "feeling" comes from? I preordered Lumina months ago and I drink fluoridated water, brush regularly with fluoridated toothpaste, and intend to keep doing so indefinitely.

I socialize with a lot of international entrepreneurs who go to places like Prospera where Lumina was started. In those circles, it's not at all uncommon for people to see fluoride as an evil thing. I've even seen women in their dating profiles advertising that they won't date a man unless he's "unfluoridated".

Have you considered that surrounding yourself with weird conspiracy theorists and then blindly projecting their behaviors onto the population at large isn't a great idea?

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#149
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the same, I brush and floss regularly, occasionally use chx mouthwash, dental disclosing tables and oral probiotics. She forgets to brush sometimes, eats more sweet. She had only one or two cavities in twenty years we've known each other. I've had two root canals and have fillings regularly. Truth be told, she doesn't drink coffee at all, I drink several cups a day. She also doesn't drink much alcohol, I have one…

How many different dentists have you been to in the past twenty years? Does she see the same dentist as you now? I once had a dentist who claimed I had a cavity every visit. I saw him once a year, and he did little more than look at my teeth. I've since switched dentists three times as I moved around the country and my dental insurance changed, and with all three, I've gotten nothing but rave reviews about the state…

I think my current dentist might be overdiagnosing a bit, we were doing a bunch of work even though another dentist said everything was fine just a year before. My biggest regret currently is a decade old root canal done by my previous dentist that was never good and kept getting sore and inflamed in the gums. The new dentist eagerly redid the root canal a year ago but we eventually had to pull it out since a big abscess formed. Looking back, I should've extracted it sooner, since the bone was basically eaten away by lingering bacteria and I'll have to do some bone augmentation for an implant.

Re: Reports of the death of dental cavities are greatly exaggerated

#150
post #94
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife seems to be basically immune to cavities; I get them easily. I brush very carefully; she brushes only quickly. Our diets are the same — if anything she probably gets more sugar. We have the same water source. Etc. Clearly there’s a lot more to this than what you’re claiming. Unless you’d propose that all of my current problems are due to conditions while I was child or similar.

I'm the same, I brush and floss regularly, occasionally use chx mouthwash, dental disclosing tables and oral probiotics. She forgets to brush sometimes, eats more sweet. She had only one or two cavities in twenty years we've known each other. I've had two root canals and have fillings regularly. Truth be told, she doesn't drink coffee at all, I drink several cups a day. She also doesn't drink much alcohol, I have one…

Did you have asthma as kid? I know a couple of people whose teeth are wrecked from inhaler usage. Now they tell you to rinse your teeth after using them, but didn't in the past.
Post reply on HN