Recently, I have been on alert.

A week or so ago, I saw a tweet from Andrew Huberman asking for a dentist to come on his podcast as he wanted to cover oral health.

This made me a little anxious; I wondered who would be able to represent the profession in a responsible manner that would be suited to his style.

This week he answered a question about fluoride. He tried really hard to be balanced about how he tackled the question; he’d obviously taken some advice from a couple of dentists. It seemed that he wanted to keep them as friends. It’s worth a listen. On the whole I feel he did well.

For reference, if you don’t know who Andrew Huberman , this is he..

He has 6m followers on Instagram and it is fair to say that he is influencial.

Your patients are listening to him.

He covers alot of ground in his podcasts and sometimes I feel he misinterprets research or only scratches the surface.

He touched on the fact that it’s a public health intervention (without using those actual words) and he could have gone further into this.

Perhaps he’s not wanting to alienate listeners since public health is polarising in the US particularly following the pandemic?

These are the take aways and what he got right. I’m going to score him…

Further more…

^{Second part of the question: How much is the Fluoride in our drinking water harming us?}

“Some dentists may not agree that water fluoridation is best practice”; be aware of this

“If F levels in drinking a water are too high…”; in most industrialised coutries it would be adjusted down if naturally high; this is still fluoridation.

Or if consuming a lot of water even with low levels of fluoride he says:

1. “There is Potential for it to cause thyroid hormone disruption”; he says he does not want to cause alarm but…

2. “Has been hypothesized to be neurotoxic…”  he emphasised hypothesised and also neurotoxic

3. Dose dependent ✅

If you are concerned, then “filter that tap water”. He describes that he filters his drinking water but uses tap water when cooking/boiling it. He notions to the drink on the bench next to him (no accident I’m sure) and highlights its “made from purified water, no fluoride” with a smile.

He understands that those that have read up on the subject may be very concerned; interesting conclusion 🤨. Maybe pandering to the health optimisers who would be attracted to his content and not wanting to affect his brand.

 He suggests:

1. Figure out how much F is in your tap water

2. Make a decision as to whether to filter that water or not before drinking it

3.Think about what sort of financial investment you will make to filter that water of “Fluoride and other contaminants”😳 

He then talks about being poisoned with fluoride gel as a 5 year old. He chose to ingest the gel in the trays. He used this story to illustrate that Fluoride is indeed a poison. 😳

Too much detail about his teeth coming through behind his baby teeth etc etc…You can imagine the usual type of dental story unrelated to the topic. An exaggerated tale about how awful the dentist visit was…. 😪

Other advice

“Don't bite the dentist”✅ 

“You make your own choices for you and your family but I have chosen to avoid fluoride toothpaste”. ❓ Thats his perogative.

Repeats that he goes to the dentist once per year and cleanings twice per year.✅

 “And I have had very few cavities in my adult life” sample size n=1❓❌

 He indicates he has protocols in place that he performs at home and the importance of a soft toothbrush. ✅

He has several friends who are dentists and periodontists. ✅

Final message: Oral health is one of the most important areas of health and it’s one of the most overlooked✅✅😇

Overall score; maybe 8/10

Dr. Huberman was largely correct in his reflections on fluoride.

However, some of his personal choices might unduly influence his avid listerners to increase their risk of dental disease. His communication of the positive impacts of water fluoridation on the popultation oral health was largely absent.

Have a listen. What score would you give him?

Have a great week

Rosie