The Power of Fluoride
Why It's Essential for a Healthy Smile
June 27, 2025
At McKinney Orthodontics, we're committed to helping you build a strong, confident smile—and that means caring for your teeth beyond just straightening them. Fluoride is a key player in every day dental health, but it’s even more important for maintaining strong teeth during orthodontic treatment.
What is fluoride and what does it do?
Fluoride plays an important role in keeping teeth healthy—for both children and adults. When a child consumes fluoride—through fluoridated water, foods, or supplements—the fluoride enters the bloodstream and becomes part of the developing tooth structure beneath the gums. This is referred to as a systemic benefit of fluoride; it is working from the inside-out, before the tooth is even visible. This gives children a head start on strong, healthy teeth!
These benefits continue throughout the teen and adult years. Once absorbed into the bloodstream, a small amount of fluoride is gradually released into saliva. This slow, continuous contact with your teeth helps to neutralize acids from food, maintain enamel strength, and promote remineralization (more on that below!). If you are drinking fluoridated water throughout the day, this helps provide a consistent level of protection.
How does fluoride protect teeth from sugary foods?
We all know that sugary foods are bad for your teeth, but even high-carbohydrate items- like bread, crackers, chips and cereal – are big contributors to plaque formation. When you eat these foods, plaque bacteria on your teeth feed on the sugar and produce acid as a waste product. That acid can weaken tooth enamel and cause cavities. Starchy foods can also stick to your teeth, staying in the mouth longer and giving bacteria more time to produce acid. Fluoride actually disrupts the bacteria’s metabolic process and reduces its ability to produce the enamel-damaging acid.
How do orthodontic patients benefit from fluoride?
Braces create extra hiding spots for plaque and cleaning around brackets can be tricky. Even aligner patients are susceptible to enamel damage because food particles can be trapped against your teeth for long periods of time. This is why fluoride is especially important during orthodontic treatment. Patients who don’t clean their teeth thoroughly, eat sugary foods or drink high-acid beverages are more likely to have enamel damage during treatment, but even the most careful patients need the extra protection provided by fluoride. It is proven to protect against white spot lesions (early enamel damage often seen around brackets) and help prevent cavities in those hard-to-clean areas.
What are the best sources of fluoride?
Fluoride occurs naturally in some foods, but levels are small and tend to be unpredictable. For the United States population, our most reliable and stable source of fluoride is fluoridated, public drinking water, which is regulated at 0.7 mg/L. According to the American Dental Association, “Optimal levels of water fluoridation prevent cavities by providing frequent and consistent contact with low levels of fluoride, reducing tooth decay by 25% in children and adults.” Fluoride in our saliva is “recharged” by frequent sips of water; over the course of the day this provides a multi-faceted protection and strengthening of tooth enamel.
Fluoride toothpaste and mouthwash (such as ACT) are also vital for overall oral health, but especially with braces or aligners. Daily use helps provide an even layer of topical fluoride for each tooth, and this is even more effective if you don’t eat or drink for 30 minutes afterward; the longer the fluoride can stay on your tooth surface, the more effective it will be. Orthodontic patients should be especially careful to thoroughly clean their teeth twice a day for optimal dental health.
As always, our team at McKinney Orthodontics is happy to evaluate your dental cleaning habits during treatment, offer advice, and demonstrate the best practices. We want your smile to be straight AND healthy during and after treatment! Ask us for help anytime!