A child cannot independently investigate every instruction given by a teacher, doctor, parent, government or institution.

At some point, trust becomes necessary.

But trust has a dangerous side.

Once you trust a system, you stop noticing the system.

Years later, I stopped using fluoride toothpaste for a while.

And then I started thinking.

Why had I never questioned it?

Why had I never asked what fluoride actually was?

Why had I never asked how much I was receiving?

Why had I never asked whether fluoride in toothpaste and fluoride from other sources should be considered together?

Why had I never asked why children were targeted?

Why did some countries fluoridate water while others did not?

Why did some countries use salt?

Why did some use school programs?

Why did some have naturally high fluoride and need to remove it?

And why had the conversation so often been reduced to a simple sentence:

“Fluoride is good for your teeth.”

Maybe that sentence is true.

But a sentence can be true and still be incomplete.

Aspirin can be useful and still have risks.

Sunlight is necessary and can damage skin.

Water is necessary and can kill you in enormous quantities.

The important question is always exposure.

How much?

How often?

By what route?

At what age?

For how long?

And what else is happening at the same time?

That is where this book begins.

Not with the assumption that fluoride is secretly poisoning everyone.

And not with the assumption that every official statement must be correct.

It begins with a much simpler idea:

Look again.