The mouth is designed to protect the teeth from bacterial insult. It has saliva that contains buffers, enzymes and immunological proteins. The natural flow of saliva dilutes and clears food residue around the mouth and along with the movement of the tongue, cheeks and hands acts to keep the mouth healthy.
If our diet is too frequent (good or bad food items), these physiological processes are unable to keep up and the balance shifts in favour of the bugs around our teeth creating cavities (i.e. the more you feed the bacteria, the more waste (acid) they produce). On occasion, the tooth structure is weak and unable to withstand the simplest of attacks from plaque acid (e.g. the fissures of a tooth).
It is widely recognised that fluoride hardens the tooths’ surface and also inactivates bacteria, thus providing us with protection against dental disease.