Why fluoride

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral used in many dental products to strengthen tooth enamel and prevent cavities. While the amount added to drinking water is considered to be relatively safe, exposure to high levels of fluoride may be linked to several health issues.

You can also opt for fluoride-free dental products, especially if you have young children. Healthline and our partners may receive a portion of revenues if you make a purchase using a link above.

Fluoride helps improve dental health, but it may be dangerous in high amounts. Learn more about fluoride and its benefits and risks.

Toothpaste does expire, but the reason why may surprise you. We explain why it expires plus what to do with your tubes that are past their prime. Fluoride treatment can help protect your teeth and may be recommended for both children and adults. Fluoride is also found in toothpaste, some dietary…. There are many reasons why white spots may develop on your teeth. Learn about the most common causes. Baby teeth are temporary but important.

Most cavities take several months or years to form. However, multiple factors can influence how quickly tooth decay progresses, including oral hygiene,. The idea of tooth worms is an ancient myth. Here's why so many different ancient people believed they existed and how they treated cavities. They can even reverse early tooth decay. So how does fluoride fight cavities? Tooth enamel is the outer covering of your teeth. Your spit, or saliva, is also loaded with calcium and phosphate and bathes the teeth to keep them strong.

When you eat things like candy, crackers or noodles, cavity-causing bacteria starts feasting on the carbohydrates in these foods. This produces acids that attack your enamel. And how much evidence should be required before we allow governments to force people to do something for their own good?

Modern dentistry is a formidable example of human progress. Tooth decay plagued everyone—rich and poor, famous and obscure. George Washington, an affluent planter, had lost all but one of his teeth by age 57, when he was first sworn in as president.

Washington was not alone. Fortunately for denture customers, Europe had a ready supply. Scavengers followed wartime armies, according to the medical historian Lindsey Fitzharris. After the shooting stopped at the battle of Waterloo, many of the dead were toothless within hours. In the first decades of the 20th century, American dentists regularly made full sets of dentures for teenagers so that they would look presentable at graduation.

American soldiers were required to have a minimum number of opposing teeth: six on the top, six on the bottom. Thousands of would-be doughboys and GIs were barred from service in the First and Second World Wars for failing to meet this standard.

From May The truth about dentistry. So dire was the state of U. McKay was a dentist in Colorado Springs. McKay contacted a famous Chicago dentist famous in dental circles, anyway and got him to describe the syndrome to the Colorado state dental association.

Hardly anyone paid attention. They found that students raised in Colorado Springs had discolored teeth, whereas students from other areas had normal teeth. Still, hardly anyone paid attention. In the s, McKay and others identified the staining agent: naturally occurring fluoride compounds in water supplies.

This kind of staining, along with the other negative effects of fluorine absorption by bones and ligaments, is now called fluorosis. The researchers also discovered something else: Although the staining looked terrible, people with fluoride stains had fewer decayed and missing teeth. A small group of dentists began agitating to add low levels of fluoride to drinking water—low enough to avoid staining and also low enough to be safe. Those dentists would soon get corporate reinforcement.

Fluorine, a chemical element, is lethal in small doses and extremely reactive. Fluorides—compounds of fluorine—can be nearly as toxic but are much more stable. They are a common waste product of the fertilizer, pesticide, refrigeration, glass, steel, and aluminum industries. Understandably, executives were thrilled to discover that the chemicals they had to get rid of because they could seep into city water systems might be gotten rid of by being jettisoned into city water systems.

Less understandably, some later anti-fluoridation activists described the corporate embrace of fluoridation as evidence of a Communist plot. It was more like a capitalist plot. From to , the secretary of the Treasury was Andrew W. Mellon, a founder of the Aluminum Company of America, better known as Alcoa. The U. Public Health Service was then under the jurisdiction of the Treasury Department.

In January , Alcoa chemists discovered high levels of fluoride in the water in and around Bauxite, Arkansas, an Alcoa company town. Recent fluoride issues. Facts on new fluoridation systems, overall health effects and more.

More about fluoridation and oral health. It prevents tooth decay. Fluoride in water is the most efficient way to prevent cavities, one of the most common childhood diseases. An estimated 51 million school hours and million work hours are lost each year due to dental-related illness. Community water fluoridation is so effective at preventing tooth decay that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named it one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.

It protects all ages against cavities.