Is Fluoride Safe? Guest Post by Claus Thorvson



Is Water Fluoridation Beneficial or Not?

For quite sometime now, the dental community has been trying to come up with more and more ways to battle tooth decay. Many dental and health organizations have been launching programs that promote proper teeth care and dental disease awareness. Although a lot of these campaigns have been quite effective, they still don’t seem to suffice as there still is a significant number of cases of tooth decay in the United States. The good news is that they might have already found the best way to battle tooth decay through fluoridation.

Water fluoridation

The process of mixing a certain amount of fluoride into public tap water is called water fluoridation. This process is done so that fluoride is readily available to people, therefore preventing demineralization that then causes cavities. Although there are a lot of benefits to water fluoridation, there are also a lot of disadvantages to it. Let us explore both sides of the debate so that we may weigh the pros and cons, and decide for ourselves whether water fluoridation is worth it or not.

Advantages of water fluoridation

Like any good debate, there is always a positive and negative side. The positive side in this case could be backed up by stating the benefits of fluoride itself:

1. Fluoride has been proven to help stop or even reverse the demineralization process that is the cause of cavities. It has been used by dentists all over the world to treat patients with such problems.

2. Preventing tooth decay is as easy as brushing your teeth two times a day daily with toothpaste that has fluoride.

Fluoridated water has been in use in the US for over 50 years already. It has helped citizens of all ages prevent tooth decay, and of the 50 big cities, 42 already have had community fluoridation. It’s also one of the cheapest ways to prevent cavities .

Disadvantages of water fluoridation

While there are a lot of advantages to community fluoridated tap water, there are a lot of people who have found fault in this sort of idea. The following are some of the disadvantages of fluoridation:

1. One reason argued by those who are against fluoridation is that fluoride is not at all an essential nutrient. They say that there have been zero cases of any disease that have been linked to fluoride deficiency.

2. Since water fluoridation suggests that you ingest fluoride, they also argue the point that no fluoride product that was designed to be ingested was approved by the FDA to be safe or effective. This means that people have been paying a little extra tax each year for something that might possibly be harmful to their health.

Applying fluoride topically is already effective, so there is no reason for it to be
ingested as it poses health risks.

This guest post was written by Claus Thorvson, an avid hiker and skier working on his MBA degree. He write free college admission essays in his spare time.

6 comments:

  1. In my mind, a more significant question to ask is why we have to flouridate tap water and can't simply mandate fluoride in tooth paste if it is of value.

    Considering that we drink only 1% of all treated water, it is silly to actively pollute the water with fluoride simply to protect teeth. With all the medication and pollution that already ends up in our water system and in the environment in general, such primitive delivery systems should seriously be questioned.

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  2. Thanks for the insightful comment.

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  3. I know that some dentists are now prescribing fluoride pills for kids (including toddlers) - particularly in towns that do not fluoridate the water. Since toddlers aren't supposed to use fluoride toothpaste, why should they be taking a pill? How do we really know what's best for our children?! Too much fluoride supposedly can actually lead to tooth decay.

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  4. I find the entire thing confusing and do not use Fluoride in my kids toothpaste and have stopped fluoride treatments at the dentist. Of course the dentist thinks I am crazy since I won't let him do X-Rays either!

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  5. Everyone is complaining about fluoride in water, yet, we allow water chlorination. No protest about that!! Why? Because we all agree that chlorine helps us kill germs that could kill us.

    I have always believe that anything food or drink can be a poison. In fact, water, ham burger, rice, or whatever food can be a health hazard if you drink or eat more than your body can take. Similarly, fluoride or any drug is dangerous if too much dosage is taken.

    If you have too much fluoride in your water, buy a filter that will reduce or remove the fluoride concentrations.

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  6. So... I've found another someone who has the same category and interests with me and my blog....

    Nice to see and meet another one like you....

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