Dangers of Fluoride

Fluoride is added to our drinking water and toothpaste as a tooth decay preventative, but is it completely safe? Research shows that not only does fluoride contain many health risks from its consumption, but also does not prevent tooth decay and can even cause a dental problem in children called fluorosis. Whenever possible you should avoid consuming fluoride by filtering your water or making your own toothpaste.

Dangers

• Dermatitis


• Eczema


• Gastric distress


• Headaches


• Weakness


• Types of cancer


• Increased risk for bone fractures


• Calcify soft tissues


• Damage the immune system


• Dental fluorosis in children


• Can lead to death in accidental overdose

Fluoride is a poison that was once thought to be an environmental pollutant. Many companies were sued for fluoride exposure and damage to crops, along with the death of farm animals where the fluoride was dumped. Somewhere along the way they decided that this environmental pollutant would be good to add to our toothpaste and water to treat tooth decay. Little research has shown that fluoride even makes a difference in the amount of tooth decay that a child with fluoride treatments develops in comparison to children who do not consume fluoride or receive fluoride treatments.

Prevention

The two main ways that fluoride is consumed is through our water and through toothpaste. You should avoid consuming water that is fluoridated, not use toothpaste that contains fluoride, and do not get fluoride treatments at the dentist.

• Water - You can avoid consuming fluoride in your water by buying bottled water that has been through a reverse osmosis treatment. The company will have a phone number on the bottle or on their website; call them and ask them for the amount of fluoride that is contained in their brand of water. You do not want to consume water that has more than 0.1 ppm.  For a long tern solution, you may want to invest in an expensive water filter that will filter out all minerals including fluoride from your water. Many of the cheaper filters do not filter the fluoride out of your tap water. 

• Toothpaste - Purchase all-natural toothpaste. You will be able to find many different brands to choose from at your local health food store or online that do not contain fluoride. You can also use the Internet to look up a recipe to make your own fluoride free toothpaste. Children especially should not use toothpaste that contains fluoride because they do not always spit out the toothpaste and can swallow large amounts of fluoride when brushing their teeth.

• Fluoride Dental Treatments - Children are often given fluoride dental treatments as tooth decay prevention at their regular checkups. Do not allow your dentist to give your children fluoride treatments. These treatments contain very high concentrations of fluoride and can be harmful if swallowed. A typical fluoride treatment contains 10,000 ppm of fluoride on average; keep in mind that you do not want your drinking water to be more than 0.1 ppm. The amount of fluoride found in these treatments is 100,000 times the safe level.