WWW: Flouride is ALL NATURAL

Preface: Our woman writer is a registered dental hygienist in both Texas and Oklahoma. She has her bachelors degree and is a professional doctor. All opinions are based on scholarly research and knowledge.  

Bare with me. This will be a rant. Allow me to get on my soap box for this post and stay there and then I shall give you a break for a week.

Fluoride… What’s the deal? Why are there so many haters? It’s all natural. It’s literally in everything you eat and drink. Your body processes and uses it. You have to have insanely expensive equipment put inside your pipes in your home to have it filtered in because the water you drink out of the faucet or in bottles has fluoride added in it. So then, why? I just don’t understand why people go and by the all-natural toothpaste with no fluoride???

Ugh. I’m all about eating healthy and being cautious about what goes in to your body. I understand it. There were lots of scares. It’s kind of like the shots people used to give that had the active flu or disease so your body could fight it and make antibodies to fight it in the future. But medicine and intelligence progressed and now we know how to use fluoride more effectively and safely, along with injections and medications. So, allow me to educate you a little. No this doesn’t really have anything to do with working out, but if your teeth are healthy you can eat healthier and not have to worry about scheduling frequent dental appointments around your work and workouts.

Fluoride is essential for your enamel on your teeth, which is the covering of the crown of the tooth. Minerals are lost during demineralization due to acids caused by plaque, sugars, and bacteria. The enamel can be remineralized thanks to fluoride, calcium, and phosphate. If you don’t introduce these minerals, especially fluoride, the demineralization will never remineralize and will cause decay. Even if you brush frequently, the pellicle on your tooth forms within hours after you brush or get your teeth cleaned and tartar can build up within 26 hours.

Fluoride is essentially crucial for kids between 6 months and 16 years due to the development of the primary and permanent teeth. So what about all the horror stories we hear about? Oh, you’ve never heard of them? Google about fluoride being dangerous. You’ll be reading for hours. However, if you don’t swallow your dentifrice or mouth rinse you’ll be fine. Babies and kids don’t excrete as much fluoride as adults do from their kidneys and absorb 80 percent of the fluoride that is ingested. This is why until kids can spit on their own, they use fluoride-free baby dentifrice. Also, if ingested too much at a young age, it can mottle and stain your permanent teeth and bones that are developing. But as an adult, you really don’t have an excuse.

You may consider me liberal for my views on this, but I agree with the ADA. The research has been done and the fluoride has spoken. It is not our enemy but our friend. And I guarantee it’s a lot easier to PR without tooth pain from decay! Brush and floss Endu tribe!

 End rant.