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At the farmer’s market last week one of my favorite farmers who grows watercress, bananas and avocados asked me a medical question. She wondered if I knew anything about a drug her dentist gave her called Perio Med®. I hadn’t heard of it but she said it’s an oral treatment to strengthen her teeth. I had just finished my Caring for Your Teeth and Gums Module for Future Health Now! so I knew she was taking a fluoride drug.

Then she told me since she began taking it her mouth was breaking out in cankers and her neck was stiff and she was getting aches and pains in all the joints in her body. Her doctor said she now had arthritis but she wanted to ask me what I thought.

I told her that the use of fluoride in water treatment and in dentistry to prevent cavities is not scientifically validated. It is merely based on surveys where fewer cavities were found in areas with high levels of natural fluoride in the water. However, based on a completely unscientific report, fluoride has been promoted as an anti-cavity miracle for decades!

Fluoride during infancy and early childhood may damage the developing tooth-forming cells and lead to defective enamel referred to as “dental fluorosis.” This condition is characterized by white spotting, yellow, brown and/or pitted permanent teeth. But you don’t even know that until the teeth have erupted.

Several U.S. and Chinese studies have shown that young children who drink water with fluoride levels >1.0 mg/L have a significantly lower IQ. Learning disabilities, including diminished reading and writing ability are attributed to fluoride.

Boys who drank water containing fluoride levels, considered to be safe by federal guidelines, are 5 times more likely to have osteosarcoma (a rare bone cancer) than boys who drank unfluoridated water as young children. Research worldwide strongly suggests that fluoride is responsible for other diseases including those associated with kidney, liver, thyroid gland, and reproductive organs.

Bottom line – Don’t let your dentist or dental hygienist talk you into fluoride treatments, fluoride toothpaste, fluoride mouth rinse or fluoride dental floss. That’s right. Dental floss is now spiked with fluoride!

Go to the Fluoride Action Network for accurate information about fluoride.

References:
environmentalchemistry.com
fluoridealert.org

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