December 10, 2025 | Fluoride Action Network.
Compiled by Michael F. Dolan, PhD
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Dental Fluorosis, Urinary Fluoride Level Associated With Reduced Kidney Function in United States
A new study of over 1,700 adolescents and young adults in the United States has found that an increased level of fluoride in urine is associated with significant declines in kidney function. The investigators also found that dental fluorosis is associated with reduced kidney filtration.
Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for 2015-2016 for adolescents (12-19 years) and young adults (20-29 years), scientists from the University of Florida found that a higher level of urinary fluoride was associated with a lower kidney filtration rate. Adolescents also showed higher levels of uric acid in the urine.
The authors report, “Each 1 mg/L increase in [urinary fluoride] UF was associated with an approximately 5 mL/min/1.73 m² lower [estimated glomerular function rate] eGFR among adolescents. Higher UF was also associated with higher serum uric acid (mg/dl) among adolescents.”
The NHANES data also included diagnosis of dental fluorosis (DF) allowing the scientists to test for an association between dental fluorosis and perturbation of kidney function.
“DF was associated with lower eGFR among adolescents and adults,” they report.
Dental fluorosis is a visible manifestation of systemic fluoride poisoning although dentistry dismisses it as an inconsequential cosmetic concern.
The authors combined all cases of dental fluorosis, from very mild to severe, as representative of fluorosis, and considered records of normal or questionable DF as lacking fluorosis.
They report that the NHANES data set they used indicated an incredible amount of dental fluorosis in the population.
“Approximately 74% of adolescents and 70% of adults had DF with varying degrees of severity (ranging from very mild to severe),” wrote the authors.
Source: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12940-025-01235-x
Outgoing Dental Association President Puts a “Brave Face” on a Year of Historic Losses
When he began his term as president of the American Dental Association (ADA) Brett Kessler, D.D.S. may not have imagined that his year of service would include a precipitous decline in support for the dental guild’s main public health policy – water fluoridation.
In an address to the ADA’s House of Delegates October 25, Kessler referenced his “year of constant challenges,” a term in office in which he presided over the most precipitous decline in public support for water fluoridation in the policy’s 75 year history, including the installation of a Secretary of Health and Human Services and a Commissioner of Food and Drugs who are opposed to fluoridation, the pending removal of fluoride pills from the market, the complete loss of two states, Utah and Florida, that have banned fluoridation, and the elimination of the Oral Health Division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The ADA News reports, “Emphasizing the importance of fluoride and community water fluoridation was a main focus of Dr. Kessler’s presidency. He wrote an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association Health Forum, highlighting the concerning costs of eliminating community water fluoridation. He testified before the Food and Drug Administration to keep fluoride supplements available for families without fluoridated water.”
Despite the efforts by dentistry and allied guilds such as the pediatrics profession and the public health bureaucracy to preserve fluoridation, the past year has seen a trend to end the practice in cities and towns across the country, and to repeal state mandates so as to allow local water systems to make their own choice.
His effort to keep Food and Drug Administration de facto approval of fluoride pills also failed completely, as the country appeared to wake up and suddenly realize that these prescription medicines (carrying the same dose of fluoride as a liter of fluoridated water) had never been tested for safety and effectiveness.
The guild continues to see fluoridation as an unquestionable good. As the reporter for ADA News writes, “questions over the safety and effectiveness of fluoride” are seen as an “attack on health care and science.”
Survey of Scientific Reports Reveals Extensive Concern Over Fluoride’s Toxicity
An international team of university scientists, writing in the journal Environmental Toxicology, have presented an extensive analysis of the most cited papers on fluoride’s toxicity, highlighting the widespread concern among expert toxicologists over chronic, low concentration exposure to fluoride.
In contrast to some commentators who dismiss concerns that water fluoridation can harm the developing brains of children as “conspiracy theories,” these scientists, from Indiana University, the University of São Paulo, Teesside University and the University of Pará, acknowledge and accept that such low concentration, chronic exposures can be neurotoxic, writing, “More recently, associations have been found between neurotoxicity and populations exposed to doses considered optimal, with the results of these studies discussed extensively,” later adding, “Even with exposure at optimal fluoride levels, an association with neurodevelopmental impairment has been suggested recently.”
The article contains a 12-page table that lists the top 100 cited papers on fluoride’s toxicity. It also contains a 10-page table summarizing the 50 most cited papers on fluoride’s toxicity published since 2021.
Prof. Philippe Grandjean of the University of Southern Denmark is the most cited author, according to this analysis, with his four papers in the top 100 cited more than 1800 times.
The authors found that the journal Fluoride, a publication of the International Society for Fluoride Research, published nine of the top 100 cited articles, the most of any one journal.
The authors conclude “Several studies reported fluoride’s effects on dental and skeletal fluorosis, as well as damage to the brain, thyroid, gastrointestinal tract, heart, liver, kidneys, and specific cell types. This study highlights significant concerns regarding excessive fluoride exposure and identifies key research trends and gaps, particularly in the understanding of molecular mechanisms underlying fluoride-induced damage.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.1002/tox.24600
Fluoride Found to Disturb Kidney Mitochondrial Health
The researchers who discovered that fluoride exposure during gestation disrupts normal kidney development and function have now reported results that show fluoride exposure can disturb the health, quantity and function of kidney cells’ energy-generating organelles – the mitochondria.
The researchers from the Mexican National Polytechnic Institute, the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Montreal report that female Wistar rats given fluoride orally for 20 days before and after mating produced offspring that experience diminished enzyme activity needed for antioxidant functions, enlarged mitochondria, suppression of apoptosis [programmed cell death that is needed for proper kidney development], and other changes that disturb mitochondrial homeostasis, the health, quantity and function of mitochondria within a cell.
While apoptosis results in cell death, the authors note, “It is essential to recognize that, under normal conditions, apoptosis plays a crucial role in proper kidney development, and its occurrence decreases as the structures mature.”
The scientists concluded that morphological changes they saw in the mitochondria, including an increase in size and the production of donut-shaped organelles were the cells’ response to exposure to the fluoride toxin.
In their paper, which appeared November 19 in the journal Toxicology, the authors conclude, “Our findings so far may suggest a potential shift in the metabolic profile, which is known to contribute to abnormal development and even kidney diseases.”
“Taken together, our results suggest that fluoride exposure alters the redox status and mitochondrial homeostasis. At the same time, it decreased the apoptosis induction. These changes may be related to early kidney maturation, as previously described by our research group.”
Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2025.154342
•• Michael Dolan can be contacted at <mdolan.ecsn@outlook.com>