Swallowed fluoride is not essential to prevent cavities and has no nutritional need, according to prominent dental researchers who found that many American children ingest too much fluoride that can decay teeth and damage bones.
“Current evidence strongly suggests that fluorides work primarily by topical means through direct action on the teeth and dental plaque. Thus ingestion of fluoride is not essential for caries prevention,” report Warren and Levy in Dental Clinics of North America, April 2003.(1)
Fluoride, swallowed from water, foods & supplements or absorbed from toothpaste, can create fluorosed (discolored) and, in severe cases, brittle teeth.
“There has been an increase in the prevalence of fluorosis,” reports Steven Levy, DDS, Professor, University of Iowa, in the May 2003 Journal of the Canadian Dental Association(2) while cavities in primary teeth are still a problem(3). “With more severe forms of fluorosis, caries (cavity) risk increases because of pitting and loss of the outer enamel,” writes Levy.
Levy, also Principle Investigator of the Iowa Fluoride Study, ongoing for more than a decade, measures children’s fluoride intake, food and beverage fluoride levels, and relates it to fluorosis, cavities and bone development.
“At low levels of chronic exposure such as with optimally fluoridated water, fluoride appears to slightly increase trabecular bone mass …,” writes Levy and Warren.
Other researchers report fluoride thickens but weakens bones(4).
90% of 3-month-olds, Levy studied, consumed over their recommended 0.01 mg daily-fluoride-dose from water, supplements and/or dentifrice. Some babies ingest over 6 mg fluoride daily, above what the Environmental Protection Agency says is safe to avoid crippling skeletal fluorosis(4).
“There is no specific nutritional requirement for fluoride…given the increased prevalence of fluorosis, it may be necessary to revise downward the adequate intake levels for fluoride,” write Levy and Warren.
“The optimal level of fluoride intake is not known with certainty,” writes Levy.
“Total fluoride intake is the true fluorosis risk factor However, this is very difficult to quantify,” writes Levy who found:
· 77% of soft drinks had fluoride levels greater than 0.60 ppm (or 0.60 mg in approximately one quart)
· Two ounces daily baby chicken food provides their maximum dose
· Children’s specially-flavored toothpaste increases fluoride ingestion
· Soy-based infant formulas deliver more fluoride than milk-based
· Other foods high in fluoride: teas, dry infant cereals, dried chicken, fish and seafood products
· Fluoridated water added to powdered concentrate ups fluorosis risk
· Grape juices, especially white, contain very high fluoride levels
· 42% of all tested juices and juice drinks had fluoride levels greater than 0.6 ppm
· Fluoride supplements are generally not recommended
· Cereals processed in a fluoridated area contained from 3.8 to 6.3 ppm fluoride
“Since systemic fluoride is non-essential and ineffective, fluoridation is scientifically indefensible, harmful and should cease,” says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
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