Tell me more ×
Skeptics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for scientific skepticism. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 8 down vote favorite

Is there any proof that the amount of fluoride that commonly used in toothpaste is unhealthy?

share|improve this question
Fluorine or Fluoride? – Dori Mar 15 '11 at 23:56
1  
Everything that contains fluoride necessarily contain fluorine. – Christian Mar 16 '11 at 0:54
My point is that the two terms are being used interchangeably between the question and its answer(s), so standardization might benefit the question. Also, we have tags for fluoridation and fluorosis, and it seems to me that people searching for those would want to find this question as well. – Dori Mar 16 '11 at 1:10
number of views atm = 666. Fluoride must be evil! – Chris Dec 30 '12 at 15:15

1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote

Fluoride Alert is an anti-fluoridation group and has no credibility in the scientific community.

The fluoride in toothpaste has a concentration of 1,000 to 1,500 ppm of fluoride (which is considerably higher than fluoridated water at 0.7 ppm). A small child would need to eat approximate two tubes of toothpaste in order to become seriously ill. However, the other ingredients would cause vomiting long before a dangerous amount was ingested. As for fluorosis, dentist recommend that very young children be given a pea-sized bit of toothpaste on their brush and instructed to spit out the toothpaste. This precaution is so that the child can avoid getting mild to very mild fluorosis, a purely cosmetic effect in which very tiny, snowflake-like spots develop on the surface of the teeth. It is actually an indication that the teeth are especially resistant to decay. The CDC website has photos of various stages of fluorosis. Moderate to serious fluorosis appears to occur more from drinking private well water with very high levels of fluoride.

Sources:

Institute for Science in Medicine: http://www.scienceinmedicine.org/policy/statements/fluoridation.pdf

For children under 2 years of age, refer to the CDC's advice:

http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/dental_fluorosis.htm

share|improve this answer
Just a caveat that other home fluoride dental treatments may be fatally toxic to children: source – Oddthinking♦ Dec 30 '12 at 3:59

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.