I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you….

I can’t remember her exact words, but it was along the lines of, keeping your teeth clean will help prevent decay, but flouride is necessary too. The dentist was impressed with the state of my teeth so I’m going to go along with her advice to make sure they stay that way. I think the main reason my teeth are doing pretty well (at 30) is that when I was a kid we weren’t allowed sweets, lollies, soft drink, etc and when we had a drink it was tap water or milk. I always wished for junk food, but I’m glad of it now.

I was devastated to hear my toothpaste wasn’t adequate (just when I’d got used to the strange taste) and I’ve gone back to an ordinary toothpaste. But I’m still on the lookout for a toothpaste without such abrasive cleaning agents and flouride as well.

So I actually asked my dentist about the whole fluoride thing and whether or not he was being brainwashed by the fluoride secret service, and he said that there have been a million studies showing that it’s important for kids to get fluoride — however they don’t need as much as was originally thought some years ago — but that adults are usually fine without it, unless they have particularly sensitive or cavity-prone teeth. As well, like Greenpa mentioned, there’s usually a fair amount of fluoride in city-treated water, so sometimes kids who drink well water in rural areas need a titch more. Either way, there’s no point freaking out over whether you’re getting too much or too little of it; it’s not going to lead to a life or death situation!

I am seriously doubtful about flouride being link to hyperactivity. If that were true, everyone who grew up in an area with flourided (?) water would have a higher chance of being hyperactive. I don’t know how you could isolate flouride as a factor when there are so many other social and environmental things that have changed along with increased availability to flouride.

Might be worth monitoring and discussing with your dentist.

Well, maybe, depending. My own teeth look like something from the bottom of the 3rd world- because I grew up before science discovered that human teeth NEED a tiny amount of fluoride in order to be truly strong and decay resistant. My sons, who got fluoride pills when they were little, because we are not on a city water system- have teeth that could go on posters. No cavities; ZERO, as children. I think they’ve got 1 each, now that they’ve become sloppy adults.

Yes, fluorine is toxic, in many situations. Duh. So is arsenic- which is vastly worse. Reality though, is that our bodies have many arcane needs- including both fluorine- AND arsenic. It’s true- your body needs a tiny tiny amount of arsenic- if you have ZERO- you will get sick and die. Same thing is true of many other weird elements, including stuff like gold. It may have something to do with life originating in the sea.

Teeth are alive. Difficult as that is to visualize. The minerals in them are constantly being updated, shifted, replaced, repaired. With zero fluorine- teeth are enormously more decay prone.

Now. If you’re on “city water” – most likely they are putting tiny amounts of fluorine in it (one of the most cost effective public health policies ever, in the USA – not sure if it’s policy in Canada, but you guys are usually smarter than we are, so I’d bet it IS.) – in which case you likely do not NEED fluorine in your toothpaste.

A basic test for your “fluoride is evil” advisors – do they also believe in Big Foot?

Grains of salt make be called for. Iodized salt.