About Dental Fluorosis, Fluoridated Water, and Fluorides
Thursday, February 4, 2010
About Dental Fluorosis, Fluoridated Water, and Fluorides
“Dental fluorosis” (DF) is a permanent staining or pitting of teeth caused during childhood by ingesting too much of the chemical fluoride in fluoridated city water and from other sources. It is a preventable disfigurement of teeth that affects appearance and self esteem, and in the worst form can actually harm teeth structure and function.
DF staining may be white, yellow, or brown — or various shades of these colors – and the marking may be in the form of streaks, dots, lines, or patches. One, two, or numerous teeth may be affected, sometimes on the tips of the teeth, sometimes in the middle of teeth, and in irregular patterns. Very often the top and front teeth are affected. In some individuals with advanced cases, pitting appears on the teeth in various patterns.
DF is classified as very mild, mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the amount of the teeth surfaces affected. The system for classifying the degree of damage says that the worst affected tooth is to be ignored for the purposes of assigning a degree of damage, and the classification based on the second-worst tooth. This rather disturbing system results in a “downplaying” or diminishment of the degree of disfigurement caused by the ingested fluorides.
Millions Have DF Today, and Some Groups Are Disproportionately Harmed
The Centers for Disease Control quietly admitted in 2005 that 32% of children and around 23% of the population through age 39 have some form of dental fluorosis. Historically, dental health authorities dismissed dental fluorosis as simply an unimportant “cosmetic defect.” In 2006, however, the National Research Council designated severe DF as a “toxic effect.” While the majority of DF cases are not classified as “severe,” if you happen to be one of the people who are affected or bothered by how your “very mild,” “mild,” or “moderate” dental-fluorosed teeth look, it certainly is not “unimportant” for you! And 3-4% of black and latino citizens, and nearly 2% of whites have the moderate or severe forms of the condition.
The de facto situation is that if you have dental fluorosis, you are expected to simply “live with it,” and “take a hit for the team,” or pay to fix it using your own funds, so that fluorides can prevent a very small amount of cavities in the general population. You weren’t asked if you were willing to accept the disfigurement of your teeth, and citizens have not been told the other side effects from fluorides throughout the rest of the body.
Don’t be misled. Most Americans, and even some dentists, mistake dental fluorosis for other conditions, such as teeth damage from pharmaceutical drugs or fever. Some people think their dental fluorosis is staining from tobacco use. Many citizens think DF staining or pitting is a result of their own lack of dental hygiene. While there are certainly other causes for teeth discoloration (such as traumas to the teeth, use of crystal meth, etc) it is important to realize that it is CDC’s own data – their statements – that acknowledge large amounts of DF in children and adults. Don’t be misled by fluoridation proponents that point to other sources of teeth harm. The fact is that dental authorities admit that millions of Americans have dental fluorosis. See the August 26, 2005 edition of CDC’s “MMWR” publication. Buried in the last of 23 data tables, at the very end of the research report, CDC acknowledges the huge numbers of people that have DF.
Fluoridated Water and Fluorides from Other Sources
For more than 50 years, water agencies have added fluoride to water in the belief that fluoridated water would help prevent cavities. But now information is becoming known about the health risks and other impacts associated with drinking fluoridated water. Here are a few key facts:
1. Fluorides accumulate over time in your body. If your kidneys work well, your urine removes a little more than half of the fluoride you ingest. The rest of the fluorides remain and accumulate in your body, in places such as your bones and joints and in your pineal gland in your brain. If your kidney function is impaired, you retain more fluoride, so we believe it especially important that kidney patients understand the health implications of water fluoridation and fluorides. Persons with increased thirst, who drink large amounts of water due to occupation or health condition (such as diabetes), logically accumulate more fluoride in their bodies. Seniors are a susceptible population because of their long-term accumulation of fluorides over time.
2. No one can tell you how much fluoride you have accumulated, and with water fluoridation, you and your loved ones ingest unmonitored, uncontrolled amounts of fluorides from beverages — and also from foods made with fluoridated water (and the foods can also have significant amounts of a fluoride fumigant residue). The idea behind fluoridation is that “one size fits all” – implying that both a 15-pound toddler and a 240-pound man can each regularly ingest the same amount of fluoride in an eight-ounce glass of water and there is no concern for body size relative to fluoride intake. This makes no sense. The National Research Council in 2006 stated that babies and children are ingesting 3-4 times the amount of fluorides as adults are, on a body weight basis. Yet fluoridation strangely continues, largely because of ignorance by the public that has not been given the whole story about fluorides and fluoridation.
3. Fluorides are highly ineffective at preventing cavities where they occur the most – in the pits and fissures of your back molars. This is the reason for the push for “dental sealants,” which are plastic coatings often placed in the chewing surface pits and fissures of children’s molars. Consider this quote from the Journal of the American Dental Association about cavities (called ‘caries’): “It is estimated that 84% of the caries experience in the 5 to 17 year-old population involves tooth surfaces with pits and fissures. Although fluorides cannot be expected appreciably to reduce our incidence of caries on these surfaces, sealants can.” (Emphasis added. Source: Scholle R. (1984). Editorial: Preserving the perfect tooth. JADA 108:448.)
4. CDC claims that 60 years of research demonstrates that fluoridation is safe and effective, yet in 2006 the National Research Council issued a 500+ page report on fluorides that documented literally volumes of fundamental research on fluorides that has never been conducted. Following are a just a few quotes demonstrating some of the fundamental, basic research has never been conducted on fluorides. From “Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards” (National Research Council, 2006):
► “Information is particularly needed on fluoride plasma and bone concentrations in people with small-to-moderate changes in renal function as well as in those with serious renal deficiency.”
► “More research is needed to clarify fluoride’s biochemical effects on the brain.” [TLCI comment: We hear the following from people: You mean we fluoridate and we don’t know what fluoride does to our brains?!]
► “In addition, studies could be conducted to determine what percentage of immunocompromised subjects have adverse reactions when exposed to fluoride in the range of 1-4 mg/L in drinking water.” [TLCI comment: People with HIV or organ transplants may be astounded to learn that we do not know this information about how many people with immune deficiencies have adverse reactions. The following quote is also especially disturbing for these individuals and their caregivers.]
► “It is paramount that careful biochemical studies be conducted to determine what fluoride concentrations occur in the bone and surrounding interstitial fluids from exposure to fluoride in drinking water at up to 4 mg/L, because bone marrow is the source of the progenitors that produce the immune system cells.” [TLCI comment: Fluoridation is continuing despite not having “paramount” research about how fluorides affect immune cells at 1 part-per-million, the level of fluoride in city drinking water.]
Conclusion:
There is much more you can learn about water fluoridation. And the closer one looks, the more you will be shocked at how we got to where we are today.
Fluorides and fluoridation have been the “sacred cow” not to be questioned or looked at too closely. But the world is not flat, and water fluoridation is not safe.
We recommend that all citizens educate themselves about potential harm from ingested fluorides and work to end water fluoridation now.
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