| Dental Care and Fluoride by Crystal Miller For many years now I have faithfully taken my children to the dentist twice yearly for teeth cleaning, x-rays and fluoride treatments. Recently I had read something that questioned the use of fluoride and that along with my insurance company not covering fluoride treatment on one of my older daughters, got me to researching this topic on the web. What I share today is just “my” research, and is not meant to be taken as medical advice. My purpose for giving this information is primarily to make people aware that there may be dangers in fluoride use and that it is worth investigating. As parents we all need to research and become knowledgeable about these types of things ourselves and make the best decisions for our own family. Prior to 1945 fluoride was considered a toxic waste that caused many law suits due to its improper disposal. It is the waste product of chemical fertilizers and aluminum processing. Fluoride is more toxic than lead and slightly less toxic than arsenic. Fluoride builds up in your body, in the bones. An excess of fluoride in the system can cause damage to the immune system, contribute to calcification of soft tissues, worsen arthritis and cause dental fluorosis in children, which is unsightly white, yellow or brown spots found on teeth. There is also evidence that fluoride can cause cancer and increase hip fractures. Many communities that fluoridate their water have amounts that could cause 3rd stage Crippling Skeletal Fluorosis (the worse stage). The FDA admits that there are no properly done double-blind studies that show that fluoride treatments are helpful. There is enough fluoride in a tube of toothpaste to kill a young child if they were to ingest the whole tube (not likely, but something to think about). So why do dentists continue to push this?? That is a good question, and some of the answers I found were, most dentists don’t take the time to study this topic, the pro-fluoride people have done such a good P.R. job that to go against it is like going against motherhood and apple pie (in one report I read that the cost to dispose of the waste products from chemical fertilizers and aluminum processing would be about 6 billion dollars a year to these industries), dentists make more money in areas were the water is fluoridated (this was in a report put out by the American Dental Association in 1972). Damage done to children’s teeth can require more cosmetic type dentistry and this is a big money maker for them. Some of the steps I am taking for my family on this issue are to discontinue fluoride treatments at the dentist, and using any other dental products that contain fluoride. If you would like to study this subject more in-depth, here are a few web sites: http://www.mercola.com/article/links/fluoride_links.htm There are lots of informative links on this page http://bruha.com/fluoride/ Another informative article along with a long list of references and links http://www.google.com My most often used search engine, see what you come up with If you want to avoid fluoride in toothpaste you can make your own toothpowder or even toothpaste. I have posted my recipe for tooth powder on the web. You can see that here . If you like the idea of toothpaste instead of tooth powder you can add enough liquid glycerin to the tooth powder recipe until it has a consistency that you like. |
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