Has fluoride in the water ever been found to strengthen teeth the way we were led to believe?

Question

The first city in the USA to add fluoride to the drinking water 60 years ago, now wants to check the long term effects because fluoride is a toxic substance. Is it toxic?

Answer 1

Fluoride does seem to protect against cavities in children. In adults, it can cause mottling. The amount of fluorine needed to be toxic is well above what is added to the drinking water. A friend once sent me a batch of propaganda literature from an anti-fluoride group. Most of the data they cited were anecdotal and meant nothing but there was one study that looked really good. It compared IQs from two villages in China. One villege had high natural fluorine in their drinking water and lower IQs. The other had lower natural fluorine and higher IQs. It sounds like an argument for not fluoridating, doesn't it? Unfortunately for the anti-fluorine group, the village with the higher IQs had exactly the same fluoride content in its water as cities in which fluorides are added to the water supply.

Answer 2

I don't know if it's toxic or not but I can tell you that my husband was in the military so we've been stationed in a country where they don't add fluoride to the water and it isn't good. Their teeth were absolutely horrible, yellowed, decaying nasty teeth. Not everyone of course , but many more than you see here in the states. I don't know if it was a lack of dental care combined with a lack of fluoride or what but yuck!

Answer 3

There is a good negative correlation between the presence of small amounts of fluoride in the potable water supply of an area and the amount of cavities experienced by the people drinking that water.  

This isn't proof, it is just a relationship.  However, it has been proven that the hardness of the mineral (a form of apatite) from which teeth are made does increase with a small increase in the amount of fluoride in that mineral.

So it is reasonable to assume that the correlation is caused by an increase in the hardness and decrease in the reactivity of the tooth mineral due to a modest increase in the fluoride content of that mineral.

Fluoride is toxic in excess amounts and under certain molecular forms.  So is chlorine, one of the two major constituents of table salt.  There are many metals (and other elements) that the human body requires in small amounts that are toxic at elevated levels.

it is misleading to say that fluoride is toxic and therefore should be banned from being added to water for this very reason.  That logic says that we should also avoid chlorinating our water supplies, we should bar elements like selenium, zinc, and copper from all of our foods and water supplies, etc.