Is Floride in toothpaste bad for you?!
Question: Some people say that floride is bad for you even when it's in toothpaste. Is there any credit to this?
Answers:
The amount of fluoride you'd have to swallow to be harmful would equal about a whole large sized tube. All toothpastes have in them a chemical called an emetic. (Like Castor oil). It makes you throw up before you get close to the toxic dose of fluoride.
There are lots of anecdotal studies out there that say fluoride is bad. They try to link it to different types of cancers, multiple sclerosis, and just about anything else you can imagine. These studies however are correlational studies. They say that someone had cancer AND they used fluoride toothpaste or drank fluoridated water. There has yet to be any cause and effect type study showing any direct relationship between one and the other.
The guy who said you only need fluoride as a child while your teeth are developing was only half right. There are 2 types of fluoride, topical and systemic. The type in the drinking water is systemic. It gets incorporated into growing teeth and stays with you for a lifetime. After adolescence, fluoridated drinking water is no longer any benefit to you. (nor is it harmful). Topical fluoride is found in toothpaste and some mouth rinses. It helps generalize enamel (the outer shell of teeth) that is demineralized by bacteria. That's how it helps you fight cavities. This benefit lasts as long as you have teeth in your head.
People who are afraid of fluoride and think it's a government plot to poison you will give weird examples. They will say it's rat poison. Actually, it is. In high enough doses it will kill rats, mice, pretty much anything unlucky enough to eat it. Tylenol will do the same think if you eat a high enough dose. Any medication will be toxic if concentrated enough.
They say it was banned in Europe. In actuality, all European countries have limits of any chemical, including fluoride, that can be in drinking water. But it was never banned.
They say it will discolor teeth and cause problems in too high of doses in drinking water. This is true. In areas where people drink well water that contains too much fluoride (between 4 and 10+ parts per million), it does cause white spots and even brown or black spots in extremely high doses. Even in cases where people have grown up drinking this highly dosed water, there is not an increased incidence of any types of cancers or other weird problems they say it causes.
Since the 50's they have done studies to track the effectiveness of fluoride in preventing tooth decay and it has had a significant cause and effect relationship. Where fluoride is used, the number of cavities decreases.
Here's where you can find more info.
http://www.ada.org/public/topics/fluoride/index.asp
Other Answers:
just don't swallow it
It is bad for you if you swallow it, as it's in higher concentrations than in water additives. Adults don't actually need floride anymore since their teeth have stopped developing. yes if you swallow it.
Only if you drink Orange Juice.
If you wanna know why, just try it.
just like any thing, it is bad for you in large doses. as long as you arent eating a tube of toothpaste a day, the normal amount you swallow when you brush wont hurt a thing. in fact it will help your teeth.
Don't swallow it.
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