Because any time I hear someone warning me about the evils of fluoride, I check my wallet. I mean, my wallet-sized map of southern Utah, because I wonder if I'm in one of those towns where people keep watch nights, waiting for the black helicopters to come stealthing over the hill, and to paint laser sights on the foreheads of the poor suckers whose mouths are so jacked up with fluoride, they glow on the UN peacekeeper's scopes.
I guess what I mean is, I was surprised when K2's dentist told me that she should switch to a non-fluoride toothpaste. Kids who don't spit out their toothpaste might be getting a fluoride overdose, she said. In fact, it's become such an issue these days, she said, the EPA has ratcheted back the fluoride levels in the water. There's just too damn much of it. Causes fluorosis, permanent white splotches on the little brushers' teeth.
Is this for real?
Pretty much, yeah. HHS proposed to cut recommended water fluoride levels from a range of 0.7-1.2 pmm to the lower limit, 0.7ppm in January 2011. The proposal is based on a review begun in 2006 by the EPA of fluoride and fluorosis studies, which, apparently for the first time, looked at overall levels of fluoride ingestion, not just water. And when kids swallow toothpaste, their fluoride levels increase.
All well and good, I suppose. But though the American Dental Association promptly wet its pants with glee over the HHS announcement, the Toothpaste Industrial Complex is dragging its feet. The only fluoride-free toddler toothpaste we could find has My Little Freakin' Pony all over it and tastes like corn syrup. Not helping.
HHS and EPA announce new scientific assessments and actions on fluoride [hhs.gov]
Fluoride Risk Assessment and Relative Source Contribution [epa.gov]
Orajel Toddler My Little Pony Training Toothpaste 1.5 oz (42.5 g)
Tom's of Maine flouride-free strawberry for kids
It tastes so good that they don't actually brush their teeth; they just slurp down the toothpaste and chew on the toothbrush for a little while.
We're on well water (amazing luck & an odd exception in a metro of almost 2 million) so my little devil is on fluoride, and Mrs. Teufel and I are both using fluoride rinse in addition to the toothpaste.
Gotta LOVE the taste of real, hard, unchlorinated water, and well worth the bother.
Just imagine ice cubes that DON'T taste like the local pool. :)
Fluorosis is for real, and causes pitting, striation, and permanent discoloration. My husband and I both have it from fluoride supplementation as babies. Several of the Oragel toddler pastes have sucralose (Splenda) as well. The ones with Little Bear and Thomas the Train do not. We use Spry for Toddlers with xylitol.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I don't think fluoride is safe and I don't like that it is in our drinking water!
Many adult toothpastes contain triclosan as well. Google that one...
Second that fluorosis thing. Never saw it in Canada but over in Hong Kong you'll see a few folks with the condition, definitely not uncommon from overflourdation in the 60/70's so I was told. Fortunately less of a problem now, just encourage them to spit and rinse, seems to work so far...
I guess that's a good thing?
clearly, the spit&rinse is the end game here, but it's complicated when the toothpaste tastes like candy.
Earth's Best has a toddler toothpaste that is floride free too.
Weleda makes one too.
However, my kid ended up with cavities because she didn't switch to a flouride toothpaste early enough. And this is a kid that has never tasted soda, has very limited access to candy, etc.
We taught spit and rinse at age four and have been very successfulw ith it.
Burt's Bees too: http://www.burtsbees.com/natural-products/toothpaste/natural-toothpaste-kids-berry-bee-without-fluoride.html
3B likes it but demands a chaser, so the taste is good, but the aftertaste...not so much.
My kids like mint, which is hard to come by as far as fluoride free kids toothpaste goes, so we use the Tom's of Maine fluoride free. My older son took a while to learn the whole spit thing, but my 23 month old does it, so sometimes when we have to use fluoride toothpaste with him I don't worry about it.
Earth's best makes one, too. But yes, Tom's is the only brand that makes a fluoride-free mint, and my little lady LOOOOOVES the mint....
Which is worse, the floride or the sugar in the flavored toothpaste? Seriously. Does your dentist even realize that kids' toothpaste often has sucrose as an ingredient?
If your toothpaste doesn't have fluoride, why even use toothpaste?
Could you just skip it and brush without?
We use the Weleda stuff, and the pediatrician prescribed fluoride chewables since our town doesn't fluoridate the water.
The first pediatric dentist we had said just use water, not toothpaste. They're too little for the spitting and the brushing is the important thing. And my 7 year old still prefers to brush with plain water if we'll let him. (not often :)
And this is why I double-checked the label of those wonderful flavored (grape, apple, etc.) kid's toothpastes I wanted to bring back from Japan -- they have flouride.
We're using the Tom's Strawberry as well.
Woah, Burt's Bees has toothpaste again? Will have to track that down. I was disappointed when they discontinued their previous toddler toothpaste. Since then, we've used mostly the Earth's Best that was already mentioned, but recently tried Melvita which has gone over well with the picky preschooler.
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry does not support the use of prenatal fluoride supplements. Pregnant women with MS are even specifically instructed to avoid fluoridated water. The National Kidney Foundation no longer supports fluoridation because it's bad for people with CKD (chronic kidney disease). Far more fluoride collects in the pineal gland (the extremely important connector of the brain and endocrine system) than teeth or bones. The National Research Council in 2006 stated that it might be a factor in early puberty and various other critical effects regulated by the pineal gland. Fluoride also has greater effects on those with poor nutrition and hypothyroidism. Some people are allergic to fluoride. There was also a coverup of a huge Harvard study on osteosarcoma. Fluosilicic acid is far more toxic than natural calcium fluoride because it is 100% soluble and all those free-floating ions of the most reactive element in the known universe readily combine with other toxins such as arsenic, lead, and aluminum, which oh by the way are also added to the water as part of the fluoridation process. Fluorine compounds are able to breach the blood-brain barrier and the placenta, which is a likely factor in Alzheimer's and dementia. And by the way, what is the toxicity level for a fetus? Oddly it's not defined by the USDA, even though they have done so for newborn babies. Peer-reviewed placebo studies on the adverse health effects from fluosilicic acid have NEVER been done.
Why is all of the science being ignored? The only conspiracy I truly believe in is that some people want to make a hell of a lot of money. CRAZY HUH?! The original study was sponsored by Alcoa. No conflict of interest was declared even though they converted toxic waste expenses into profits. The ADA also has a conflict of interest as well because they profit from their seal of approval on fluoridated products and they even sell their own co-branded fluoridated water at Wal-Mart. Fluoridation was sold to the American people by Edward Bernays, the same man who sold Lucky Strike cigarettes aka "Torches of Freedom" to a new generation of women demanding equal rights. He used his understanding of uncle Sigmund Freud's psychology also to manipulate doctors into endorsing large quantities of bacon as a healthy breakfast. I know this sounds like an epsiode of Mad Men. But it's all true. Bernays is known as "The Father of Public Relations". Look it up if you don't believe me. One of his clients was United Fruit. Their profits were threatened by the democratically elected president of Guatemala, so Bernays convinced American politicians and the American public of a Communist threat. The U.S. overthrew their government and ignited a civil war in which 200,000 people died, and all those new family farms were lost. Bernays' ad campaign for WWI was "we're making Europe safe for democracy". Does anyone still believe that?
The ADA has been fighting Medicare/Medicaid since 1965, now the same with Obamacare, and they also fight midlevel practitioners which would greatly help people in rural and poor areas that don't have enough dentists. The ADA is one of the main reasons people suffer from cavities. The EPA ignores its own scientists and manipulated the NRC's ability to have more of an impact on fluoridation policies. The EPA Union even sued the EPA and successfully got fluoride removed from their workplaces. The CDC ignored half of the NRC report in their summary. 68 years of fluoridation doesn't prove it's safe. TIME Magazine: "For nearly six decades, gasoline companies ignored the known dangers associated with lead to get rich." SOUND FAMILIAR?