NBFR:Fluoride and Intelligence?

emme022

So I was curious if anyone else has heard this or has thoughts on it.  At drop off today BM gave SO an article about fluoride and its negative effects on childrens iq and intelligence from the Huffington Post(sorry do not have the link at the moment).  Its coming up now because at this weeks dr's appt the Dr. asked if our water had fluoride and it doesn't so he prescribed fluoride tablets for LO.  She has a dentist appt next week and SO is going to call the dentist after to talk to him about it. But has anyone heard of this at all?

twister22

If you google "harmful side effects of fluoride" or "fluoride is bad" or something like that you will find a crap ton of conspiracy theory stuff. I have 4 dental hygienists and 1 dentist in my family and they are all pro-fluoride. They went to school for it and I did not, so I trust their judgment. You guys just have to figure out what's best for you.

+just+j+

My dentist is really, really good and he is pro-fluoride. DD has an appt next week. I will ask her dentist what he thinks. If there is something to this then DD is in luck. We did not have flouride in our water for the first three years of her life. She just got exposed to it 6 months ago.

CurlieWhirlie

My best friend grew up in a town with no fluoride in the water, so she took fluoride tablets every day for her entire childhood. Not only has she never had a cavity, but she graduated from UCLA and now works at Stanford. So.

emme022

@twister22 yea after she gave SO the article I briefly googled and was able to see pretty quick that she was making it out to be a much bigger thing than it is.  She and her mother(who she lives with) have a few weird things like thinking packaged foods are usually better than fresh, only certain brands are ok to eat, you can only use one type of skin cream etc so I'm not shocked by this.  The amusing thing is we have no fluoride in our water but she does in hers.  We are going to give A the fluoride supplements when she is with us unless the dentist advises otherwise.  I definitely thought it was a whole lot of nothing(everyone I grew up with got fluoride in school and we're fine) but wanted to get a few more opinions

ambrvan

This is what the EPA says about flouride.

https://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/fluoride.cfm

Edited to add the link in. Oops. Lol

hopanka

We never did the tablets, although the pedi nonchalantly brought it up when DS was a baby. We said we didnt think it was necessary and pedi didnt push it. DS's teeth are healthy, but there are other factors that determine whether you will have healthy teeth or not. Genetics plays a big part.

ambrvan

hopanka said:

We never did the tablets, although the pedi nonchalantly brought it up when DS was a baby. We said we didnt think it was necessary and pedi didnt push it. DS's teeth are healthy, but there are other factors that determine whether you will have healthy teeth or not. Genetics plays a big part.

We actually have a filter that filters out flouride, among other city water additives. The kids get fluoride in their toothpaste, and that's plenty. They get plenty of calcium. And yes, genetics is a huge factor with teeth. Flouride was a big deal to my parents, I took great care if my teeth. So did my dad. But my dad and I both have very weak teeth anyway and have had a lot of work done (cavity fillings, crowns, root canals). I had my first root canal when I was 14. So the flouride didn't help me.

But in reference to flouride and intelligence
A) People live excuses for why they're kids don't perform as well as they would like them to and excuses for their own lack of guidance.
"Everything causes cancer now." If you push it hard enough, you can find a link to something negative from just about everything.
C) Anything in excess can be bad.

Ilumine

I only have anecdotal evidence from my time working for & with TRICARE, the military Health Care Program. 

When we went into the middle east and had to call up our National Guard and Reserves, one of the initial screenings the men and women had to pass to be able to go over was dental.  

TRICARE has such a problem with the guys teeth (I mean pulling out teeth left and right if their MOS was a necessity), that the Department of Defense actually started actively promoting and putting money into the TDPG&R program. 

And guess where the most dental problems were found?  States where the water was not fluorinated.  

I have also found some documents on Preventative Med that talks to this issue, though they did not conclude that the problems come from unfluorinated water. 

hopanka

Ambervan...the sad thing is that everything does cause cancer these days. btw, we also filter our water. As far as teeth, my experience has been the same. I was very responsible as a kid with brushing...still had a ton of cavities. My DS is kinda lazy when it comes to his dental hygiene...and his teeth are perfect. Go figure. and you are absolutely right...everything in moderation. That's why the tablets seemed like an overkill to me, and with minerals and chemicals that can never be a good thing.

Littlejen22

Yes genetics plays a huge roll but not the only one. My SD had no cavities ever until we moved to a town in NJ that does not fluoridate the water. Within two years she went from none to two or three. The only thing that changed at the time was fluoride.

Ilumine

I do want to say this, the whole Nazis put fluoride in water thing is a myth.  The Nazi's documented everything (even the Holocaust).  NO WHERE is there proof that they did it.  

Now I will tell you this, I am not a fan of fluoridation in water without consent.  So if a state did not vote on it, then the state should not fluorinate the water.  

And I also believe that the needs of the 1950's may not be the same as the 2000s.  Adding fluoride to water to ensure that most people had SOME protection during a time where toothpaste did not have fluoride is understandable.  

But in today's world, if you are not brushing your teeth, then that is on you or your parents.  We do not need to add more unnecessary chemicals to our bodies - because the reality is, once the fluoride is added to the water, you cannot control the dosage.  

Do I think that overall, it is a bad thing, EH.  Do I think that it can help, EH.  

dmndsr4eva

My city stopped putting flouride in the water two years ago. They said that flouride occurs in the water here naturally at the levels recommeded by CDC.  I personally think tablets is over doing it.  Flouride is in tooth paste and would your dentist recommend a flouride mouth wash?  I know they have a lot of over the counter mouth wash for kids that has flouride.  The bottles say to not use until age 6 though for some reason.

Littlejen22

Diamonds age 6 is usually when kids can spit correctly. The kid rinse is for topical use and not to injest. It is different from the tablets.

allgood921

Me personally, I use flouride free toothpaste because I get enough of it through tap water.  All the 'dangers of flouride' articles are leaving out the major phrase "TOO MUCH" in front of the word flouride.  

It's all personal preference though really.  Everyone I know personally doesn't 'control' their flouride intake and are just fine.

allgood921

And as crazy as it may sound, I actually managed to reverse a minor cavity after i switched to non flouride toothpaste.  I started using clay based toothpaste which I read could held re-mineralize your teeth. I gave it a try and sure enough my dentist was just as shocked as I was. Cavity was gone    So for cavities, I would recommend doing research on bentonite clay based toothpaste.  My dentist didn't like the idea and didn't recommend it as a remedy but hey, it  Worked for me, might work for you :-]

dannie2011

allgood921 said:

And as crazy as it may sound, I actually managed to reverse a minor cavity after i switched to non flouride toothpaste.  I started using clay based toothpaste which I read could held re-mineralize your teeth. I gave it a try and sure enough my dentist was just as shocked as I was. Cavity was gone    So for cavities, I would recommend doing research on bentonite clay based toothpaste.  My dentist didn't like the idea and didn't recommend it as a remedy but hey, it  Worked for me, might work for you :-]

 I have thin enamel and my dentist is always prescribing florid toothpaste and I personally don't believe it's doing anything. I'm going to look into that bentonite toothpaste thanks.