WSJ article on fluoride

[imnotready]

Wondering if anyone else saw the 7/22/05 article in the Wall Street Journal on fluoridation, “Fluoridation, Cancer: Did Researchers Ask The Right Questions?�

The article mentions a study finding a 7x increased risk of osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in boys that drink fluoridated water.

[Tondi G]

YIKES! That is scary! I've been thinking I want to switch back to regular non flouridated water for my family!!!!

~Tondi
Mason 7/8/01 and Aidan 5/4/05

[cuca_]

Organic Style also had a story on the dangers of Flouride. Here's the link:

http://www.organicstyle.com/feature/0,8028,s1-37-0-0-1140,00.html

Makes me sort of nervous.

Carmen
DD May 2003
DD May 2005

[brittone2]

I hate the idea of flouride and I'm so thankful we live in a house now with well water. Scary stuff.

At one of our early well baby visits (around 6 months of age) our pediatrician asked if we had well water, to which DH (a chemist) answered "unfortunately" and they gave us a look like we were nuts. Yeah, this is exactly why...

[chlobo]

Beth,

When I last went to the dentist they recommended that we have our well water tested for flouride. Apparently, it sometimes occurs naturally at high levels, although it is pretty rare.

PS. do you use flouride toothpaste? Just wondering what areas you limit your exposure.

[brittone2]

Our well water was tested for all sorts of things, but I don't think flouride was one of them. Interesting about it sometimes naturally occurring...I didn't know that :)

We don't use any flouride for DS but he's 17 months. We just brush his teeth with water. DH and I are using Tom's of Maine without flouride. I used flouride for a while even after I knew of the risks and I still use it at times, but I'm trying to cut back.

My catch 22 is that DH and I are getting ready to start invisalign treatment, which means for one, I'll have plastic in my mouth 22 hours a day. I totally totally hate the idea but I don't know of a good alternative, as I'm too vain for regular braces and I have a nickel allergy to boot. On top of that, they remove a bit of enamel between teeth for both traditional braces and invisalign these days in order to make extra room to work with. It is recommended that you use flouride as the removal of the enamel temporarily puts the teeth at a higher risk of decay. Ugggggh.

My plan is to talk more with my orthodontist about it and if I have to use regular toothpaste, swish with water thoroughly afterward and try to avoid how much I'm coming into contact with. Topically it doesn't scare me as much as ingesting it, but I still hate it. And lets not even talk about the plastic exposure I'm about to get. I try not to store food in it and we have very few plastic toys, but I'm about to put it in my mouth 22 hours a day. Can you tell this is really on my mind?? :(

[chlobo]

I also switched to Tom's of Maine. I was getting a ton of canker sores and I read that Sodium Laurel Sulfate, found in almost all commercial toothpastes contributes to them so I decided to go with an all natural toothpaste. I had heard some stuff about flouride so I decided to just use a formula without flouride as well. So I also use tom's of maine. Not quite as minty fresh as I'd like but it really has helped the canker sore problem.

Sadly, I cannot get my DH away from flouride toothpaste. He'll only switch to all natural if it has flouride.

That said, I have no cavaties and he has lots so I think he fears removing flouride. I just forwarded him the organic style article. Probably won't have an effect.

We actually have a reverse osmosis filter on our well water (just b/c we like the taste better) so I guess we're ok.

[linsei]

Carmen,

Thanks for posting this link. Our ped pushes a fluoride supplement since we have well water. We weren't crazy about the idea (and haven't been giving it to ds), but didn't have a resource to back up our feelings.

Linda



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