What is Fluoride?

Fluoride is a natural mineral that is found in many foods and in all drinking water. The amount of Fluoride varies from area to area.

What are the benefits of Fluoride?

Fluoride can greatly help dental health by strengthening the tooth enamel, making it more resistant to tooth decay. It also reduces the amount of acid that the bacteria on your teeth produce.

Children who have fluoride when their teeth are developing tend to have shallower grooves in their teeth so plaque can be more easily removed. The addition of Fluoride to water has been researched for over 50 years, and water fluoridation has been proven to reduce decay by 40-60%.

Where can I find fluoride?

Fluoride occurs naturally in many foods and water supplies. All water has some natural fluoride but the levels are too low to prevent tooth decay. This is why fluoride is added to some drinking water supplies to boost up the levels. One part of fluoride to every million parts of water (1ppm) has been shown to have the best effect.
To find out whether your local water supply has fluoride, you need to contact your local water supplier or your dentist!

Does my toothpaste contain fluoride?

Most toothpastes now contain fluoride. Fluoride toothpaste is very effective in preventing tooth decay. The amount of fluoride in toothpaste is usually enough to reduce the level of decay.

Parents should supervise their children’s tooth brushing and should only use a pea-sized smear. This should be done until about the age of 7 years old

Can I give my children extra fluoride?

Research shows that children living in poorer areas where the water supplies are not fluoridated can have 5 times more decay than children living in affluent areas that are fluoridated. Research shows that adding fluoride to the water is the best way of reducing these ‘dental inequalities’.

At Synergy we are able to apply fluoride gels as part of your preventative regime. This helps to strengthen up your teeth.

Fluoride supplements can also be given to those individuals who are more at risk of decay. It is very important that fluoride supplements are only taken on the advice of the dentist.

Are there any side-effects?

When children take fluoride supplements before the age of 7 in an area where the water is already fluoridated or even have a habit of swallowing fluoride, dental fluorosis can result. Fluorosis appears as very fine pearly white lines or flecking on the surface of the teeth.

Is fluoride safe?

A worldwide view is that fluoride toothpaste and correctly fluoridated water, salt and milk are of great benefit to dental health and help to reduce decay. It causes no harmful side effects to general health. Recent studies carried out for the government have failed to find any evidence that fluoride added to water causes harmful effects.

Fluoride critics claim that they have evidence that fluoride added to water is harmful. However, scientific analysis has not supported their claims.

Worldwide, over 300 million people drink fluoridated water supplies. Many millions more regularly use fluoridated toothpaste. In America for example, well over half of the population have fluoridated water supplies. This has led to improved levels of dental health which in turn benefits general health.