Comment by amanaplanacanal
7 months ago
I was under the impression that in general you want Fluoride to be topically applied to teeth, and not swallowed. Perhaps I was misinformed.
7 months ago
I was under the impression that in general you want Fluoride to be topically applied to teeth, and not swallowed. Perhaps I was misinformed.
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Although you are downvoted, there is a point; I wonder how many products are created just to be used as waste management when creating other products from oil
I suppose many products were initially invented to get value or of an underutilized by-product, but as soon as there's a market and people want to buy it, the byproduct is no longer waste.
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Why is it that when people speak about Native Americans using every part of the buffalo it’s with a positive connotation but when modern day organizations figure out how to turn waste products into something useful it’s spoken with disdain?
I am generally anti corporation but whenever I hear about a company turning something that used to be a waste stream into something useful, it gives me a nice dopamine hit to see capitalism actually working as intended
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Fluoride topically applied to teeth is to put back fluoride that has been leeched out of the enamel. Swallowed fluoride is needed to make the enamel in the first place. I'm not sure how helpful it is to adults, but kids certainly need it.
This is completely incorrect. Fluoride is not a component of native enamel, nor is it recognized as an essential nutrient in any way.
Topically-applied fluoride converts hydroxyapatite in enamel into hydroxyfluorapatite, a harder substance that resists bacterial decay. It has no benefits for the rest of your body, and when intake becomes excessive it can interfere with skeletal development and cause brittle bones.
Fluoride belongs on your teeth, not in your stomach.
https://www.cdc.gov/oral-health/about/about-dental-fluorosis... claims consumed fluoride is used when first growing teeth, which occurs beneath the gums and where no topical fluoride is applied. This also seems to be how fluorosis occurs, from excessive consumption of fluoride, with too much being digested and too much ending up in tooth enamel.
But further research points to https://www.adaq.org.au/Web/Web/Profession/Fluoridation_FAQs... , where item 4 indicates that, while true that fluoride is used when enamel is first formed, that it does little regarding cavities as the vast bulk of the work is done topically as you say, after the tooth erupts.
I can't find anything stating fluoride is required by children to form tooth enamel, or what happens when fluoride is topically applied but somehow not swallowed.
Fluoride on teeth is a bit like making gorilla glass - infusing atoms into a surface with different bond strengths and lengths to make a material that’s more durable than the original.
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https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Fluoride-HealthProfessiona...
You're the one who is incorrect here. We do, in fact, consume fluoride all the time in the food we eat and it has a role in bone and tooth health. The vast majority of people get more than enough in their regular diet (brewed tea has a fair amount) but there are probably extreme cases where a supplement might be required. Banning them is dumb and confidently posting about things you don't know for sure is worse.
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