• 2/10/2005
  • New York, NY
  • as reported by ArriveNet Health Releases (arrivenet.com)
  • Journal of the American Dental Association, January 2005

Rarely Do Dentists Admit Fluoride’s Adverse Effects

“The combination of gastric problems, difficulty in swallowing, leg muscle pain, and pain in the knee and hip joints is a key indicator of fluoride toxicity, and patients using high-concentration home fluoride treatments should be monitored for these symptoms,” is reported in the January 2005 Journal of the American Dental Association. (1)

After ruling out other causes, a physician theorized his mouth-cancer patient’s unrelated ailments were caused by his dentist-prescribed high-dose daily fluoride regimen. The dentist contacted the American Dental Association’s (ADA) research center which confirmed fluoride toxicity, reports the study’s authors, F.C. Eichmiller, DDS, Director, American Dental Association Foundation’s Paffenbarger Research Center and colleagues.

“The patient visited his physician with complaints of gastric distress, dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing when eating or drinking, soreness of the leg muscles and knee joints, and general malaise,” Eichmiller and colleagues write

Tests by the physician showed thickening of the esophagus walls and other irregularities of this muscular tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach. “Many of these symptoms might have been considered normal sequelae of the head-and-neck cancer treatment if not for the latent onset of joint and muscle pains,” they report.

Eichmiller’s team monitored the patient’s urinary fluoride levels while fluoride treatments were lowered until his symptoms disappeared. When fluoride treatments were stopped completely and brushing just once a day with fluoridated toothpaste, this patient’s symptoms disappeared without any increase in tooth decay, the researchers report.

Eichmiller’s team advises dentists that “When prescribing fluoride for compromised patients, clinicians should keep in mind both the dosage and method of administration. Lack of saliva could lead to less dilution of the gel or dentifrice, less ability to expectorate efficiently, longer retention in the mouth and a greater proportion of ingested material. Patients also may apply too much fluoride or use it too often in an effort to prevent the development of caries. In addition, the symptoms of fluoride toxicity can be fairly subtle and easily masked by other local and systemic problems in these patients,” they write.

Clinicians who prescribe these high-concentration fluoride products even to non-cancer patients “must closely monitor the patient’s compliance with the treatment regimen, minimize the dosage by using well-fitting custom trays and small quantities of gel or dentifrice, instruct patients to expectorate as much fluoride as possible and advise them to promptly report any gastric problems or joint and muscle pain,” the researchers write.

Recently a woman’s bone pain and stiffness was diagnosed as fluoride toxicity from drinking two gallons daily of instant tea.(2) Tea is naturally fluoridated.

The cancer patient in this article was prescribed a 2% fluoride treatment (possibly containing 12,300 ppm fluoride) He was instructed to put 1 milliliter to 2mL of the gel into each of two custom-made trays, apply for three minutes, then expectorate the excess and to avoid rinsing or drinking for 30 minutes after removal of trays. However, the patient did it twice a day for four months before he was diagnosed with fluoride toxicity.

Fluoridated toothpaste contains 1,000 ppm and artificially fluoridated water has approximately 1 ppm.

Painful and sometimes crippling skeletal fluorosis is common in countries where water and/or food supplies contain naturally high levels of fluoride such as in Nalgonda, India.(3a, 3b)

“Since so many dentists and physicians still need to be taught fluoride’s side effects, we wonder how many arthritic patients really are manifesting fluoride toxicity,” says Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation. “Drinking fluoridated water will exacerbate their disease since fluoride accumulates in the bones even at the low levels injected into our water supplies.”

References:

(1) Journal of the American Dental Association, “Controlling the fluoride dosage in a patient with compromised salivary function,” Frederick C. Eichmiller, D.D.S.; Naomi Eidelman, Ph.D.; Clifton M. Carey, PhD., Vol. 136, page 67 -70, January 2005 [email protected]

(2) “Potentially Harmful Fluoride Levels Found In Some Instant Teas,” 2/9/05 Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050205124905.htm

(3a) http://www.nalgonda.org/flourosis.php
(3b) “Indian villagers crippled by fluoride,” April 2003, BBC article: http://www.nalgonda.org/BBC.htm