I was recently asked by one of my sisters whether or not we choose to “get” fluoride for our daughters at the dentist. I told her that we do because up until we moved into our recently built house we had well water (I miss it SO MUCH!!!!!) and so that was the only fluoride the girls got. Also, our oldest has had major issues with cavities. Our youngest, although, much better than her sister has still had way more than her mother (I’ve never had any and feel so inadequate to support the girls on their journey through all this dental work). So, since our girls never had fluoride in their drinking water and up until recently, due to age, never had it in their toothpaste, I figured the little bit painted on their teeth at the dentist’s wouldn’t hurt and might help.

My sister then followed up with questioning me about why fluoride is bad. I had to reply that I didn’t know. I just remember, as does she, hearing from various natural food and other natural/herbally minded folks we were raised around saying it was bad and should be avoided, filtered out of water and refused at the dentist.

So, of course, I had to look it up! I have NOT done excessive or even a lot of research on this yet! What I have read, though, says that topical application is best at helping with dental health. This is what happens at the dentist and mostly what happens with your toothpaste since you spit it out. Given this fact, along with our girls current struggles with cavities or dental carries, we will likely continue to “get” fluoride at the dentist. I do hope to help and possibly remedy some of our daughters issues with homemade toothpaste and diet. I am working to add more vitamin K rich foods in their daily eating and hope to soon try making our own toothpaste. I’ll let you know how the toothpaste thing goes! I’m cautiously optimistic!!

Effects from ingesting fluoride, however, are not so happy or helpful! Ingestion is what you get from fluoridating water and minimally from toothpaste. The toothpaste part is my own thought on the subject. I just think that once you put something inside your mouth, it is unlikely that you will actually avoid all ingestion. Too much fluoride, the definition of that amount can be debated, does all sorts of fun things like messing with your thyroid function, weakening your bones and ligaments, and actually discoloring your teeth by causing those interesting, super white spots that some people have.

So, my personal conclusion for our family, is that I want the fluoride filtered out of our water. If in fact is in there. That will be one more thing I will have to investigate. And I want to continue to give the girls toothpaste without it. I plan to continue to let the dentist paint their teeth with it, at least for the time being. That may change either as I research fluoride more or they “grow out” of their dental weaknesses through food and homemade remineralizing toothpaste AND God’s loving intervention! After all, if it is the right minerals and the right foods that “fixes” their teeth, it is definitely HIS intervention! I really want to continue working through, researching and understanding this with balance in mind. However, I also don’t want to help the girls’ or my teeth by harming the rest of our bodies.