Let's talk about fluoride!

by Lorenza Dahm on Feb 28, 2022 0 comments

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First of all, we have to differentiate between fluorine and fluoride!

Fluoride is a natural trace element and is found everywhere in our environment, for example in water and in many foods. Fluorine, on the other hand, is a poisonous and strong-smelling gas. The similarity of the two terms often leads to uncertainty and misunderstandings.

You are sure to know a similar example from your everyday life: Sodium chloride is the chemical name for common table salt and is a vital component of our diet. Chlorine, on the other hand, is a poisonous gas which, in a weakened form, is used to disinfect swimming pools, but is also unfortunately used in chemical weapons.

Fluoride can also be dangerous and toxic if consumed in large quantities. However, in small quantities it is extremely important for our dental health!

Now let’s go back a step:

Tooth enamel is the hardest material in our body and consists of a perfect and microfine lattice of crystal (hydroxyapatite) with embedded inorganic minerals, e.g. magnesium, sodium, potassium. However, this incredibly complex and fascinating structure is very sensitive to the effects of acids; the minerals are slowly dissolved, the crystal structure becomes porous and thus an ideal hiding place for bacteria, whose metabolic products further hollow out the tooth. This is how caries occurs.

Fluorides can counteract this tooth destruction process.

Bound fluorine, or fluoride, is found in almost every toothpaste. To date, three fluorides have played an important role in dentistry: sodium monofluorophosphate, amine fluoride and stannous fluoride. Snow Pearl toothpaste contains an innovative and groundbreaking new fluoride formula: calcium sodium fluorophosphosilicate. I will write about the excellent properties of this fluoride compound further down.

Since 1850, it has been known with certainty that enamel containing fluoride is more acid-resistant and it was subsequently assumed that fluoride supplementation could prevent tooth decay.

As soon as we eat something, the food is not only broken down by our teeth, but also moistened with saliva. The mouth is also a small biotope with millions of bacteria, most of which are necessary there, including for digestion. However, certain bacteria are less useful, such as the so-called "streptococci mutans". These bacteria live on all types of sugar, including fructose, glucose and others. They absorb it, "digest" it, and produce acid, which lowers the pH value in the oral cavity.

Calcium and phosphate minerals are dissolved out of the melt crystal, the crystal structure becomes more porous and thus less stable. Such a development is called demineralization, i.e. removal of minerals.

The minerals contained in saliva can counteract this to a certain extent and fill the gaps in the crystal. This makes the tooth enamel dense and strong again. This type of recovery of minerals is called remineralization.

Ideally, there is a balance between demineralization and remineralization. However, if acid is produced very often or the acid level cannot drop because snacks (especially sweet ones) have been eaten between meals, demineralization takes over, the tooth enamel does not get enough calcium phosphates back from the saliva - and the holes become larger and larger. This is how tooth decay begins.

What Fluorides Do

Fluorides can help protect teeth in several ways:

Fluorides support remineralization. They have been proven to help calcium phosphates to be incorporated into tooth enamel more quickly. The advantage: the time for bacteria to exploit the weak spots in the enamel is reduced, thus reducing the risk of tooth decay.
Fluorides are also deposited in the tooth enamel, just like calcium phosphates. The advantage is that when demineralization begins again due to acid, fluorides are immediately on hand to accelerate remineralization.
Fluorides that get onto the teeth via toothpaste or gel form a kind of protective film around the teeth, a kind of covering layer made of calcium fluoride. The advantage: if acid is produced, it is neutralized by this covering layer, the minerals in the tooth enamel stay in place and the tooth enamel remains solid.
Fluorides also penetrate the bacteria and disrupt their metabolism. The advantage: The production of acid, which is dangerous to teeth, is inhibited and the proliferation of bacteria is reduced, resulting in less plaque.
Fluoride should actually be stored in the teeth like a reservoir. Since nature does not provide sufficient amounts of this, fluoride can also be added from the outside. The ideal time for this is in childhood, when the teeth have not yet erupted. As long as teeth are forming in the jawbone, fluoride from food can be incorporated into the tooth enamel via the bloodstream. The advantage: a stable microstructure is created in the tooth right from the start, the lattice becomes firmer, the minerals become harder to dissolve out and the tooth is therefore more resistant to damage by acid. However, it is important not to exceed the dosage here, as this could also disrupt tooth formation. For this reason, fluoride tablets are hardly recommended anymore.
Not only dental scientists, but also consumer protection organizations such as Stiftung Warentest confirm that fluorides are useful. The increasing popularity of fluoride toothpastes, for example, has led to a very significant reduction in tooth decay among children and young people.

Where are fluorides found?

Fluoride in mineral water

Fluoride compounds occur everywhere in nature and therefore also naturally in mineral water. Mineral water is therefore not "artificially" fluoridated. However, it is not compulsory to state the fluoride content on the label. If it does not appear, you can ask the relevant company.

Only if the fluoride content per liter exceeds 1.5 mg does the water have to be labeled as “fluoridated.”
Mineral water is considered to contain so much fluoride at 5 mg/l or more that it must carry a corresponding warning label.
Water containing up to 0.7 mg of fluoride per liter can be labeled as "suitable for preparing infant formula." Of course, the other limits (for sodium, nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, etc.) must also be adhered to.
Water is considered low in fluoride if it contains less than 0.3 mg of fluoride.
For your information: Seawater contains about 1 mg of fluoride per liter.

However, most mineral waters have values of less than 0.5 mg of fluoride per liter. Evian, for example, contains only 0.02 mg, Gerolsteiner 0.21 mg, Vittel 0.14 mg, Volvic 0.2 mg, Adelholzener up to 0.15 mg, RheinfelsQuelle 0.45 mg, Apollinaris already 0.68 mg and Selters 0.86 mg.

If you are interested in the fluoride content of your tap water, it is best to ask your local water supplier. In most cases, the fluoride content should be less than 0.3 mg per liter.

Fluorides in Food

From the above information we can conclude the following:

A protective effect against tooth decay can be achieved with just 0.05 mg per kilogram of body weight per day, which would be about 3.5 mg of fluoride for a 70-kilogram person.

Some sources also recommend a maximum of 3.8 mg of fluoride per day for men and a maximum of 3.1 mg for women (1).

The following values apply to children and adolescents (1):

0 to less than 4 months: 0.25 mg
4 to less than 12 months: 0.5 mg
1 to 4 years: 0.7 mg
4 to 10 years: 1.1 mg
10 to 13 years: 2.0 mg
13 to 19 years: 2.9 mg (girls), 3.2 mg (boys)

These doses are nowhere near high enough to cause harm.

So if you drink 2 liters of low-fluoride water per day, you will be consuming around 0.6 mg of fluoride (at most). However, if you drink a lot of black or green tea, remember that this (in addition to the fluoride content of the water used to make it) will provide around 1 mg of fluoride per liter (although this value can vary enormously depending on the type of tea). Fruit and herbal teas can also be high in fluoride, but this should not amount to more than 0.3 mg for 2 cups per day (depending of course on the amount of dried herbs/fruit used).

Walnuts are also among the foods rich in fluoride, with around 0.68 mg per 100 g. In general, however, it is mainly animal foods (meat and fish) that are rich in fluoride.

List of fluoride content of foods

Here is a small selection of the fluoride content of some foods (per 100 g), although you should always bear in mind that the fluoride content can also fluctuate here - depending on the fluoride contamination of the respective environment from which the food comes.

Salmon (golden, humpback, white salmon): 0.65 mg
Canned salmon: 0.16 mg
Sea salt: 0.48 mg (so rather little per gram: 0.0048 mg)
Sardines/swordfish/herring (fresh or frozen): 0.4 mg
Matjes: 0.38 mg (canned 0.27 mg)
Canned fish: 0.3 mg
Lean fried herring: 0.24 mg
Pork liver prepared: 0.28 mg
Barley groats: 0.24 mg
Brewer's yeast tablets/dry yeast: 0.2 mg
instant coffee powder: 0.2 mg
veal sweetbreads: 0.2 mg
Fresh crabs: 0.16 mg
Roquefort/mountain cheese/Emmental cheese: 0.16 mg
Liver sausage: 0.16 mg
Rye and rye flour: 0.15 mg
Fish cakes: 0.15 mg
cooked beef fillet: 0.14 mg
Cashews: 0.14 mg
processed cheese: 0.14 mg
Whole grain bread: 0.1 mg
Lamb's lettuce/spinach: 0.1 mg
Almonds: 0.09 mg
Avocado: 0.05 mg
Chocolate (milk and dark): 0.05 mg
Oatmeal: 0.037 mg
Tofu: 0.007 - 0.013 mg
Vegetables: 0.007 - 0.05 mg
Fruit: 0.002 - 0.02 mg
Potatoes: 0.001 mg
Beer: 0.001 - 0.005 mg
Red wine: 0.01 - 0.02 mg

Do fluorides also have disadvantages?

The dose determines whether a substance is good or bad for your health. This is no different with fluoride. If too much fluoride is consumed over a long period of time during tooth formation, the teeth can develop white or even brownish-yellow spots and dents.

Poisoning is also possible if you swallow too much fluoride.

So what is too much?

Here I have to get a bit more technical:

The definitely toxic dose is 32 to 64 mg fluoride per kilogram of body weight. In small children, the probably toxic dose is 5 mg fluoride per kilogram of body weight.

For an adult weighing 60 kg, this means between 1,920 and 3,840 mg

For a 20 kg child this means 100 mg

How much fluoride is in a 75 ml tube of toothpaste?

Ordinary toothpastes usually contain 1450ppm fluoride:

1450 ppm = 1450 mg /l = 1,450 mg/ ml = 108.75 mg/ 75 ml

Snow Pearl toothpaste contains 520ppm fluoride:

520 ppm = 520 mg/l = 0.520 mg/ml = 39 mg / 75 ml

Even if a child swallows an entire tube, Snow Pearl toothpaste is NOT toxic!

Why is Snow Pearl toothpaste still very effective?

With 530 ppm fluoride content, SNOW PEARL Gel toothpaste has a significantly lower fluoride concentration (only 36%) than other commercially available toothpastes. This dental care product has outstanding protective and repair functions thanks to the groundbreaking and patented formulation with calcium sodium fluorophosphosilicate. Its molecular effect is its excellent adhesion to the tooth surface, and this is precisely what makes it so effective. The calcium sodium fluorophosphosilicate particles are dissolved very slowly by saliva and therefore guarantee a release of fluoride, calcium and phosphate that lasts for up to 12 hours. Fluorapatite is created in the remineralization process, which regenerates the decalcified tooth enamel and makes it 10 times more resistant to acids and caries. The excellent effect on sensitive teeth is also soothing and immediately noticeable.

✓ Low fluoride content with optimal protection.

✓ 12 hours of controlled low-level release of fluoride thanks to the patented Swiss formulation with calcium sodium fluorophosphosilicate.

✓ Sustainably reduces your tooth sensitivity to heat, cold, sweet, sour and mechanical contact by stable closure of the dentinal tubules.

✓ Repairs the enamel of incipient caries lesions by generating an acid and caries resistant fluoride apatite surface.

✓ Increases the calcium and phosphate content in the enamel

I hope that I have provided some more clarity on the controversial topic of fluoride.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me

Your

Dr. Lorenza Dahm