How much fluoride in water




















Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Is Fluoride? What Does Fluoride Do? How Does Fluoride Work? After that, your doctor or dentist may prescribe fluoride supplements if: You live in an area that does not have fluoride in the water. Your child drinks only bottled water.

Is Fluoride Safe? Experts have not found any other health problems from fluoride. If your doctor or dentist prescribes fluoride, be sure to give the dose exactly as recommended. If your fluoride level is high in your drinking water, talk to your doctor or dentist about whether your children should drink bottled water including if you have a baby that drinks formula mixed with water.

Babies whose teeth have not come in yet do not need fluoride toothpaste. For children 3 years old and older: Help your child brush twice a day using a pea-size amount of fluoride toothpaste. Other things you can do: Take your child to the dentist within 6 months of the first tooth coming in OR by 1 year of age whichever comes first.

The average IQ difference between high and low fluoride areas was 7 points, the study found. The most obvious health effect of excess fluoride exposure is dental fluorosis, which when mild includes white streaks, and when severe can include brown stains, pits and broken enamel.

As of , 41 percent of kids ages 12 to 15 had some form of dental fluorosis, according to the CDC. Moody, Jr. A study that tracked fluoride exposure in more than children in Iowa found no significant link between fluoride exposure and tooth decay. Another review in the British Medical Journal stated that "there have been no randomized trials of water fluoridation," which is currently standard for all drugs.

It depends who you ask; fluoride is unquestionably toxic at certain concentrations. The most comprehensive report on fluoride was published in by the National Research Council , done at the behest of the Environmental Protection Agency. That group found that the upper limit for fluoride, at 4 ppm, was too high to prevent a certain percentage of kids from developing severe dental fluorosis and recommended the EPA lower this limit.

The CDC says that the level at which it is added to the water 1 ppm is safe and effective. Kerry Maguire, of the Forsyth Institute , an independent not-for-profit research institute in the United States specializing on oral health and its connection to overall wellness, agrees with the CDC. For water in which fluoride is added, the maximum allowed is 1. However, if fluoride is added, the FDA recommends that manufacturers not go above 0. People have raised questions about the safety and effectiveness of water fluoridation since it first began.

Over the years, many studies have looked at the possible link between fluoride and cancer. There was no evidence of cancer-causing potential in female rats or in male or female mice.

Most of the concern about cancer seems to be around osteosarcoma. One theory on how fluoridation might affect the risk of osteosarcoma is based on the fact that fluoride tends to collect in parts of bones where they are growing. These areas, known as growth plates , are where osteosarcomas typically develop. The theory is that fluoride might somehow cause the cells in the growth plate to grow faster, which might make them more likely to eventually become cancerous.

More than 50 population-based studies have looked at the potential link between water fluoride levels and cancer.

Most of these have not found a strong link to cancer. Just about all of the studies have been retrospective looking back in time. They have compared, for example, the rates of cancer in a community before and after water fluoridation, or compared cancer rates in communities with lower levels of fluoride in drinking water to those with higher levels either naturally or due to fluoridation.

Some factors are hard to control for in these types of studies that is, the groups being compared may be different in ways other than just the drinking water , so the conclusions reached by any single study must be looked at with caution.

And there are other issues that make this topic hard to study. For example, if fluoridation is a risk factor, is the type of fluoride used important? Also, is there a specific level of fluoride above which the risk is increased, or a certain amount of time or an age range during which a person would need to be exposed? Osteosarcoma is a rare cancer. Only about cases are diagnosed in children and teens each year in the United States.

This means it can be hard to gather enough cases to do large studies. Smaller studies can usually detect big differences in cancer rates between 2 groups, but they might not be able to detect small differences. If fluoride increased the risk only slightly, it might not be picked up by these types of studies. Small studies by themselves might not provide the answers, but taken as a whole they tend to have more weight.

Several systematic reviews over the past 25 years have looked at all of the studies published on this subject. When looking at a possible link with cancer, they first reviewed the results of studies done with lab animals. The National Research Council issued an update of its review in early The general consensus among the reviews done to date is that there is no strong evidence of a link between water fluoridation and cancer. However, several of the reviews noted that further studies are needed to clarify the possible link.

Several studies looking at a possible link between water fluoridation and cancer have been published in recent years. A partial report of a study from the Harvard School of Public Health, published in , found that exposure to higher levels of fluoride in drinking water was linked to a higher risk of osteosarcoma in boys but not in girls.

However, researchers linked to the study noted that early results from a second part of the study did not appear to match those of the report. They therefore advised caution in interpreting the results. The second part of the Harvard study, published in , compared the fluoride levels in bones near tumors in people with osteosarcoma to the levels in people with other types of bone tumors.

The researchers found no difference between the fluoride levels in the two groups. Oral Health Home. Home Page. Water with fluoride protects teeth from tooth decay. Find Water System Information Please select a participating state. Can't find your state. Search by Water System. Not participating. Submit What's this?



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