This is a big issue in my town at the moment: to flouridate the town water or not to flouridate. I'm on the 'not to' side of the argument.

Many 'experts' say that flouridation of town water will not pose any health problems as levels are too low, but add that to pesticides not quite washed off our food, to other checmicals in shampoos, body washes, etc plus whatever we breathe in the air, and does anyone really know what the accumulation of all that does to us? I seriously doubt it and don't want to have another chemical added to the list of things that I can't reasonably avoid ingesting and/or breathing in. Some things we simply can't avoid, but if there's one thing we can, we probably should.

I have bad teeth and don't know if we had flouridated water when I was growing up or not. I lived in a lot of different places so I'd say we had it at one time or another. I started having dental problems when I was pregnant with my first child at 29. Since then I've had about six root therapies and I've a mouth full of fillings. My dentist said that all my problems have been from not flossing. Every cavity has started between the teeth where brushing cannot clean. Mum told me she didn't know what floss was when we were kids, but I think it unlikely that the dentists we regularly went to didn't know about it, so why did they not tell us to floss? As an adult I've had about four different dentists as I've moved around and only one of them told me to floss, and he also had a dental hygienist visit his surgery regularly.

As someone said earlier, a good diet (the rubbish we eat is probably most of the problem) and good dental hygiene should be sufficient  - including flossing every day! I even carry floss in my handbag.

Two bits of info I've had from other people:

A schoolfriend of mine who lived on a farm was given flouride supplements. She had white spots on her teeth that she said was flouride discolouration. I wonder if it was just her teeth, or was she given too much?

My mother in law's dentist told her that the enamel on her teeth was very hard, but underneath that there was decay that had not been picked up early enough. He said the hardness created by flouride could be deceptive. Does anyone know anything more about this?

Leaving tooth paste on your teeth is not really recommended. The level of fluoride in toothpaste is alarmingly high and will eventually have a cumulative effect on your body.

There have been many cases of children dying in the dentist chair when the dentist gets the fluoride treatment wrong (these were in the USA and I can't find any reported cased here in Australia), but these cases are rare indeed.

If you really need the fluoride to help your teeth, I personally would do it by visiting the local dentist and have a proper fluoride treatment done. Much safer, and much, much more effective. The way the dentist will do it guarantees that you won't absorb the mixture through the roof of your mouth (one of the fastest ways to get stuff into your blood stream....... ..the roof of your mouth!) and be subject to poisoning.  By simply leaving toothpaste on your teeth, you run the risk of absorbing a high dose through the roof of your mouth and gums.

If you are willing to take the risk, well that is entirely your choice, brushing twice daily with toothpaste will certainly be doing a good job at protecting your choppers, and yearly visits to the dentist for Fluoride treatment  would be ideal.

Personally I use Fluoride free tooth paste, because I believe with a correct diet and regular brushing of your teeth, Fluoride is not necessary. Diet needs to be low in acids, our bodies are to acidic and we don't need acidic foods. It is the acidity of the foods we consume that are hurting our teeth.

I hope I have helped and not scared you all!

Just to clarify a few points...

The level of fluoride in the town water is nowhere near enough to cause any kind of problem health wise. Fluoride however does contribute to some problems where people are over sensitive to it. t has been known to cause rashes and spotting on sensitive skin.

The level of fluoride in toothpaste is a concern though. Eating toothpaste while it sounds harmless, can cause issues. Because of the concentration of fluoride in toothpaste, we are warned to spit it out. Fluoride is a toxic poison, rated slightly higher in danger than lead. When too much fluoride is ingested it seeks out the calcium in our bones, and destroys it. High fluoride intakes can make our bones brittle.

It is documented that if a young child eats half of a tube of toothpaste, they can die from fluoride poisoning. In the past, Fluoride has been used in high doses to control POW's in wartime. It was used to effectively make POW's more sedate and manageable.

In our situation though, fluoride is added to our water in very limited quantities and won't pose any problems, that is unless you eat toothpaste by the tube! It isn't really something to be overly concerned about.....unless to are allergic to it!

very informative..

Just curious, do houses then have some sort of tank to collect rain water? Do people some sort of underground pump?

I agree about trying to get some fluouride. I grew up in a developing country and we had well water. After seeing dentists here in the U.S., many could tell right away that I grew up in a place where there is no fluoride in the water.

I grew up on a farm in NSW and only had rainwater till I left home at 18!   When my siblings (3) and I go to the dentist now they always remark on how good our teeth are and that it must have been 'all that floride growing up'.    Incidently all my sibilings have never lived in towns with 'townwater' always on farms etc so never had floride routinely.    Dad carted us all off to the dentist every 6mths for check ups which I think is just as important.

My conclusion - flouride is possibly one of many factors that contribute to good teeth.....

Great advice

Chloe actually eats toothpaste you have to be careful where you leave it or it will be gone haha.

Thanks for sharing xx

Thanks for the info. There are a few places in NSW that don't put flouride in their water supply. There has been a lot of hype and hysteria about flouride over the years.

LOL I dont think not rinsing off the teeth will do too much harm! One of mine used to love squeezing the whole tube of toothpaste and swirling it around in the bath.... Not Popular at all! He never ate it though.