Fluorine
- Why do some people disapprove of adding fluoride to drinking water?
Fluoride can be both good and bad. When McKay arrived in
Colorado he found that the townspeople’s teeth were stained and brown. After doing research he was able to figure out that the drinking water in the town contained high levels of fluorine. This tells you that fluorine is good, but sometimes not so good. It is good because it strengthens your teeth and prevents tooth decay. It is bad because it darkens the shade of your teeth. Many people would rather have bright, white smiles than a strong tooth enamel.
- What would your position be on adding fluoride to drinking water and why?
I do not think it would be a good idea to add fluorine to drinking water because of the effects it would have on our teeth. Though it does good things, it also does bad things. I’m all for strong and healthy teeth but how it looks it also important. Many people would rather have white teeth than healthy teeth. I do not think fluorine should be put in our drinking water because I think maintaining a healthy smile is easy enough as it is.
- What technological advances in toothpaste had to be made before fluoride could be widely used in toothpaste and mouthwashes?
There many changes that needed to be made in order for fluoride to be widely used. Making fluoride with everything like it should be was a little tricky. The trick to making fluoride toothpastes is marrying the fluoride with a compatible abrasive. For example, the simplest and most obvious fluoride choice, sodium fluoride, isn’t very soluble in the presence of calcium phosphates, the abrasive used in most early toothpastes. Later, in the 1980s, sodium fluoride became widely used and very popular. It didn’t debut until 1982, when Proctor & Gamble, the first company to find a fluoride-abrasive combination that worked, came out with Advanced Formula Crest, which uses a hydrated silica abrasive that doesn’t hinder sodium fluoride dissociation. The later rise of gel toothpastes, which owe their translucence to silica, also created sodium fluoride demand.
- What side effects of using fluoride in drinking water are of most concern to you? Why?
The darkening of the teeth would most concern me because I think a set of white teeth is very important. If my teeth began to get brown I would become very concerned. I wouldn’t pay much attention to the fact that my teeth are getting healthier. Having white teeth is a much more important to many people than having healthy teeth.
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