Journal of American Dental Association Provided by New
York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc
February 12, 2005
New York - February 10, 2005 -- “The
combination of gastric problems, difficulty in swallowing, leg
muscle pain, and pain in the knee and hip joints is a key
indicator of fluoride toxicity, and patients using
high-concentration home fluoride treatments should be
monitored for these symptoms,” is reported in the January 2005
Journal of the American Dental Association.
After ruling out other causes, a physician theorized his
mouth-cancer patient’s unrelated ailments were caused by his
dentist-prescribed high-dose daily fluoride regimen. The
dentist contacted the American Dental Association’s (ADA)
research center which confirmed fluoride toxicity, reports the
study’s authors, F.C. Eichmiller, DDS, Director, American
Dental Association Foundation’s Paffenbarger Research Center
and colleagues
“The patient visited his physician with complaints of gastric
distress, dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing when eating or
drinking, soreness of the leg muscles and knee joints, and
general malaise,” Eichmiller and colleagues write.
Tests by the physician showed thickening of the esophagus
walls and other irregularities of this muscular tube that
carries food from the mouth to the stomach. “Many of these
symptoms might have been considered normal sequelae of the
head-and-neck cancer treatment if not for the latent onset of
joint and muscle pains,” they report.
Eichmiller’s team monitored the patient’s urinary fluoride
levels while fluoride treatments were lowered until his
symptoms disappeared. When fluoride treatments were stopped
completely and brushing just once a day with fluoridated
toothpaste, this patient’s symptoms disappeared without any
increase in tooth decay, the researchers report.
Eichmiller’s team advises dentists that “When prescribing
fluoride for compromised patients, clinicians should keep in
mind both the dosage and method of administration. Lack of
saliva could lead to less dilution of the gel or dentifrice,
less ability to expectorate efficiently, longer retention in
the mouth and a greater proportion of ingested material.
Patients also may apply too much fluoride or use it too often
in an effort to prevent the development of caries. In
addition, the symptoms of fluoride toxicity can be fairly
subtle and easily masked by other local and systemic problems
in these patients,” they write.
Clinicians who prescribe these high-concentration fluoride
products even to non-cancer patients “must closely monitor the
patient’s compliance with the treatment regimen, minimize the
dosage by using well-fitting custom trays and small quantities
of gel or dentifrice, instruct patients to expectorate as much
fluoride as possible and advise them to promptly report any
gastric problems or joint and muscle pain,” the researchers
write.
Recently a woman’s bone pain and stiffness was diagnosed as
fluoride toxicity from drinking two gallons daily of instant
tea. Tea is naturally fluoridated.
The cancer patient in this article was prescribed a 2%
fluoride treatment (possibly containing 12,300 ppm fluoride).
He was instructed to put 1 milliliter to 2mL of the gel into
each of two custom-made trays, apply for three minutes, then
expectorate the excess and to avoid rinsing or drinking for 30
minutes after removal of trays. However, the patient did it
twice a day for four months before he was diagnosed with
fluoride toxicity.
Fluoridated toothpaste contains 1,000 ppm and artificially
fluoridated water has approximately 1 ppm.
Painful and sometimes crippling skeletal fluorosis is common
in countries where water and/or food supplies contain
naturally high levels of fluoride such as in Nalgonda, India.
“Since so many dentists and physicians still need to be taught
fluoride’s side effects, we wonder how many arthritic patients
really are manifesting fluoride toxicity,” says Paul Beeber,
President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.
“Drinking fluoridated water will exacerbate their disease
since fluoride accumulates in the bones even at the low levels
injected into our water supplies.”
