Dentists Alerted to Fluoride's Health Damage in Journal of American
Dental Association

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. (1)

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.(2)  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.(3a, 3b)

"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."

References:

(1)   Journal of the American Dental Association, "Controlling the
fluoride dosage in a patient with compromised salivary function,"
Frederick C. Eichmiller, D.D.S.; Naomi Eidelman, Ph.D.; Clifton M.
Carey, PhD., Vol. 136, page 67 -70, January 2005

(2)               "Potentially Harmful Fluoride Levels Found In Some
Instant Teas," 2/9/05 Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050205124905.htm

(3a) http://www.nalgonda.org/flourosis.php
(3b) "Indian villagers crippled by fluoride," April 2003, BBC
article: http://www.nalgonda.org/BBC.htm

Reported by the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation

       http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof

       http://www.fluoridealert.org

       Previous News Releases:

       http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Fluoridation-News-Releases