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Fluoride Mouth Rinses

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Focus on Fluorides: Update on the use of Fluoride for the Prevention of Dental Caries This article is based on the negative and positive impacts of fluoride uses. Topics discussed include: updates on community water fluoridation, fluoride available in dentifrices, and fluoride varnish, use and recommendations. Fluoride is the first line of defense, along with education, for preventing caries. Fluoride is the only compound recognized by the FDA for the prevention of dental caries (Carey, 2014). Fluoride comes primarily from fluoridated community water, toothpastes, and mouth rinses. The intake of water and processed beverages in the United States provides about 75% of a person’s fluoride intake (Carey, 2014). Community water fluoridation began …show more content…

Elevated fluoride can lead to defects in the enamel ranging from white specks or striations to rough and pitted surfaces. Very mild fluorosis can go without being detected because it is similar in appearance to other conditions. Using antibiotics as a child can cause white spots on the teeth that are similar to fluorosis. Tetracycline causes a dark tooth discoloration as well. Fluorosis is due to fluoride deposited in the tooth as it is maturing, therefore the effects cannot be seen until the tooth erupts (Carey, 2014). Sources of fluoride during these early years can occur from ingestion of infant formula, drinking water that has higher than optimum levels of fluoride, fluoride toothpaste ingestion, or from inappropriately supervised fluoride supplements (Carey, 2014). The ADA and CDC now recommend that fluoridated water be used to prepare infant formula (Carey, 2014). There has been an increase in very mild and mild fluorosis, meaning that children are ingesting more than the optimal amounts of fluoride. It is up to the dental profession to carefully monitor both caries and fluorosis incidence for the next 6-10 years as the effects of the change in drinking water fluoride may reduce the impact of the halo effect more greatly than anticipated (Carey, …show more content…

Products that contain sodium fluoride (NaF) as the active ingredient also need to have sufficient detergent to prevent the fluoride ions from reacting with the silica abrasives forming insoluble fluorosilicates (Carey, 2014). There is a large effort to develop reliable methods of measurement of available fluoride. The difficulty in achieving the analytical methods is related to the large variety of ingredients used in toothpaste products and the different forms of fluoride delivered during tooth brushing (Carey, 2014). There are three categories of fluoride form toothpaste during tooth brushing: free ionic fluoride which has the ability to react with tooth structure, interfere with microbial metabolism, absorb to the oral mucosa, and has anticaries efficacy; profluoride compounds that are delivered or precipitate in the oral cavity during brushing, release ionic fluoride over time, and contribute to anticaries efficacy; and unavailable fluoride compounds that do not release fluoride ions, are either spat out or swallowed, and have no anticaries efficacy (Carey, 2014). Monofluorophosphate is an example of a profluoride compound that is hydrolyzed to release ionic fluoride through salivary enzyme action (Carey, 2014). The total and potentially available fluoride can be

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