Well, for the record I don’t think so. But my mother swears that it does.
During my entire childhood, she would not let us (my sisters and I) use regular toothpaste, insisting instead that we use this “natural” toothpast that tasted awfull. Needless to say, we were not very fond of brushing with this stuff, and did not bother very often.No mouthrinse, no water that had fluoride either. Bottled water only, specifically because of that.
She also says that my fillings are killing my brain cells too, because of the minute amounts of mercury in them. I have lots of fillings, because my every one of my teeth developed cavities.
Now, I am a blonde, I forget things all the time. Is having all this stuff “killing my brain cells” really doing me any harm?
I am now having my entire mouth reconstructed (at great cost) due to deteriorating teeth. I now use fluoride daily, and would like to be reassured, as well as maybe reassure my crazy mom, that I am not killing the few brain cell that remain to me.
‘A small but vocal group of dentists, physicians, and various other “holistic” advocates claim that mercury-amalgam (“silver”) fillings are toxic and cause a wide range of health problems including multiple sclerosis, arthritis, headaches, Parkinson’s disease, and emotional stress. They recommend that mercury fillings be replaced with either gold or plastic ones and that vitamin supplements be taken to prevent trouble during and after the process. Scientific testing has shown that the amount of mercury absorbed from fillings is only a tiny fraction of the average daily intake from food and is insignificant. The American Dental Association Council on Ethics, Bylaws and Judicial Affairs considers the unnecessary removal of silver amalgam fillings “improper and unethical.” In 1996, the leading antiamalgamist, Hal A. Huggins, D.D.S., of Colorado Springs, Colorado, had his licensed revoked. During the revocation proceedings the administrative law judge concluded: (1) Huggins had diagnosed “mercury toxicity” in all patients who consulted him in his office, even some without mercury fillings; (2) he had also recommended extraction of all teeth that had had root canal therapy; and (3) Huggins’s treatments were “a sham, illusory and without scientific basis.”’
aenea, you mother’s attitude strikes me as…ahem…not well founded.
I would suggest that you look for yourself, using dead-tree sources as well as the Internet, for articles that indicate fluoride to be harmful in the amounts used in toothpastes, mouthwashes, and drinking water (leaving out, of course, those written by people sure that they have spared the harmful effects because of the tin-foil linings in their hats). I do not believe that you will find any.
Thank you for the recommendations. Believe it or not, I have asked this question of doctors and dentists too. The dentists all say “don’t worry”, the doctors vary on this.
I have read a bit concerning this (yes, real bound pages of pulp), and I do know how to use a search engine. I have found differing opinions on the subject. Ergo my question.
As far as your comments concerning my mother - I have the right to call her a friekin nut, you do not. She is a decent person, just not the best parent out there.
Sorry Akatsu, you did not actually call her a nut.
Actually my mom has some very strange notions about a lot of things. Many of them come from the church she has belonged to for most of my life, a “New Age” religion. sigh
Aenea, it’s not just flouride in our toothpaste; it’s flouride in the water, too! And it’s destroying our purity of essence! It’s a Communist plot. I won’t stand to have my essence impure.
A lot of people have fluoride in their drinking water simply because the water comes that way right out of the ground. I’m thinking of Joshua Tree CA, Twentynine Palms CA, and a host of l ittle towns around there draw their water from wells loaded with fluoride. People live long and prosper. Seem smart enough and no more brain dead that any other Americans I’ve met so far.
Adults in their 50-60s have the greatest looking teeth I’ve seen. Like that Chicklets (sp?) gum. However if they live near a well with too much fluoride they get pitting in the teeth. Teeth that never decay but are pitted.
The balance for the people who lived there on well water was to have children drink imported bottled water but eat food cooked in well water with fluoride.
Fluoride is a teeth and bone thing - brain cells are safe.
Aenea, FWIW, it was always my understanding that the fillings in teeth were completely inert, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the mercury. Besides, they’ve been putting mercury in teeth and fluoride in the water for years now, generations actually, and I would think that if somethin’ awful really was going on, somebody would have noticed. I don’t really buy the “AMA conspiracy theory” myself.
PanamaJ: LOL! I finally sat down a few weeks ago and watched that thing all the way through, and now I can’t decide whether Stanley Kubrick was a genius or just genuinely insane. There was a MPSIMS thread about him a while back, maybe I’ll go find it.
