Letter to the Hove Argus

First published on Friday 08 July 2005:
Letter: Less sugar is best for your teeth
attention to several points.Firstly, adding fluoride to drinking water is not the answer to dental decay, because it brings its own problems.For some time, there has been well-documented evidence overexposure to fluoride can cause cancer of the bones, osteoporosis, neo-natal death, thyroid problems and enzyme disruption in the body, where enzymes are involved in many vital processes in the body.

Fluoridation of the water supply would make it impossible to control who ingests fluoride and to regulate the quantities ingested, since there would be no way of avoiding exposure to it.Exposing a whole population to fluoride is a very poor way of targeting a minority who need it.

Secondly, the benefits of fluoride are not as were at first thought. Switzerland, for example, has now abandoned fluoridation because the benefits were outweighed by problems.In areas where drinking water is fluoridated, some people's teeth show signs of fluorosis, an unsightly mottling of the enamel.This is an outward sign of fluoride poisoning - there also tends to be internal damage occurring which cannot be seen until it is too late.
Thirdly, there are many other areas of the country where water is not fluoridated and where the rate of tooth decay is not as bad as in Brighton and Hove, therefore there must be other factors involved.Persuading parents curbing their children's consumption of sweets and fizzy drinks would be a good place to start.
-Liz Brynin, MARH MSECH, homeopath Hove