Preeruptive Effect of Fluoride

To the Editor:

“…In 2001, dentists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presented a far different view of F (CDC, 2001). This dental report mainly conforms to the revealed beliefs of a F cult originating in northern Europe, where some of the small countries are anti-water fluoridation by national law (Featherstone, 2000;Glenn, 2000). Water fluoridation is presented as a homeopathically dilute topical, F supplements have one page, mostly denigrating efficacy, while five pages extol patentable topicals.…”

Quantitative Determination of Lattice Fluoride Effects on the Solubility and Crystallinity of Carbonated Apatites with Incorporated Fluoride

“…Studies have shown that dental mineral dissolution rates are significantly reduced in acidic solutions with low levels of fluoride present [Margolis et al 1986; Takagi et al 2000] and solution fluoride of 0.1 to 2 mg/L may accelerate the seeded crystal growth of fluoridated hydroxyapatite [Varughese and Moreno 1981]. Although it is controversial with regard to which effect is more important in the prevention of dental caries [DePaola 1991; Glenn 2000; Widenheim et al 1986], more researchers tend to believe that the solution fluoride effect is the more important effect [Featherstone 2000; Rosin-Grget and Lincir 2001; Thylstrup 1990]. This could be due to multiple studies of the lattice fluoride effect on the crystallinity and the solubility of fluoride incorporated apatites, showing that there was no clear correlation between fluoride substitution level and apatite crystallinity and also no correlation between crystallinity and the dissolution tendency of those apatites [Driessens 1973; Moreno et al 1974; Moreno et al 1977; Okazaki et al 1981; Okazaki et al 1982].…”