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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 21 2020, @04:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the something-to-sink-your-teeth-into dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Exposing teeth to excessive fluoride alters calcium signaling, mitochondrial function, and gene expression in the cells forming tooth enamel -- a novel explanation for how dental fluorosis, a condition caused by overexposure to fluoride during childhood, arises. The study, led by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry, is published in Science Signaling.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that helps to prevent cavities by promoting mineralization and making tooth enamel more resistant to acid. It is added to drinking water around the world -- the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends a level of 0.7 parts per million -- and all toothpastes backed by the American Dental Association's Seal of Acceptance contain fluoride. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) named water fluoridation one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century for its role in reducing tooth decay.

While low levels of fluoride help strengthen and protect tooth enamel, too much fluoride can cause dental fluorosis -- a discoloration of teeth, usually with opaque white marks, lines, or mottled enamel and poor mineralization. Dental fluorosis occurs when children between birth and around nine years of age are exposed to high levels fluoride during this critical window when their teeth are forming, and can actually increase their risk of tooth decay. A survey by the CDC found that roughly 25 percent of the U.S. population examined (ages 6 to 49) show some degree of dental fluorosis.

"The benefits of fluoride for oral health considerably outweigh the risks. But given how common dental fluorosis is and how poorly understood the cellular mechanisms responsible for this disease are, it is important to study this problem," said Rodrigo Lacruz, PhD, associate professor of basic science and craniofacial biology at NYU College of Dentistry and the study's senior author.

Francisco J. Aulestia, Johnny Groeling, Guilherme H. S. Bomfim, Veronica Costiniti, Vinu Manikandan, Ariya Chaloemtoem, Axel R. Concepcion, Yi Li, Larry E. Wagner, Youssef Idaghdour, David I. Yule, Rodrigo S. Lacruz. Fluoride exposure alters Ca2 signaling and mitochondrial function in enamel cells. Science Signaling, 2020; 13 (619): eaay0086 DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.aay0086


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @10:56PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 21 2020, @10:56PM (#960864)

    I don't drink tap water. I drink the water from the water stores that you fill up that have been through all those large filters (it's DI or close to DI water). It has high electrical resistance (ie: if you used an analog ohm meter to test the conductance the conductance is very low, sometimes hard to detect even whereas tap water causes the needle to jump over half way) so it doesn't really have ions in it. It costs like $.30 cents a gallon.

    We also sometimes use that zero water and we test it regularly to make sure the electrical conductivity is low so that we can replace the filters when necessary. That way there are few ions in it. It turns out to be slightly more expensive than going to the store and filling up the water but the price of the water itself is often negligible compared to the hassle of having to actually go to the store and the value of our time doing so. $ We tried Britta water but if you test it it has ions when compared to zero water.

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  • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:58AM (1 child)

    by RS3 (6367) on Saturday February 22 2020, @01:58AM (#960900)

    Very interesting. Is it a logical following that low ion water means low contaminant?

    Some years ago I worked building extremely high-impedance instrumentation. The last step of assembly was to wash and rinse in filtered water. It wasn't necessarily DI, but it ran through a reverse-osmosis filter that used diatomaceous earth and seemed to work well. Sometimes you had to re-wash and re-rinse to get them to settle out.

    Point being- if low ion water is truly clean water, would a reverse-osmosis filter be a good way to have very clean drinking water?

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @07:54AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 22 2020, @07:54AM (#960971)

      Water with low conductivity doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't contain toxic covalently bonded molecules that don't dissolve into ions in water. So just because it doesn't carry an electrical current doesn't mean it's pure water.

      Also certain ions may be bad for you even in low enough concentrations to be difficult to really detect with your PPM or OHM meter.

      RO alone doesn't necessarily remove all small ions. You need a deionizer.