Sodium Fluoride: Let’s Put A Smile On That Face

You Know What They Say⁵ © Kevin L O’Mara

Sodium Fluoride is a white, water soluble, and crystalline inorganic compound¹. It is the main ingredient in tooth paste and its primary role is protecting teeth². It was first used in the 1940s when scientist linked sodium fluoride with dental health. Its main role is to kill Bacteria that are present in the mouth as well as preventing tooth enamel from decaying².  Pure sodium fluoride is quite poisonous³ and it shouldn’t be ingested but as far as ingesting toothpaste is concerned, it isn’t a big problem. There really isn’t that much sodium fluoride in toothpaste, so to get poisoned from toothpaste, you might have to eat a lot of tubes of toothpaste.

Sodium fluoride has many other uses beside being used in toothpaste. It is used in metal making and is also added into wood preservatives, glues and laundry detergent³. Its manufacturing process is quite simple and easy to understand. You can make it in your high school lab if you wanted to. A simple neutralization reaction between hydrofluoric acid and sodium hydroxide will give you sodium fluoride³.

Sodium fluoride is also added into drinking water that comes in your house³. It is present in small amounts and its mostly tasteless. The reason fluoride is added into your water is the same reason you use toothpaste; the purpose is to improve dental hygiene. This adding of fluoride into public drinking water is a very controversial issue throughout the world even though there is evidence that it reduces dental problems⁴. Many people don’t think the government should add things into water and it is a big issue that can be compared to the Anti-Vaccine movement. At the end of the day, use toothpaste and protect your teeth because dentists are painfully expensive, as well as plain painful.

References:

1 Sodium Halides. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology [Online]; Wiley Online Library, Posted January 27,  2006.

. https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libproxy.mtroyal.ca/doi/10.1002/0471238961.1915040911211920.a01.pub2 (accessed Jan 26, 2020).

2 9 Sodium fluoride. https://www.drugbank.ca/drugs/DB09325 (accessed Jan 26, 2020).

3 Sodium Halides. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology [Online]; Wiley Online Library, Posted January 27,  2006.

. https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libproxy.mtroyal.ca/doi/10.1002/0471238961.1915040911211920.a01.pub2 (accessed Jan 26, 2020).

4 Risk perception and water fluoridation support and opposition in Australia. Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology [Online]; Wiley Online Library, Posted March 02, 2010. 

https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.libproxy.mtroyal.ca/doi/10.1111/j.1752-7325.2009.00144.x (accessed Jan 26, 2020)

5 8 O’ Mara, K. You Know What They Say. Creative Commons. 

https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/85af311f-b657-4076-aa1d-9947d17ebc4d