Toothpaste manufacturers put fluoride in their toothpaste and market that as good for tooth health. They also recommend, through their toothpaste labeling among other pathways, to use only “pea-sized” dabs for children under six and “rice-sized” dabs for children under three.
Associated with all of that are concerns that too much fluoride can negatively impact IQ scores. My question: are fluoride and the question of IQ impact really relevant for children?
For one thing, those tiny dabs are extremely hard to dole out in any consistent fashion, especially as children are taught to brush their own teeth (and to apply their own toothpaste to their brushes), and it’s easy to err by adding increasingly larger dabs.
For the more important thing, though, children’s teeth are impermanent and start to fall out and be replaced with adult, permanent teeth around six and a little older. Maybe the answer, at least regarding children, is to duck the question altogether and use non-flouridated toothpaste for these. At that age, the important task is to train them in tooth hygiene and regular brushing. Any toothpaste adequate to the task of cleaning teeth would serve.
The greater concern re fluoride is its addition to tap water, which enters systemic circulation when drunk. The halides, once attached to a molecule in the metabolism (like in the thyroid) are difficult to displace. Iodine is important to all cells, but especially so in thyroid metabolism, governing energy usage. And the brain is an energy hog. Fluoride, attached in place of Iodine, and not easily displaced. And its addition to systemic circulation does little to protect teeth more than the topical application from dental care.