13 Sept 2011

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Reference to comment about Barnsley thanks for that I had just realized that I was wrong it isn't fluoridated although I did find a reference that it was. This was printed in the Times in 2008

Awareness of fluorosis is low

Even dental teams are unaware of the dangers. Richard Harrison, a clinical dental technician from Barnsley, a fluoridated area, certainly wasn’t aware that his seven-year old daugher might be at risk of fluorosis. But as soon as her second teeth started to come through, he saw they were mottled and brown-stained with white flecks – the classic sign of dental fluorosis. Too much exposure to fluoride while the second teeth are developing beneath the milk teeth makes their enamel porous, something that doesn’t become apparent until the teeth break though. In mild cases, this leads just to a pearly sheen to the teeth. In bad cases there can be staining, chipping and pitting of the tooth.

“She always loved strawberry-flavour toothpaste, so she may have swallowed it,” Harrison says. “Our biggest fear is how other children will respond to the way she looks.” The effects of dental fluorosis are irreversible, although it can be covered up with expensive tooth veneers when children reach their early teens.

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