Fluoride is a mineral. It’s current in almost all our bodies of water, everywhere in the world. Water known as “fluoridated” when a public water system adjusts the quantity of fluoride so that there’s simply sufficient to forestall tooth decay. About 75% of Individuals whose properties are related to public water techniques obtain fluoridated water simply by turning on the faucet.
We all know that adjusting the quantity of fluoride in our water techniques to the perfect degree reduces cavities by strengthening enamel. Group water fluoridation is a crucial public well being measure as a result of robust, wholesome enamel are an vital a part of a wholesome life. 
However the place does fluoride come from?
Fluoride is derived from pure calcium deposits in phosphate rock after which purified. These supplies are additionally used to create quite a few different merchandise, resembling cosmetics, ceramics, animal meals, and soil fertilizer, that individuals use day-after-day. All through our lives, we ingest and profit from minerals like iron and calcium which have many different makes use of.
You will notice claims that the fluoride in our water is a “byproduct” or a “waste product” of fertilizer manufacturing. Sounds scary, proper? Not when you may have the details. A byproduct is just the extra or secondary output of a given course of. Take into consideration corn. Ethanol is a byproduct of corn in the identical method that fluoride is a byproduct of the stone that’s processed for this and different functions. Waste, alternatively, is materials that has no helpful objective in any respect. Nicely, that’s clearly not true for fluoride! Utilizing it in water protects the oral well being of a whole bunch of tens of millions of individuals day-after-day. Group water fluoridation, launched greater than 80 years in the past, is as American as contemporary corn on the cob.
