Overview
What is fluoride?
What are fluoride’s main benefits?
What are fluoride’s main drawbacks?
How does fluoride work?
Dosage information
Fluoride is consumed from foods, fluoridated water, toothpaste, and some dietary supplements. Apart from some teas, most foods do not contain a substantial amount of fluoride. There is no dietary reference intake (DRI) for fluoride, but adults consume less than about 0.5 mg daily. The maximum safe daily dose of fluoride is 4 mg in adult men and 3 mg in women.[1] In Europe, a number of combination mineral supplements for bone health containing 0.95 mg of fluoride per dose have been on the market for 40 years without reported side effects.[1]
In community drinking water, the concentration of fluoride to prevent tooth decay ranges between 0.5 and 1.1 mg/L. The US Public Health Service recommends a fluoride concentration of 0.7 mg/L, and the US Environmental Protection Agency set the maximum level as 4 mg/L. The World Health Organization (WHO) guideline recommends 1.5 mg/L fluoride in the drinking water.[2]
Frequently asked questions
Why did governments decide to fluoridate water?
Should community water be fluoridated?
Does fluoride impact neurological development in children?
Why are certain geographical areas more prone to fluoride toxicity?
How do fluoride varnishes work?
Update History
We added two FAQs to the Fluoride page.
Full page update