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Fluoride is essential for your dental health. Many dentists recommend using fluoride toothpaste and offer treatments, rinses, and supplements to make sure you're getting the dose you need. To understand why, it helps to learn about the role this mineral plays in your dental health. Here’s what you need to know. 

What Is Fluoride?

Fluoride is a mineral commonly found in nature—including in plants, rocks, and soil—and it’s often added to water sources. It's also a major part of the hard enamel that protects your teeth. Along with calcium, it's a nutrient that helps maintain dental health.

What Are the Benefits?

DentistYour mouth is home to bacteria that multiply over time and secrete acid. When they do, they take the fluoride out of your enamel, weakening it and making you more susceptible to cavities. Replacing this lost fluoride makes your teeth more resistant to decay. It also whitens them and reduces sensitivity caused by enamel wearing down.

How Can I Get More Fluoride?

To replace lost fluoride naturally, you should get more in your diet. Some fluoride-rich foods include shellfish, raisins, and blue crab. To make sure you get enough, many regions add it to the water supply, including most of North Carolina.

Use oral hygiene products, such as toothpastes and rinses, that contain fluoride so that some will soak into your enamel each time you brush. Finally, get a fluoride treatment when you visit the dentist to give your teeth a boost in case you aren't getting enough. 

 

If you need fluoride treatments, the family dentists at High Point Smile Dentistry will help. Serving Guilford County, NC, for over 15 years, they offer general, preventative, restorative, and cosmetic services to the whole family, including advanced options like dental implants. They also accept a wide range of insurance plans and offer financing options. To get started, visit their website. Call (336) 884-4000 to speak to a team member.

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