[TomB]

So again, as far as I've seen, natural fluoride in the water does NOT have the same effect as artificial fluoride....

This is my whole point. Fluorine is an ELEMENT, and fluoride is its ion. There can be no difference between one ion and another. The terms "natural" and "aritficial" fluoride is nonsense.

[madfly]

There is a standard ppm (parts per million) intake amount for Fluoride. How can we possibly know how much we are ingesting, when it's in soup, pop, beer, juices, etc. There's no way to know how much one consumes on a daily basis and no labeling requirements for fluoride on food products. Then there's the amount you get from bathing.

[aruanan]

This is my whole point. Fluorine is an ELEMENT, and fluoride is its ion. There can be no difference between one ion and another. The terms "natural" and "aritficial" fluoride is nonsense.

The problem is very simple, very commonplace, and one that leads to all sorts of errors--he, like most people, is deficient in his understanding of chemistry. That's easily remedied. Something not so easily remedied is a belief that one's earnestness or fervency of belief somehow compensates for being wrong in matters of fact. Such a person is almost beyond hope because of his inability to distinguish any common objective standard outside of himself that can be appealed to from his hopes, wishes, and dreams. It's sort of like a Mafalda cartoon in which Miguelito was shown that his thumb held out in front of him alongside a distant cathedral appeared to be taller than the cathedral. Mafalda asked him why this was so. He said, "Because it's my thumb and it's very important to me."

[FormerLurker]

This is my whole point. Fluorine is an ELEMENT, and fluoride is its ion. There can be no difference between one ion and another. The terms "natural" and "aritficial" fluoride is nonsense.

Now you ARE being deceptive. The term fluoride is used to describe both the COMPOUNDS formed by FLUORIDE IONS, and ions of fluorine (also know as ionic fluoride, or simply fluoride). So sodium fluoride is not an ion, it is a compound. Sodium fluoride is an ARTIFICIAL compound, whereas calcium fluoride is NATURALLY occuring....

As far as FLUORINE IONS, well, that is a term used for ions of the fluorine isotope ¹⁸F, where the atom of fluorine contains 18 neutrons instead of 10. The ion would be represented as ¹⁸F-.