This is a very interesting question with a notso simple answer. To answer the last part of yourquestion: Yes, fluoride is good for youteeth. Fluoride helps prevent the breakdown ofminerals in your teeth. When fluoride is absorbedinto your teeth (through drinking water ortoothpaste) it actually attracts other minerals,like calcium, to your teeth where they formmineral deposits. These mineral depositsstrengthen your teeth and prevent tooth decay. Fluoride also helps kill bacteria that live onyour gums and teeth so that they don’t eat away atyour teeth and cause damage. As far as chlorine goes, it is a largerelement than fluorine and therefore has differentchemical properties. Chloride has not beenshown to draw calcium into your teeth likefluoride, due to the difference in atom sizeand electronegativity. So for all these reasons,we add fluoride to toothpaste and drinking water,but not chloride. Now back to the first part of your question,fluoride can be bad for you if ingested in highenough doses. The most common negative sideeffect of ingesting too much fluoride is somethingcalled “fluorosis” This is when too manyminerals are attracted to your teeth or bones. When this happens, your teeth may begin to getdark stains from the mineral deposits. It may alsocause your bones to break slightly more easily. Typically these are not major concerns, and formost people a high enough level of fluoride willnever be ingested from drinking water ortoothpaste to lead to these problems. As is thecase with anything, ingesting enough fluoride istoxic and you could die. However, you would haveto be ingesting a TON of fluoride, at amountshundreds of times greater than the maximum dosefound in drinking water and toothpaste. I’m sureyou don’t worry about things like perfume, nailpolish, and lipstick, but inhaling/ingesting anyof those things at a high enough dose is alsoincredibly toxic (even deadly). So, while it is true that extremely highdoses of fluoride are toxic and could potentiallykill a person, this is true for just about anysubstance on earth. Remember, moderation iskey, and the amount of fluoride in drinking waterand toothpaste is extremely moderate. The additionof fluoride to drinking water has even beendescribed by the Center for Disease Control as“one of the top medical achievements of the 20thcentury”. So go ahead and enjoy your Sensodine andthose cavity free teeth you’ll have as a result. Hope that helped! Click Here to return to the search form.