This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
To the Editor: We are presently carrying out studies on the action of various doses of sodium fluoride on bone calcification in newborn and young rats, the first results of which will be published in the near future. Our findings can be summarized in the following way:
When given in daily doses of a certain range, sodium fluoride has definitely a promoting effect on the amount of calcium deposits resulting both from a depressing action on bone resorption and from a favoring action on bone calcification.
When sodium fluoride daily doses exceeded a certain amount, an opposite, rather deleterious, effect on bone calcification was observed. But we must emphasize that this harmful dose was almost 100 times the strength of the smallest amount inducing a promoting effect.
We are dealing here with young rats and not humans; therefore, we cannot simply transpose these observations from animal experiments to clinical treatment.