Fluoride: a controversy revisited.

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the small but loud debate that has surrounded fluoride over the past 50 years. The benefits of fluoridation and its effect on public health are well known throughout the dental community. What is far less well known are the objections from people--in the tradition of the old amalgam and radiograph radiation debates-who feel that fluoride has adverse effects serious enough to warrant a cessation of its use. This article will present both sides of the issue, not to influence the reader, but to allow the reader to realize that this issue exists and to understand what the key arguments are.