Fluoride

What is fluoride and how does it help my teeth?

Fluoride is a natural occurring mineral found in rocks, soil, and water (both fresh and salt water)
It makes your teeth stronger, and more resistant to cavities
Fluoride is added to toothpaste, mouth rinses, tooth varnishes, other dental treatments, and sometimes drinking water
Regardless of where it comes from, fluoride greatly reduces the risk of cavities

By brushing your teeth for two minutes using fluoride toothpaste, twice a day.
You can also get fluoride from:
- Fluoride varnish or gel applied by a trained Oral Health Professional
- Fluoridated water – currently Inuvik, Fort Smith, and Yellowknife have fluoridated drinking water
There are two ways to get fluoride:
- Systemic fluoride is ingested or swallowed (e.g. community water fluoridation)
  - This helps the teeth growing under the gums
- Topical fluoride is applied directly to the tooth (e.g. fluoride toothpaste, varnish, or gel)
  - This helps the teeth seen in the mouth

As soon as your child has teeth, their teeth should be brushed with a tiny amount of fluoride toothpaste – the amount should be a smear, or the size of a grain of rice.
Once your child can reliably spit out toothpaste (usually around age 3), use a pea-sized amount of fluoride toothpaste.

Fluoride is added to community drinking water to protect all members of the community from tooth decay.
Fluoridated drinking water can reduce tooth decay by 20-60%
Fluoridated drinking water is so effective at preventing tooth decay that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named it one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.
Fluoridated drinking water is cost effective – the average lifetime cost per person to fluoridate a water supply is less than the cost of one dental filling.
Fluoride is naturally present in groundwater and the ocean. Some communities’ drinking water sources have naturally occurring fluoride present – just not in high enough levels to receive any dental benefit. Community water fluoridation is the adjustment of fluoride to the safe and recommended level for preventing tooth decay.
For more information:
- Fluoride for Oral Health Information Sheet
- Water Fluoridation (Centre for Disease Control)

All NWT communities have some level of fluoride in their drinking water. Water sources in the NWT typically have naturally occurring fluoride levels between 0.1 and 0.3 mg/L.
Inuvik, Fort Smith and Yellowknife have added fluoride to the community drinking water to adjust levels from the naturally occurring level to meet the optimal level of 0.7 mg/L for prevention of tooth decay
- Based on the recommendation of Health Canada’s Chief Dental Officer, the NWT Chief Public Health Officer has determined that the optimal concentration of fluoride in drinking water for dental health benefits should be 0.7 mg/L.
- Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines have set a maximum acceptable concentration of 1.5 mg/L of fluoride in drinking water.
For more information visit:
- Drinking Water in the NWT - Frequently Asked Questions

Dental fluorosis is a rare occurrence that can happen if higher than optimal amounts of fluoride are ingested (swallowed) when teeth are developing under the gums.
Once teeth break through the gums, you cannot develop fluorosis.