Fluoride: a risk factor for inflammatory bowel disease?

Abstract

Although the association between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and oral hygiene has been noticed before, there has been little research on prolonged fluoride exposure as a possible risk factor. In the presented cases, exposure to fluoride seems indirectly associated with higher incidence of IBD. Fluoride toxicology and epidemiology documents frequent unspecific chronic gastrointestinal symptoms and intestinal inflammation. Efflux genes that confer resistance to environmental fluoride may select for IBD associated gut microbiota and therefore be involved in the pathogenesis. Together these multidisciplinary results argue for further investigation on the hypothesis of fluoride as a risk factor for IBD.

Keywords:

• crcB
• Crohn’s disease
• etiology
• fluoride
• oral hygiene
• ulcerative colitis

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Erratum

Acknowledgments

Hege Smith-Tunsjø deserves gratitude for her invaluable advices.

Disclosure statement

The authors would like to extend their deepest gratitude to Hege Smith-Tunsjø for her invaluable advice