fluoride in japanese toothpaste?

i have heard that there is no fluoride used in j-toothpaste ... can anyone confirm one way or the other?

i am mostly referring to the stuff that hotels provide ... but the toothpaste sold in drugstores too.

Some that say "medicated" or specially for children contain fluoride, but not all toothpastes do. So it's likely that the ones supplied at hotels as part of in-room amenities do not contain fluoride. If you want to purchase some at a drugstore in Japan, you can ask and I'm sure they have some available.

thank you! that makes sense although fluoride not being standard for all ages doesn't really make sense ... whatever ... that is what makes different countries different.

i am planning on packing SUPER light this trip.

It does make sense to not have a standard amount of fluoride for all ages alike, because fluoride is a poison. usually, children's toothpaste contains one third of the usual fluoride content. (referring to a country in Europe). Best would be to not have any fluoride at all. Toothpastes without fluoride can also effectively prevent tooth problems.

Whether fluoride is good for you or bad for you is debatable. As mentioned, there are a lot of Japanese toothpaste containing fluoride and Public Health Centers in Japan will apply free fluoride for your children. But for those who prefer to believe that fluroride is bad for you, there are always options to choose toothpaste without them. Btw, "fluoride" in Japanese is "fusso."

thank you, Uco, i hoped this wouldn't turn into a political debate. it is a personal matter and i am always interested in the differences between countries around the world. yes, my next step would be the dictionary ... you saved that one. :-)

orangecat3, lots of Japanese toothpaste brands contain fluoride these days- whoever told you that they don't was giving you very outdated, incorrect information. In any case, not having fluoridated toothpaste for a few weeks while in Japan is unlikely to make any difference to the health of your teeth- I was told this by a dentist in my home country.

As for fluoride not being necessary at all, well, as Uco san said, that's very debatable. I was astonished when I first came to Japan to see small children (and not just one or two) at the kindergarten I taught at with very advanced decay, i.e. their front teeth had visible, black decay on them- in one particularly bad case the bottom half of the kid's top teeth had crumbled away. I had never seen such a thing in New Zealand, and I can only put the difference down to fluoride.

My Japanese husband's teeth are not very good either, at 39 he has a lot of crowns and had to have a tooth extracted recently- that's something that in New Zealand you would expect with my parent's generation, but not people in their 30s. The difference between us and them? Growing up with fluoride. I don't want to get into a debate on whether it is a poison or not, but as far as teeth go the benefits are very obvious.

That's in the long term of course- as I said above, a few weeks without fluoride won't make any difference, so it's not something to be concerned about for a short term visitor.

Fluoride or no makes no difference.

Me and my brother used the same kind of tooth paste our whole lives. Only diffence is eating habits. He was a picky eater and would either only eat junk food or just would limit his eating selection, while I ate pretty much anything. He had lots of cavities in his baby teeth, (still has noticeable cavities as a teenager) I did not get any. I think it has more to do with diet than fluoride. Perhaps they just need more calcium.

*.*, your experience is interesting but doesn't prove anything as far as fluoride goes. Decades of research has shown that fluoride has a very definite role in preventing decay. Can you really say that for both of you, having/not having fluoride made no difference? How do you know, since you both drank the same water and used the same toothpaste? Of course diet and dental hygiene make a differnce, but so does fluoride.

fluoride makes a huge difference. i am naturally prone to cavities and ever since i came to japan i can't stop getting cavities. it drives me nuts. my teeth were almost perfect abroad. i got cavities like crazy after i arrived in japan even though i brush regularly.

after i learned about the fluoride thing i stopped getting cavities. it makes a huge difference.

I would like to thank the OP Orangecat3 for mentioning that he hopes this thread wouldn't turn into a political debate. So I'm not going to write about my son's experiences with his teeth :)

bows politely