Fluoride By Annalyse Feldman |
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| Hello and good-morning boys and girls. My name is Dr. Feldman. I am a board-certified
pediatric dentist, and I am here today to teach you about one of the most important and
effective fluorides in dentistry- stannous fluoride. Stannous fluoride is a very special
and unique compound. It was formally added to toothpaste in order to help prevent tooth
decay. Tooth decay is like a disease that begins at the surface of the tooth and may
progress through the dentine into the pulp cavity. Microorganisms in the mouth on ingested
carbohydrates and sugars produce acids that slowly eat away the enamel on your teeth. This
can be very painful. One’s general health, diet, structure of the teeth, and heredity
can affect one’s chances of getting cavities. So, kids, remember to brush everyday,
three times a day, to keep those cavities far, far away. Anyway, children, stannous
fluoride was discovered in 1960 to have one of the greatest benefits in dentistry, the
prevention of tooth decay. Remember, too much of a good thing may not be good for your
teeth. It is a well-known fact that too much fluoride may stain your teeth, permanently,
yellow or brown. So remind your little brothers and sisters not to swallow their
toothpaste. Stannous fluoride is made up of two elements, tin and fluorine. The chemical formula for this compound is SnF2 . Its stock system name is tin (II) fluoride, and its traditional name would be none other than stannous fluoride. Stannous fluoride is an agent that can be combined with a dentifrice, a compound that is used for routine cleansing of the teeth, safely and effectively to prevent cavities. Stannous fluoride in toothpaste has two main goals. The first is to improve the effectiveness of brushing by loosening the plaque on one’s teeth, and the second is to act as an antimicrobial chemical that will help prevent plaque buildup. The element tin, which helps to make up stannous fluoride, is a metal. Its group in the periodic table of elements is IVa. The symbol for tin is Sn, and its atomic number is fifty. The atomic weight for tin is 118.69grams. The boiling point for tin is 4,118 F (2,270 C) and its melting point is 450 F (232 C). Whereas, the symbol for fluorine is F, and its atomic number is nine. The atomic weight for fluorine is 18.998grams, and it is located in group VIIA of the periodic table. The boiling point for fluorine is –306.65 F (-188.14 C) and its melting point is –363.32 F (-219. 62 C). Tin has two oxidation numbers, two and four. Fluorine has only one oxidation number, and it is negative one. When fluorine and tin combine, they form an ionic compound called stannous fluoride. Two fluoride ions are combined with one tin ion, tin(II), in order to form a balanced compound. This, again, is the compound that helps prevent tooth decay. Well, I think that I have completely bored each and everyone of you kids. You must excuse me, I enjoy my work and often get too carried away on one specific subject. I have noticed, however, how all of you are staring at me in complete disbelief. I’m sorry I hadn’t mentioned is earlier but, yes, I am a mole. But please don’t confuse me with the mole in chemistry. I am just an ordinary mammal, a rodent as a matter of fact. The mole in chemistry is one of the base units of the International System of Units. The mole is defined as Avogadro’s number of any particle of definite composition. It is used to indicate the quantity of a substance that has a mass in grams that is numerically equal to its molecular mass. This mass contains Avogadro’s number of molecules, and this very important number is 6.02*10^23. Now that I have briefly explained the mole used in chemistry, I must be going. I have a root canal at 2:00pm. I hope that I may have enlightened you, kids, on only a very small part of dentistry. I find the importance of stannous fluoride very significant in my work. Please forgive me for my appearance, some find it very odd that I am a mole. But I am a very well educated mole. I attended a four-year college and three years of dental school at the Mole Academy. My professor there was Ms. MoleSullivan, and what a wonderful professor she was. She taught me everything I need to know about stannous fluoride and the periodic table of elements. Gee, I must be going. It was nice to be able to talk to all of you wonderful boys and girls. Thank you for being so patient with me. |
