Fluoride and Bone — Quantity versus Quality

Abstract

Postmenopausal osteoporosis is a major public health problem, whose impact is expected to reach epidemic proportions during the early part of the next century as the population ages. Consequently, whereas the prevention of bone loss will probably remain the most effective approach to therapy, efficacious treatment of patients who have already had fractures is sorely needed. The ideal therapy would eliminate the risk of future fractures by restoring bone mass and repairing the alterations in architecture that had already occurred. Current treatments such as those using estrogen and calcitonin are antiresorptive — that is, they act by preventing further loss . . .