Sodium fluoride is a chemical compound that is used in countless applications:

Dentistry

Some fluoride toothpastes are indicated for a protective effect of the enamel. Enamel is particularly exposed to erosion with acidic drinks. The toothbrush with toothpaste plays an important role in maintaining oral health. Toothpaste components strengthen caries prevention or provide additional benefits such as gingivitis control, tartar formation, reduction of tooth hypersensitivity, bad breath, teeth whitening, and protection against dental erosion. Dental erosion is defined as the loss of dental hard tissue due to a chemical attack from non-bacterial acids of extrinsic or intrinsic origin (1). While caries is the result of acids generated by plaque bacteria, dental erosion is associated with foods and drinks containing acids.

To confirm the role of sodium fluoride in protecting teeth, a certain number of teeth were contacted, for about ten minutes, orange juice (pH 3.79) or Pepsi Cola (pH 2.58), then the teeth were immersed in a mixture of 5 dentifrices containing 1450 ppm sodium fluoride. It is concluded that sodium fluoride is able to restore the surface profile of the enamel (2) at the indicated concentrations.

On dental hypersensitivity, sodium fluoride showed an interesting ability to attenuate the disturbance, higher than that of the laser (3).

As a preventive against caries when water has fluoride deficiency (4).

Antibacterial

Some tests have confirmed the antimicrobial efficacy of sodium fluoride in response to the spread of various anti-Streptococus prevention agents (5).

Diagnostics

Sodium fluoride in computed tomography has shown greater sensitivity and specificity than 99mTc-methylene in identifying diseases in the skeleton, exhibiting better image quality (6).

References___________________________________

(1) Imfeld T: Dental erosion. Definition, classification and links. Eur J Oral Sci 1996, 104, 151–155

(2) The Impact of Selected Fluoridated Toothpastes on Dental Erosion in Profilometric Measurement.
Fita K, Kaczmarek U.  -  Adv Clin Exp Med. 2016 Mar-Ap

Protective benefits of a stabilised stannous-containing fluoride dentifrice against erosive acid damage.
Faller RV, Eversole SL, Saunders-Burkhardt K.   -  Int Dent J. 2014 Mar

(3) A comparative evaluation to assess the efficacy of 5% sodium fluoride varnish and diode laser and their combined application in the treatment of dentin hypersensitivity.
Suri I, Singh P, Shakir QJ, Shetty A, Bapat R, Thakur R.
J Indian Soc Periodontol. 2016 May-Jun

(4) Comparison of nano-hydroxyapatite and sodium fluoride mouthrinse for remineralization of incipient carious lesions.
Haghgoo R, Rezvani MB, Salehi Zeinabadi M.
J Dent (Tehran). 2014 Jul

(5) Comparative evaluation of antimicrobial efficacy of three different formulations of mouth rinses with multi-herbal mouth rinse.
Jain I, Jain P.
J Indian Soc Pedod Prev Dent. 2016 Oct-Dec

(6) Sodium Fluoride PET/CT in Patients with Prostate Cancer: Quantification of Normal Tissues, Benign Degenerative Lesions, and Malignant Lesions.
Oldan JD, Hawkins AS, Chin BB.  -  World J Nucl Med. 2016 May-Aug