What are Fluorine, Hydrogen Fluoride, and Fluorides?
Fluorides are properly defined as binary compounds or salts of fluorine and another element. Examples of fluorides include sodium fluoride and calcium fluoride. Both are white solids. Sodium fluoride readily dissolves in water, but calcium fluoride does not. Sodium fluoride is often added to drinking water supplies and to a variety of dental products, including toothpastes and mouth rinses, to prevent dental cavities. The widespread use of fluoride has been a major factor in the overall decline in recent decades in tooth decay. Calcium fluoride is the compound in the common minerals fluorite and fluorspar. Fluorspar is the mineral from which hydrogen fluoride is produced. It is also used in the production of glass and enamel and in the steel industry. In this profile, we will often use the term fluoride to include substances that contain the element fluorine. The reason for this is that we generally measure the amount of fluorine in a substance rather than the amount of a particular fl
