Other birth defects, such as NTD's, may also be closure defects. (NTD's are preventable with a multi-vitamin containing folic acid. Fluoride MIGHT also help a little.)

IF fluoride can prevent these birth defects, the timing of when to take it is pretty clear. Since these defects happen in the first 60 days of pregnancy, you would need to start before pregnancy, or certainly as soon as pregnancy was suspected.

The dosage is more of a guess. Probably something between .5 mg and 3.0 mg F. I recommend .5 mg F per day. I also recommend that you get your fluoride as a prescription from your doctor. This is the easiest way to get the right dose consistently. However, there are other options.

Natural sources of fluoride