Excessive exposure to fluoride causes a bone disease called skeletal fluorosis. One of the most common radiological findings in skeletal fluorosis is osteosclerosis - a hardening of bones with a blurring of the trabecular structure. The osteosclerotic form of fluorosis may closely resemble the appearance of osteopetrosis. Potential therefore exists for misdiagnosis between the two diseases.

General Info - Osteopetrosis:

“Osteopetrosis is a rare hereditary bone disease of heterogeneous pathophysiology in which failure of osteoclastic bone resorption leads to increased bone mass. However, the bone has poor mechanical properties. A German radiologist, Albers-Schönberg, first described osteopetrosis in 1904.”
SOURCE: eMedicine.com

“Three distinct forms of the disease are based on age and clinical features. These are adult onset, infantile, and intermediate.”
SOURCE: eMedicine.com

"There is a 50 percent chance that a child of someone with adult osteopetrosis will have the disease. Many cases, however, occur without a family history."
SOURCE: National Institutes of Health

Symptoms - Osteopetrosis:

“Many patients have bone pains. Bony defects are common and include cranial nerve entrapment neuropathies (eg, with deafness, with facial palsy), carpal tunnel syndrome, and osteoarthritis. Bones are fragile and might fracture easily. Approximately 40% of patients have recurrent fractures. Osteomyelitis of the mandible occurs in 10% of patients.”
SOURCE: eMedicine.com

"Generally, patients with benign osteopetrosis are diagnosed as adults and suffer from frequent fractures, which tend to have difficulties with healing. Life expectancy is not altered with this form of the disease. Other symptoms associated with benign osteopetrosis include osteomyelitis, pain, degenerative arthritis and headache.”
SOURCE: osteopetrosis.org

Frequency - Osteopetrosis:

“The adult form of osteopetrosis occurs in about one in 20,000 people."
SOURCE: National Institutes of Health

Synonyms - Osteopetrosis:

"Albers-Schonberg Disease, Generalized Congenital Osteosclerosis, Ivory Bones, Marble Bones, Osteosclerosis Fragilis Generalisata."
SOURCE: eMedicine.com

Excerpts from the Scientific Literature - Fluoride & Osteopetrosis: (back to top)

"In the differential diagnosis (of skeletal fluorosis) one must think of osteopetrosis (marble bones), metastatic cancer, and Paget's disease."
SOURCE: Linsman JF, McMurray CA. (1943). Fluoride osteosclerosis from drinking water. Radiology 40: 474-484.

"Other diseases simulating radiographic features of fluorosis are Paget's disease, parathyroid hormone disorders, osteopetrosis, chronic renal failure, myelofibrosis, hypophosphatemic osteomalacia, and diffuse blastic metastases."
SOURCE: Fisher RL, et al. (1989). Endemic fluorosis with spinal cord compression. A case report and review. Archives of Internal Medicine 149: 697-700.

"In addition to osteopetrosis and osteoblastic metastases, the differential diagnosis (of skeletal fluorosis) includes Paget's disease..."
SOURCE: Morris JW. (1965). Skeletal fluorosis among indians of the American Southwest. American Journal of Roentgenology, Radium Therapy & Nuclear Medicine 94: 608-615.