WRITING IN PROGRESS:
The Difference Between Fluorine and Fluoride
Vs.
Summary:
Fluorine is a halogen. Fluorine is an element NOT EASILY found in nature by itself because of its' highly reactive properties and the fact it binds to almost all other elements. When isolated to its' simplest form fluorine is nothing we want near us and certainly not anything we should ingest. Fluorine for the first time was manipulated by scientists around 1900 and it took many dead scientists to figure out how to isolate it because of the explosive nature and other side-effects that either killed or crippled anyone previously trying to work with it. The discovery of this amazingly reactive and binding element is one of the reasons why we have atomic weapons. Fluorine is not the same as fluoride.
Fluoride:
Flourine:
WiseGeek.com states about Flourine...
Fluorine is an extremely reactive and highly toxic gaseous element. In very small amounts, it is also a trace element necessary for the health of most organisms, although the line between enough and too much is very fine. The element and various compounds have a number of uses, ranging from the construction of nuclear bombs to additives in dental products which are designed to promote oral health.
JLab.org says about Flourine...
Fluorine is added to city water supplies in the proportion of about one part per million to help prevent tooth decay. Sodium fluoride (NaF), stannous(II) fluoride (SnF2) and sodium monofluorophosphate (Na2PO3F) are all fluorine compounds added to toothpaste, also to help prevent tooth decay. Hydrofluoric acid (HF) is used to etch glass, including most of the glass used in light bulbs. Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) is used to separate isotopes of uranium. Crystals of calcium fluoride (CaF2), also known as fluorite and fluorspar, are used to make lenses to focus infrared light. Fluorine joins with carbon to form a class of compounds known as fluorocarbons. Some of these compounds, such as dichlorodifluoromethane (CF2Cl2), were widely used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems and in aerosol spray cans, but have been phased out due to the damage they were causing to the earth's ozone layer.
Wikipedia.com mentions regarding Fluorine...
It was eventually realized that hydrofluoric acid contained a previously unknown element (fluorine). This element was not isolated for many years after this, due to its extreme reactivity; fluorine can only be prepared from its compounds electrolytically, and then it immediately attacks any susceptible materials in the area. Finally, in 1886, elemental fluorine was isolated by Henri Moissan after almost 74 years of continuous effort by other chemists.[6] The derivation of elemental fluorine from hydrofluoric acid is exceptionally dangerous, killing or blinding several scientists who attempted early experiments on this halogen. These men came to be referred to as "fluorine martyrs". For Moissan, it earned him the 1906 Nobel Prize in chemistry (Moissan himself lived to be 54, and it is not clear whether his fluorine work shortened his life).
The first large-scale production of fluorine was needed for the atomic bomb Manhattan project in World War II where the compound uranium hexafluoride (UF6) was needed as a gaseous carrier of uranium to separate the 235U and 238U isotopes of uranium. Today both the gaseous diffusion process and the gas centrifuge process use gaseous UF6 to produce enriched uranium for nuclear power applications. In the Manhattan Project, it was found that elemental fluorine was present whenever UF6 was, due to the spontaneous decomposition of this compound into UF4 and F2. The corrosion problem due to the F2 was eventually solved by electrolytically coating all UF6 carrying piping with nickel metal, which resists fluorine's attack. Joints and flexible parts were made from teflon, then a very recently discovered fluorocarbon plastic which was not attacked by F2.
http://www.dentallearningresource.com/fluoride.htm
