Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

The culture wars have a new target: your teeth.

Communities across the U.S. are ending public water fluoridation programs, often spurred by groups that insist that people should decide whether they want the mineral — long proven to fight cavities — added to their water supplies.

The push to flush it from water systems seems to be increasingly fueled by pandemic-related mistrust of government oversteps and misleading claims, experts say, that fluoride is harmful.

“The anti-fluoridation movement gained steam with Covid,” said Dr. Meg Lochary, a pediatric dentist in Union County, North Carolina. “We’ve seen an increase of people who either don’t want fluoride or are skeptical about it.”

There should be no question about the dental benefits of fluoride, Lochary and other experts say. Major public health groups, including the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, support the use of fluoridated water. All cite studies that show it reduces tooth decay by 25%.

  • undercrust@lemmy.ca
    5217·
    8 months ago

    If the stupid motherfucker brushes his teeth twice daily, he’s already introducing loads more fluoride to his body than any of the trace amounts they add into the public water system, which is still standards of deviation less than anything that would introduce fluorosis of childrens’ teeth (since that’s not possible for adults with developed teeth), let alone get to a level of toxicity for an adult.

    Now, if he regularly consumes full tubes of toothpaste as a health supplement, then maybe that’s a reason to be concerned about fluoride.

    • glimse@lemmy.world
      246·
      8 months ago

      All right settle down, he’s not a stupid motherfucker. He isn’t advocating to remove it from tap water, he was just saying why HE doesn’t drink tap. He didn’t try to pursuade me.

      Perhaps he’s misguided on that but he is not the person you’re probably picturing.

      My friend is a doctor and he also doesn’t drink tap but for him it’s the other contaminates, not flouride

      • prole@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        118·
        8 months ago

        As someone who works directly with water treatment systems, at best he’s an ignorant motherfucker. But good news: ignorance can be fixed.

        • glimse@lemmy.world
          92·
          8 months ago

          Ignorant, sure, but he’s not stupid. Flouride in water is not for people like him who already take great care of their teeth - it’s for people who don’t.

          It’s not stupid to avoid consuming something that doesn’t benefit you. Like I know lithium is used safely to treat bipolar but I don’t have bipolar so I wouldn’t be stupid for wanting it filtered out. Like I said, he doesn’t advocate for its removal - he just doesn’t want to drink it himself

          • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
            6·
            8 months ago

            You ever hear the joke about an American tourist only drinking alcohol on a trip to Mexico, because you can’t trust the water, and then someone asking them where they got their ice cubes?

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              2·
              8 months ago

              On the other hand, at least back when I was there as an American teenager in the 90s, avoiding the water in Mexico was a good plan.

              Parents: It’s okay to drink the water in this town, we drove past a water treatment plant.

              Me: Absolutely no way.

              Guess who didn’t regret saying “absolutely no way?”

              • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
                3·
                8 months ago

                Well, the thing about your friend is that even if he were only drinking boiled well water or whatever, he’s still consuming plenty of the metaphorical ice cubes.

                I’d say that’s the only real point the anti-flouridation crowd has, really. Even if they want to opt out, they can’t. Even if their local water utility stops flouridation, anything shipped in will still have it, be it bottled water, frozen meals, anything that uses tap water in production, really.

                • Skeezix@lemmy.world
                  13·
                  8 months ago

                  The alcohol kills the microbes in the melting ice cubes. So it’s not a problem. Also, if you drink the kind of alcoholic beverages that require ice cubes you probably deserve the shits.

      • jose1324@lemmy.world
        1421·
        8 months ago

        Yes he is. If you’re unironically wary of fluoride you’re a stupid motherfucker

        • starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works
          136·
          8 months ago

          I would’ve agreed with this a few years ago, but when you realize things can have subtle effects on our body that aren’t easy to measure or readily apparent, you shouldn’t fully trust something just because studies say it’s safe. A study can’t really show that “50 years of repeated exposure caused slightly more exhaustion,” for example.

          However, we DO know tooth decay is a major health risk for our whole bodies. Avoiding a maybe possibly slightly harmful chemical isn’t stupid, but avoiding something that prevents known and documented dental harm and the effects that has on your entire body, that’s just letting fear override rational thinking.

    • SeaJ@lemm.ee
      6·
      8 months ago

      There is non fluoridated toothpaste. Not that I would use it but it does exist.

      • Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
        131·
        8 months ago

        You would kill yourself drinking too much water long before you’d have to worry about fluoride toxicity in the US. Part of our water treatment protocols also include reducing fluoride levels when they’re naturally too high.

      • undercrust@lemmy.ca
        94·
        8 months ago

        Dude, that’s for the odds someone might have hypothyroidism, not at all related to toxicity.

        And as noted by the authors:

        “Hence, the application of standard household water purification (such as reversed osmosis, electro dialysis, activated carbon filter, and other adsorption/ion-exchange methods) is recommended for patients with hypothyroidism since they have a higher consumption of drinking water. The purification systems can help remove fluoride that interferes with thyroid functions.”

        So, if you have a family history of hypothyroidism, and you care at all about trying to avoid this incredibly common and easily treatable issue; use a water filter. It probably won’t help since family history and regular exercise are much more highly correlated with the incidence of hypothyroidism, but sure, why not.

        Also, and this is fun, they conveniently ignore the fact that the people drinking the most water (5+ cups group) have a lower adjusted-odds-ratio (OR) of hypothyroidism.

        How about the part where the level of fluoride in the water being in the higher end of the spectrum (0.3-0.5 mg/L) gives you a *checks notes* oh yeah, 3.4% higher incidence rate of hypothyroidism. Right.