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%.
I thought fluoride in water was a bad idea because it can cause dental fluorosis when the teeth are still growing. Dental fluorosis is a condition that causes permanent stains on teeth and even make the enamel weak.
There’s not enough fluorine in the water for that.
If you used fluoride mouth rinse regularly in addition to having fluoridated water and using fluoride toothpaste, then yes, you could end up with fluorosis because that’s too much, but that’s something you have to do intentionally.
I have heard that stanis flouride causes this but not sodium floride.