A new study has looked at how fluoride in water that you drink when you are a child affects your teeth when you reach middle age.
The study was done by Matthew Neidell and his colleagues and has found that the when you are a child and have added fluoride in your water it will help with dental health much later in adult life.
“Your fluoridation exposure at birth is affecting your tooth loss in your 40s and 50s, regardless of what your fluoridation exposure was like when you were 20 and 30 years old,” said Neidell.
Neidell and his researchers used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention community health study in addition to a water census to look at the impact of drinking fluoridated water in the 1950s and 1960s on tooth loss in the 1990s.
The American Dental Association recommends having public water contain fluoride. There is a lot of history of water fluoridation and opposition. New studies such as this one by Neidell attempt to show scientifically that there is a benefit to water fluoridation.
If you are interested in learning more about water fluoridation the Wikipedia article is a good place to start.
Source: Neidell et al. The Association Between Community Water Fluoridation and Adult Tooth Loss. American Journal of Public Health, 2010
If you want flouride in your water, put it in your own glass of water, leave the rest of us out of it.
If fluoride were “proven,” there should be evidence of its glory in Kentucky, which has been 100% fluoridated for over 40 years. Kentucky, however, leads the nation in the number of dental cavities in children, and in the number of completely toothless adults, according to government records. The same ineffectiveness is evident in many states.
Most of Europe (16 countries) has rejected fluoridation and is 98% fluoride free. and the WHO reports that they have a better tooth decay rate than any fluoridated country.
There is no scientific evidence to support the idea that drinking fluoridated water has any effect on cavity reduction — NONE! — but there is proof that it causes cancer and other health problems. The best source for scientific information on the health hazards and ineffectiveness of fluoridation can be found here: (www.fluoridealert.org).
I guess you learn something new everyday. I’m going to try this out.