Why does American drinking water need fluoride - for the few seconds people brush their teeth? Other developed nations seem to do get by just fine without it (i.e, most of Europe). Does modern tooth paste not contain the components for proper cleaning? I feel like I'm missing something here, because I don't swallow my tooth paste but I drink my tap water. But if fluoride is fine in water that we drink, why not just add all the other vital chemicals to the tap water that our bodies crave, like soma? Because it really smells like peoples opposition to this is not science-based but emotion-based (i.e., anti-RFK and Trump admin).
"For the few seconds people brush their teeth"? That's not how fluoridated drinking water works. Fluoridated water works all of the time, not just when brushing teeth, and it's not a vital chemical that the body craves.
You are missing something. If you're this confused about a topic, you should at a bare minimum read the Wikipedia page.
Yeah because in Europe we add fluoride and iodine to table salt, as well as to our toothpaste.
Also, we don't have anywhere close to the sugar consumption the US has, which keeps both our diabetes and dental health issues at rates far below the US.
The questions you posed are not questioning fluoride, they're asking what the basic premise even is. If you don't understand that, you are far from the position needed to be evaluating and analyzing the necessity or benefits of it.
The Wikipedia page you mentioned reading also points out that it's not only a US thing. Or even a water-only thing.
When I see an argument with a phrase like "basic premise" I know I'm reading some word mambo jambo, otherwise the author would just give their summary of that "basic premise" instead of deadlinking it (refer to something without actually referring it).
You don't have an argument yourself, you just wanted to share that you are pro some position.
There are clear factual errors in the underlying assumptions of what was stated about water fluoridation. Those are simply table stakes for having a discussion about anything at all. If one thinks that water fluoridation is useful "just for a few seconds," that it's not done outside of the United States, that it's a replacement for toothpaste, that it's a vital chemical, or that we don't fortify other foods, then they do not know enough about the topic to talk about it, let alone hold the opinion that they know better.
If someone came in with a curious mindset, that'd be one thing. But this is someone walking into a room with an agenda (get rid of fluoride) and a shocking lack of knowledge about that agenda.
Just brush your teeth after every meal, you will be fine like the Finns. And prob a higher IQ like them, as well (without all the unnecessary floride in the water).
>If someone came in with a curious mindset, that'd be one thing. But this is someone walking into a room with an agenda (get rid of fluoride) and a shocking lack of knowledge about that agenda.
But since "Internet People Lie About Fluoride,"[0] why are you surprised? And that's nothing new.
Why? I have no idea. Perhaps cpursley[1] could enlighten us?
Yeah, exactly - she made my point. Buy proper toothpaste with fluoride. Brush after ever meal. I understand the chemistry and am an obsessive brusher. If the Danish don't need it in their DRINKING water, nor do we.
Because just like we have stupid people who don’t vaccinate their children from measles, we have stupid people who don’t make them brush their teeth.
So rather than have them suffer with a lifetime of oral health problems, you can intervene in a transparent and cheap way to prevent these issues altogether.
The introduction of fluoride dramatically improved oral health. NYC has been doing it since the 1960s, so one would think we’d see evidence of the supposed negative effects.
Any actual stats on people not brushing their teeth? It's not 1960 any more... And my entire point was to compare to other nations with similar development levels that don't pump it into their water supply and are doing just fine in terms of oral health.
And by your metric, should we also pump in vitamins and other substances that our bodies crave? Maybe the Fed gov't could just skip that and force drip IV everyone a compliance cocktail after their breakfast of USDA approved and SNAP subsidized Captain Crunch?
> Any actual stats on people not brushing their teeth? It's not 1960 any more... And my entire point was to compare to other nations with similar development levels that don't pump it into their water supply and are doing just fine in terms of oral health.
Something like 30% of people report not brushing their teeth at least once a day. Unclear if that means most of them brush every other day or some even lower frequency, but I’d assume if you report not brushing at least once a day then you likely aren’t brushing consistently every other day or something.
> And by your metric, should we also pump in vitamins and other substances that our bodies crave? Maybe the Fed gov't could just skip that and force drip IV everyone a compliance cocktail after their breakfast of USDA approved and SNAP subsidized Captain Crunch?
We already do this, all the time! Vitamin and mineral fortified foods are everywhere. Iodine is in a lot of salt. It’s a good thing, not something to be mocked. Most vitamins and minerals have minimal cost, no issues with taking “too much” of them, and have significant health benefits if you are deficit on that particular thing.
> Something like 30% of people report not brushing their teeth at least once a day.
Gross, but that's their problem, not mine. There's a multitude of bad health habits, if we were actually serious, there'd be no soda or cereal on the shelves. But big ag and big health activity oppose that because they financially benefit from SNAP. Your fortified foods mention is an example of exactly how insane it all is (we subsidize the corn syrup farmers to produce garbage food and then give poor people money to buy it, instead of you know - real food).
> Gross, but that's their problem, not mine. There's a multitude of bad health habits, if we were actually serious, there'd be no soda or cereal on the shelves.
This absolutist mindset is not helpful for making progress. People want tasty, potentially bad for them foods. You can have bad food that’s made up of “real food” just fine. Fortifying bad foods to make them marginally less bad is a good thing. Don’t let great be the enemy of good. Nobody is looking at a bag of chips and saying “well because it’s got added Vitamin A, it’s good for me now!” Instead, it’s just a silent benefit.
Or just address the actually cause instead of the "problem". Get the shit like food coloring and corn syrup out of our food. Other nations do just fine with their food situation without all these made up excuses and nonsense and like "fortified" food. And stop subsidizing the garbage food and cultivation of it via SNAP.
> Or just address the actually cause instead of the "problem".
Again, you’re asking for behavioral change in humans by fiat. Fortification extends well beyond just adding vitamins to chips or junk food. It’s added in many basic building blocks (milk, and most flours and rice) because it literally is solving nutritional deficiencies caused by poverty. Nobody is somehow making purchasing decisions on junk food based on fortification content.
> Get the shit like food coloring and corn syrup out of our food.
Irrelevant to nutritional content, unless you mean overly sugary foods relating to corn syrup. Which, you can have the exact same health outcomes and hyper palatability by just using regular old sugar.
> Other nations do just fine with their food situation without all this made up nonsense and excuses like "fortified" food.
Other nations fortify their food too, including many “first world” countries. I don’t know why you think this is somehow a uniquely American thing.
We do. Table salt is iodized. We add vitamin A & D to milk and bread.
You’re looking for facts to stuff a straw man. There is clear, obvious correlation between fluoridation and improved oral health. They discovered this decades ago where it was observed that oral health was better in regions where groundwater was used and fluoride occurred naturally.
By my metric, we should take reasonable measures to improve public health. I don’t suppose you’re in favor of making dental care affordable to those who can’t afford it?
If you choose to align yourself with the pseudo intellectual descendants of the John Birch society to protect your “precious bodily fluids”, I’m sorry for you.
What a novel suggestion. Sure just do what you’re supposed to do.
What’s your answer when the same idiots campaigning against fluoride decide that toothpaste is a problem? Or that the ADA is a scam and there is no proof that toothbrushing has any effect?
And what’s real food? That is a question that doesn’t have an answer.
> Any actual stats on people not brushing their teeth?
google is free - it's not anyone's responsibility to educate you and answer your naive questions. and if did google and you're still not convinced, well then i'm glad you're not an elected official wherever it is you live (though if you live in the US i guess you probably voted for the current admin)
