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Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

bbc.com

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Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#651

Post by [deleted] »

hilbert42 wrote: post #612
hayst4ck wrote: post #347

Putting fluoride in water promotes freedom. That sounds crazy, but let me justify it. If you are poor you can't go anywhere or buy anything. You're not free if you're poor. If you are sick, you may be confined to a hospital bed or not feel good enough to do anything. If you are sick you're not free. Putting fluoride in water reduces dental costs and incidence of cavities and therefore tooth infections, particularly a…

So then, you'd also be against adding folate/folic acid to bread for the same reason? For those who don't know many countries including the US mandate the inclusion of folic acid in bread and certain other foods to ensure pregnant women get enough. A deficiency of folic acid during pregnancy causes birth defects in infants. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folate

[deleted]

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#652

Post by iamacyborg »

prox wrote: post #628
abrookewood wrote: post #615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I was going to mention this. Had a friend who went down the coast for a day trip with a bunch of mates. On the way back on the train (1.5 hour ride) they had a competition to see who could drink the most water and most of them had several litres, a few of them managed a bit more. My mate also had a bunch of chips/snacks, but not everyone did. Later that night, he got a desperate phone from his friends mum, screa…

Is this why after a day on the beach you want both drinks and salty snacks?

It’s why electrolyte drinks are a thing for sports.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#653

Post by nemo44x »

amazingamazing wrote: post #639
nemo44x wrote: post #626

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t work because it’s topical. You give kids vitamins to get fluoride into their system to strengthen their developing adult teeth.

Great - so why do we need it in the water then? Not to mention that caries in kids teeth isn't really that relevant anyway since they fall out. Fact is, adult teeth is what matters and topical fluoridation is the most effective way, in addition to brushing and flossing to maintain dental health. Would love to see evidence to the contrary (ingestion is superior to topical application w.r.t. fluoride).

Where did I say it had to be put in water? I literally said kids should consume vitamins with fluoride. You’re the one making up things about a topic you don’t understand.

You really want to strengthen teeth as they’re developing. It’s critical. Your “fact is” is wrong although you want to do that too. Continue to fortify after they grow in.

May I ask what motivates you to post things here where you clearly have 0 knowledge about a subject and you just write things that sound logically right in your head but are wrong?

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#654

Post by FollowingTheDao »

Perenti wrote: post #502
artvandelai wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding fluoride to water was revolutionary in the 1940s, but its benefits have significantly declined since fluoride toothpaste became common in the 1970s. While fluoridation made sense when products containing fluoride weren't widely available, it is much less effective and necessary now. Sure, some countries and communities may still see benefits from it, but widespread fluoridation doesn't seem necessary in many p…

Not true. Every time I see a dentist here in Queensland (non-fluoridated water) he asks me where else I lived as my teeth are so much better than what he usually sees, and if drilling my teeth are much harder than most Queenslanders. My early years were spent in Melbourne, where fluoridation was introduced around 1970. That's the only time I lived with fluoridated water, for about 3 years. yet dentists can see the ef…

Black Tea has an astounding amount of fluoride. You dentist is stupid for only asking where you live and not what you eat and drink.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#655

Post by XajniN »

giantg2 wrote: post #613
j_maffe wrote: post #515

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're refuting a statment based on studies and statistics by anecdotal evedince. Also, GP never denied that flouridation is still helpful for non-brushing residents.

The real question is, fluoridated water in the past or not, how is any non-brushing patient being told they're teeth are top tier?

Brushing is much less important for your teeth than your genetics and/or nutrition.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#656

Post by fuckyah »

freehorse wrote: post #123

This is one of these US-specific polarised debates I find really bizarre, around some kind of issue that the rest of the world has by large solved but without any acknowledgement of this fact. Maybe the US should look into how other countries have solved it? It is completely bizarre witnessing both sides getting so polarised around a basically non-issue.

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Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#657

Post by fuckyah »

bsza wrote: post #324
jdminhbg wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I love about this comment is that one person thought "of course every other country just does the right thing when the US doesn't" and posted it, and then a bunch of other people thought "of course every other country just does the right thing when the US doesn't" and upvoted it, and not a single one of them thought to check what the "right thing" is. Meanwhile, back here on Earth-1, there's no right thing, and…

While I acknowledge it is not a "solved" issue, I find it bizarre nonetheless, simply because it is so disproportionately low-stakes compared to the amount of controversy around it. Increased risk of cavities versus tentative evidence of losing 1-2 IQ points at 1.5 mg/L? Sounds like a Monty Python sketch to me that people would get so worked up over this.

[dead]

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#658

Post by impossiblefork »

hilbert42 wrote: post #629
impossiblefork wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you will brush your teeth anyway, and then you apply fluoride topically. It works. Here in Sweden we decided against fluoride for this reason and the fact that it is in fact toxic. It isn't sensible to use systemic exposure when we can use topical exposure and can improve mouth health by education, so that people do what they're supposed to. The fluoride approach achieves a basic level of health, but you can do s…

"Here in Sweden we decided against fluoride for this reason and the fact that it is in fact toxic." All water collected from natural sources contains some level of fluoride and other salts (which varies greatly from place to place). Does then your local water authority remove these naturally-acquired chemicals?

Generally not, but we choose where we take our from water from.

If there's too much fluoride in the rock water we take soil or surface water instead, for example. If there's too much fluoride in the water we do not supply it to people's taps, but this is for values like 4 mg/L.

So we mostly don't take any measures. In Stockholm it's apparently less than 0.2 mg/L though.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#659

Post by amelius »

Question: is there something I can do in the office to improve tooth health? E.g. after drinking a cup of coffee, maybe neutralize the pH with some antacid? Or, I don't know, chew some gum? Are there products that are relatively convenient and don't require a brush and water?

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#660

Post by pclmulqdq »

nulbyte wrote: post #649
pclmulqdq wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your community could decide" is not freedom in the American political sense. In US political theory, the unit of freedom is the individual, full stop.

I've seen this retort elsewhere. It's not true. It's why corporations are persons with first amendment and other freedoms.

Corporations are not actually persons. You should read the Citizens United opinion if that's what you think it meant.

Corporate owners are people engaging in voluntary transactions. Their freedom was essentially the question in Citizens United. "Corporations are people" emerged from the media as an oversimplified version.

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