RFK Jr.’s fluoride ban would ruin 25 million kids’ teeth, cost $9.8 billion
arstechnica.com
The modeling estimates don’t account for other costs, like parents’ lost work.

Once hailed as a triumph of public health, water fluoridation is now under intense attack in the US.

Despite decades of data proving its efficacy at protecting teeth from decay—particularly children’s teeth—two states have now banned the use of fluoride in public water, and communities around the country have followed suit or are considering doing the same. The current US health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for his anti-vaccine advocacy and for peddling conspiracy theories, has pledged to remove fluoride from US water.

Now, a pair of researchers at Harvard—Sung Eun Choi and Lisa Simon—have modeled exactly what will happen in the US if Kennedy follows through on his pledge: The number of cavities and decayed teeth in American children and teens (ages 0–19) will increase by an estimated 7.5 percentage points over the first five years. That means there will be 25.4 million more rotten teeth in the mouths of children and teenagers. The dental bills for the added decay will total at least $9.8 billion in that time. Other costs, such as loss of work among parents, were not included, making the financial estimate conservative. But children will also be more miserable, with an estimated loss of 2.9 million quality-adjusted life years.

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  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    212·
    10 days ago

    I’m kinda on the fence about this.

    Fluoride is known to be toxic. But hey, if you spit the stuff out after you brush your teeth, then maybe it helps…? 🤔

    Now on the flip side, maybe just maybe if they quit putting so much sugar in foods, that just might help too…

    🤷‍♂️

    Edit: Either way, fluoride actually shouldn’t be in the water supply. It’s not safe to ingest. Might be fine in toothpaste, that gets spit out…

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        210·
        10 days ago

        Once upon a time it was considered safe and proper practice to lick the paintbrush with radium paint…

        Fun fact: Your teeth can only rot when you’re alive. After you die, your teeth can last thousands of years.

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            21·
            10 days ago

            No, they cancelled my insurance when I turned 18.

            I’m 42 now, and have never had full time employment. Best I ever had, as shop manager even, was 6 hours a day, 6 days a week.

            6 * 6 = 36

            So after I turned 18, I lost insurance, and have never found a 40+ hour a week job to qualify for benefits. ☹️

          • over_clox@lemmy.world
            14·
            10 days ago

            Also, no, I prefer to not get radiation therapy.

            They’ve recently found that also causes cancer.

            Plus I can’t afford it anyways.

            • Valmond@lemmy.world
              31·
              10 days ago

              Do what your doctor tells you, not what you read on facebook, that’s the best advice I can give you. Also good luck.

              • over_clox@lemmy.world
                11·
                10 days ago

                Also, my oral surgeon was furious with the hospital for giving me bad advice for a week. I was too fucking young to sue the hospital for malpractice.

              • over_clox@lemmy.world
                11·
                10 days ago

                Facebook didn’t even exist in the 90’s, so please take your advice and shove your internet banana up your ass.

                I did follow my oral surgeon advice.

    • School_Lunch@lemmy.world
      5·
      10 days ago

      I don’t mean to be too insulting, but it’s really annoying when people spread misinformation with such confidence when it’s clear you don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s a saying “dosage makes the poison”. Anything can be toxic in the right amounts. There are no studies that support anything you said, and there’s plenty that show increases in infections and health care cost when places remove it.

      It’s just another conspiracy theory that I thought society had become intelligent enough to relegate to the past but apparently not. Let me guess, you also believe vaccines are bad and chemtrails are real…

      We used to think people like that were crazy. What happened?

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        14·
        10 days ago

        I’m a living A/B comparison. I can literally tell you that it doesn’t make a flying fuck what the dentists tell you, they just want their money.

        I was in the middle of dental surgery, literally halfway through, when they cancelled my insurance.

        Both sides of my mouth have had equal dental decay since then.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        14·
        10 days ago

        Also, after I ripped my jaw open, but before I lost my insurance, my oral surgeon told me that the best way to take care of my mouth and teeth is a solution of warm water, salt, and baking soda.

        Fuck all the dentists out there, my oral surgeon told me the fucking truth, and it had nothing to do with fluoride, nor hydrogen peroxide.