Posted on 05/02/2010 6:58:50 AM PDT by nyscof
Parts of Arkansas do not have fluoridated water. Are there significant statistical differences between those areas and one with fluoridation?
I don’t have flouridated water either. I just assume city dwellers are morons. LOL
Later, at home, still pregnant, and drinking a glass of floridated tap water, the impact of that statement hit me.
Crown City, USA.
I don’t have details about Arkansas. However, New York State Department of Health statistics show no value to fluoridated water in reducing tooth decay.
See:
My problem was too much candy and sweet kids cereal - and not enough brushing - and I hated the Dentist’ visiting him only when I was in pain. I had serious periodontal disease by the time I was a young adult, and no amount of Fluoride was going to help. My saving grace was marrying the daughter of my Dentist. Today I have zero cavities. Besides marrying the Dentist daughter I would highly recommend to buy a Sonicare brush. Its been one of the best advances in Dentistry since Fluoride.
And up to 48% of US school children sport dental fluorosis - white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth - from ingesting too much fluoride while their teeth were forming.
Covering up fluoride discolored teeth is a hugely lucrative market for dentists in cosmetically conscious Americans. It’s one of the reasons dentists can make so much money while neglecting the people who need dental care the most - low income people.
80% of dentists refuse Medicaid patients and 130 million Americans don’t have dental insurance.
Dentists fight hard and long to hang onto their lucrative monopoly. If fluoridation truly reduced tooth decay, organized dentistry would be telling us it is unsafe and ineffective. Then the would be telling the truth.
Like Chris Rock says about OJ the knife;
"I don't agree, . . . but I understand."
For everyone out there that feels dentists are low-life, money hungry, boat-payment, corporate whores (I think I got most of them) feel free to go to dental school and change the future of dentistry. Obviously you don’t understand the real issues behind serving the lower class. There’s more to it than providing cheap services. The appointment turnover rate is unreal. Half never show up for appointments. So even if dentists accepted medicare, medicare will not reimburse for missed appointments. You can’t pay employees, insurance, and overhead when appointments don’t show. You could, I guess, but dental offices would cease to exist. When they do show up, they obviously have not been caring for their teeth even after much dental education. On some fronts, until the lower class starts caring a little more it’s a waste to try and help them...not all, but some.
i drank tap water my whole life, which i assume has been fluoridated, until i moved up here in on the hill ten years ago and have drank nothing but pure spring water since then, and it' been nothing fillings falling out and cavities since. i'm not advocating fluoride, i'm just sayin...
Not me. I have a real deep well.
At least you're not biting a cracker and spitting out a tooth. I did that once, at Disney World.
damn... hardtack???
That’s understandable. However, there are groups willing to fill teeth and go into geographical areas where dentists refuse to go. They are called Dental Therapists (DTs) DTs are trained for a few years and can do simple dental work as well as dentists. They have worked successfully for decades in first world contries and charge a lot less than dentists because they don’t have to go through all the schooling you mention.
However, the rich and therefore poltically powerful American Dental Association and its constituents lobby AGAINST the formation of this viabele solution to the dental health crisis that faces Amerca today.
The Louisiana Dental association forced a law in Louisiana which intended and did stop a Medicaid accpeting dentist from treating children in schools - children who will now go without care because no dentist in the area accepts Mediciaid.
I’ve been following the ADA and the laws they implement. They all have to do with making more money for dentists The ADA is just a union that represents dentists best interests.
And it’s obvious that fluoridation is not reducing tooth decay but gives the illusion that dentists really really care about poor people’s teeth. Yeah right.
The same ‘reasoning’ implies chlorination of water doesn’t improve health, and while one is at it, they might as well stop using bleach, and then get rid of soap in general.
Statistically, folks are better off with bacteria being killed off in their drinking water supplies, so it isn’t an unreasonable policy to implement in public potable water supplies.
I’m not surprised that a generation that has grown up with these amenities, might also be lazy enough not to brush their teeth, and statistically end up with as many oral hygiene problems as previous generations.
And just because people have little money doesn’t make them low-class. You’ve revealed the thinking of most dentists who have probably grown up privileged and have no clue what it’s like to live with little income or financially secure parents.
Chlorine is added to treat the water. Fluoride is added to treat the person drinking that water. Since fluoride is neither a nutrient nor required for healthy teeth, it’s defined as a drug because it’s meant to make a bodily part change.
Drugs should never be administered in the water supply and dosed based on thirst not need, health, weight, etc.
Lucky me! I have well water, and a trout stream in the back yard!
oooohhh... i love peanut butter crackers
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