Posted on 12/18/2008 6:03:11 AM PST by nyscof
New York State's Governor Patterson is proposing extensive tax increases to offset revenue shortfalls. But I have a better idea. Stop fluoridation.
This win-win decision for all states would save multi-millions of dollars and benefit every American – except maybe legislators beholden to special interest groups.
Science shows ending fluoridation saves teeth, money, preserves health and will reduce the carbon footprint, to boot, but it would irk organized dentistry. That’s the rub.
After 60 years of water fluoridation and over 50 years of fluoridated toothpaste, tooth decay is epidemic in the United States because 80% of dentists refuse to treat Medicaid patients and over 108 million Americans lack dental insurance (1). Children have died from untreated tooth decay. (2)
Diverting attention from their greed and heartlessness, dentists focus too-willing legislators on fluoridation (adding unnecessary fluoride chemicals into water supplies in a failed effort to prevent tooth decay), as if that would solve the problem. (3)
Far from fluoridation putting dentists out of business, as was once predicted, today’s dentists work fewer hours and days doing less critical work but make more money than many physicians. (4)
Seventy-two percent of NYS is fluoridated even though statistics show it’s failing to thwart cavities. (5) New York City, alone, spends approximately $14 million or more yearly on fluoridation chemicals, equipment and manpower.(6) Yet, NYC residents have among the highest cavity rates in the nation. (7)
Unfortunately, organized dentistry’s PAC money and political might speaks louder than science.(8)
One might argue that stopping fluoridation will cause higher dental costs. But studies show that, when fluoridation ends, cavities actually go down. (9) And the most highly fluoridated states have the highest rates of tooth loss. (10) Cavity crises are occurring in most fluoridated cities and states (See: http://www.FluorideNews.Blogspot.com )
Modern science shows that fluoride ingestion confers no benefits as early fluoridationists believed. Besides, today fluoride is in virtually all foods and beverages, (11) almost all toothpastes, some medicines, many dental products and is now a known component of air pollution.
No one disputes that too much fluoride is a bad thing. And there’s loads of evidence showing that Americans are over-fluoridated. For example, the Centers for Disease control reports that 48% of 12 - 15 year olds have dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted enamel – from too much fluoride ingestion when their teeth were forming. (12) We can’t see what fluoride is doing to their bones. (13)
For this reason, both the CDC and the American Dental Association advise that infant formula NOT be mixed with fluoridated water.
The National Kidney Foundation also advises kidney patients to avoid fluoridated water as malfunctioning kidneys can allow a toxic build up of fluoride in bones causing them to weaken and break. (14)
New York State can’t afford the money to get this information out. Fluoridation is outdated, unnecessary and harmful. It must be stopped.
The remedy: Dentists have unfairly influenced our legislators to pass laws that benefit themselves (15) while neglecting those that need them the most. In return, Dentists must be required to treat a certain percentage of patients for free, on a sliding scale basis or accept Medicaid payments.
Tell your local and state legislators you want fluoridation stopped.
Tell Congress you want fluoridation stopped and Congressional hearings held about why federal officials continue to promote fluoridation in the face of growing evidence of harm and ineffectiveness: http://congress.FluorideAction.Net
END
References:
1) http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/pressreleases/pr_oral_52000.htm
2) “For Want of a Dentist,” by Mary Otto, The Washington Post, February 27, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022702116.html
3) How California Deceptively Passed a Statewide Fluoridation Mandate http://www.edhtelegraph.com/detail/89290.html
Louisiana Mandates Fluoridation Despite Evidence of Harm http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Louisiana-May-Mandate-Fluoridation-Despite-Evidence-of-Harm-20853-1/
4)”New Drill - Tale of Two Docs: Why Dentists Are Earning More,” by Mark Maremont, The Wall Street Journal, Monday, January 10, 2005
http://www.flapsblog.net/2005/01/new-drill-tale-of-two-docs-why.html
5) NYS Department of Health statistics show that fluoridation fails to reduce tooth decay. See chart: http://tinyurl.com/NYSchart
6) Fluoridation Does Not Save Money or Teeth
http://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/2005/11/fluoridation-does-not-save-money-or.html
7) Evidence that Fluoridation Has Failed New York
http://www.freewebs.com/fluoridation/fluoridationfailsnewyork.htm
8) “Open Wide for $25K” NY Daily News, by Elizabeth Benjamin, July 12, 2008
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2008/07/open-wide-for-25k.html
“In Rift Among Dentist Groups, a Tale of Political Clout.”
By Sam Roberts, New York Times, June 23, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/nyregion/23dentist.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
9) When Fluoridation Ends So Do Cavities
http://thyroid.about.com/cs/relatedconditions/a/flushot.htm
10) More Fluorde = Less Teeth
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1002581/posts
11) USDA Fluoride Database 2005 http://www.ars.usda.gov/Services/docs.htm?docid=6312
12) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s403a1t23.gif
13) http://groups.google.com/group/Fluoridation-News-Releases/browse_thread/thread/20b328821b24dcc4/9882f8d2ce4caad5?lnk=gst&q=fluorosis+fractures#9882f8d2ce4caad5
14) National Kidney Foundation, “Fluoride Intake in Chronic Kidney Disease,” April 15, 2008
http://www.kidney.org/atoz/pdf/Fluoride_Intake_in_CKD.pdf
(15) Middlesex County Dental Society (New Jersey) President’s Message
In my book, the jury’s still out on fluoridation. My son is 20 and has never had a cavity. My husband and I have a mouthful of fillings from our childhood, teenage years.
The only difference between my kid and us was in our (husband and my) growing up years the water wasn’t fluoridated and we didn’t have fluoride toothpastes (and my son is not a fastidious “brusher”...he does about a 1 minute quick brushing a couple times a day...so good dental hygiene doesn’t account for his lack of cavities and neither does genetics.)
Don't let localities or individuals decide what way they will be medicated. Just make sweeping decrees for everybody even though it is not in the traditional realm of “public health” as in communicable diseases.
Typical liberal thinking. I'd really like to see reporters start to report the facts, like:
New York City taxpayers, alone, spend approximately $14 million or more yearly on fluoridation chemicals, equipment and manpower...
A minor point, perhaps, but states the facts correctly.
Governor Patterson (Mr. Magoo) needs to stop piling on taxes, as all the extra hours people have to work to pay them contributes to gorebull warming.
Actually good diet is linked to less cavities. Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor required for healthy teeth. Modern science indicates that ingesting fluoride confers no benefits and that fluoride gets into tooth enamel by topical means alone.
For example, in Detroit Michigan where the water is fluoridated, children have profound tooth decay. Adults have extremely high rates of tooth decay even though fluoridated water is the most consumed item.
Fluoride can’t fix a bad diet.
Paging General Jack D. Ripper - please pick up the courtesy phone, and grab a cigar on your way in!
- John
Tooth decay rates have gone down over the decades equally in fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries. At the same time, diets have improved, foods have been fortified, dental care more affordable, health awareness more pronounced. There are NO studies which prove that fluoridation, and none of the factors above or others, are responsible for the cavity decline. However, now that diets are decaying and dentists are selective about who they treat, tooth decay is a growing US problem, along with fluoride overdose symptoms which are ruining our children’s teeth - causing very expensive cosmetic dentistry - for those who can afford it.
I hear the English don’t floridate; maybe we can emulate their teeth.
Dentists don’t accept new Medicaid patients because the system pays maybe half of what a procedure costs, ties them in red tape and leaves the bill for 6 months or more.
Interesting.
I wouldn’t say that our diet was much different than most folks, though when our son was younger we didn’t do a lot of fast foods, and we never bought soda, but we did have ice cream and cookies in the house.
But since he’s been able to drive (when he was 16) his diet stinks (LOL, spoken like a true “controlling” parent.) He’s been in college and now grad school, and rarely eats at home, but catches a bite on the run, which often includes to our horror, Krispy Kreme donuts, Red Bull, lots of Taco Bell and Chick-Fil-A. Still no cavities.
I did think of one thing that could account for some lack of cavities as a child. We had pit and fissure sealants placed on all his molars and kept that up until he came out of braces, so that might have some effect on keeping decay from taking root in his molars.
Libertarian Solution: Fluoridated salt and non-fluoridated salt
I have traveled in third and second world countries. In many places people can buy either the non-fluoridated salt or the fluoridated. Each parent decides for their own family. The cost for each of the types of salt is the same.
I call BS. i entered the Navy in 1962, having never seen a dentist and i drank water from a shallow well most of my life. I had no cavities. the dental officer took one look at my teeth and said that i must have grown up in east texas. He was right, i grew up on the stateline of louisiana and texas. he said that it was common for kids from that area to have great teeth due to the natural flourides in the water there.
Caries is an infectious disease. If the caretakers of the child have untreated and open decay in their mouth the child is far, far, more likely to have a decay too.
If a child has rampant caries it is important to clean up **everyone** in the family and get them all decay free.
Also, chewing gum with xylitol helps a **lot**.
Dentists like to think they did it on their own. However, the accepted welfare for the rich in the form of government subsidies for their tuition and/or dental schools. Governments dole out licenses and give them the right to treat people. Some dentists claim that the number of dentists is kept low - just to make sure dentists can charge more money. It’s time dentists give back. Boo-hoo about the paper work. Do some for free. After all dentists got handouts. It’s time for them to pay it forward.
We have a crisis because dentists won’t treat low-income people. In New York and other states, they passed a law requiring all students to get a dental check-up. This won’t solve the problem because children living with dental pain still can’t afford the dentist. They know this. This law enabled dentists to get more children with good insurance to come and see them and raise dentist incomes.
Dentists claim that they care so much about low-income people that they work very hard to put fluoride chemicals into the water - yeah right! These are the same people they won’t allow to cross their threshold. If they really cared, a dental health crisis wouldn’t have occurred on thier watch.
Annual nutcase attack on good teeth
There’s nothing natural about the fluoride that’s added to water supplies. You might have grown up drinking calcium fluoride. However, silicofluorides are the fluoride chemicals added to water supplies. Silicofluorides are waste products of the phosphate fertilizer industry which by law are required to capture fluoride emissions before they reach the atmosphere. It’s this captured fluoride (silicofluorides) which is transported all over the US as hazardous waste and dumped unpurified into water supplies.
Regulatory agencies allow these silicofluorides to have trace amounts of lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxins.
You people are all anti-dentites
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