Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

The culture wars have a new target: your teeth.

Communities across the U.S. are ending public water fluoridation programs, often spurred by groups that insist that people should decide whether they want the mineral — long proven to fight cavities — added to their water supplies.

The push to flush it from water systems seems to be increasingly fueled by pandemic-related mistrust of government oversteps and misleading claims, experts say, that fluoride is harmful.

“The anti-fluoridation movement gained steam with Covid,” said Dr. Meg Lochary, a pediatric dentist in Union County, North Carolina. “We’ve seen an increase of people who either don’t want fluoride or are skeptical about it.”

There should be no question about the dental benefits of fluoride, Lochary and other experts say. Major public health groups, including the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, support the use of fluoridated water. All cite studies that show it reduces tooth decay by 25%.

    • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
      17·
      6 months ago

      Also, just want to point out that our ancestors had literally perfect teeth. Perfect. Crooked and fucked up teeth is a modern infliction

      I would adore to see your sources on this

      • sazey@lemmy.world
        4·
        6 months ago

        This isn’t some occult knowledge, a simple search will show many results concuring but here is one source:

        In his book The Story of the Human Body, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman writes: “The museum I work in has thousands of ancient skulls from all over the world. Most of the skulls from the last few hundred years are a dentist’s nightmare: they are filled with cavities and infections, the teeth are crowded into the jaw, and about one-quarter of them have impacted teeth. The skulls of preindustrial farmers are also riddled with cavities and painful-looking abscesses, but less than 5 percent of them have impacted wisdom teeth.”

        “In contrast, most of the hunter-gatherers had nearly perfect dental health. Apparently, orthodontists and dentists were rarely necessary in the Stone Age,” he added.

        …In 2015, researchers studied 292 human skeletons found in the Levant, Anatolia, and Europe that dated between 28,000 to 6,000 years ago. Their findings showed that people from more recent agricultural communities had smaller (and differently shaped) lower jaws compared to earlier hunter-gatherer people.

        • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
          7·
          6 months ago

          Aye I suppose a lot would be explained by the fact that the skulls they find are likely to be people who died in their 20s and 30s, as was the fashion back then

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          21·
          6 months ago

          So your argument is to return to pre-agricultural life in order to not have fluoride in our water supply?