this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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[–] Rookwood@lemmy.world 13 points 19 hours ago (23 children)

Fluoridated water doesn't seem to make a difference on cavities. It does have neurological effects. It's simply not acutely fatal. It's already in our toothpaste. We don't need it in our municipal water supply and the majority of developed countries don't.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/magazine/magazine_article/fluoridated-drinking-water/

[–] heraplem@leminal.space 22 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Counterpoint: I live in an area without fluoridated water, and I'm told that dentists can reliably identify people who didn't grow up here by the state of their teeth.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone -3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

Anecdote in scientific debate? Wild

[–] heraplem@leminal.space 5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

It's actually exactly in line with what the link above says.

In June 2015, the Cochrane Collaboration—a global independent network of researchers and health care professionals known for rigorous scientific reviews of public health policies—published an analysis of 20 key studies on water fluoridation. They found that while water fluoridation is effective at reducing tooth decay among children, “no studies that aimed to determine the effectiveness of water fluoridation for preventing caries [cavities] in adults met the review’s inclusion criteria.”

In other words, water fluoridation might not make much difference for adults, but it can for children.

[–] Squiddlioni@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 16 hours ago

The link above is not reputable and was directly refuted by, among others, the American Dental Association, the American Dental Education Association, the American Association for Dental Research, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine itself. From the response letter signed by the dean of the HSDM:

The magazine article states that CWF “does not appear to have any benefits in adults” based on the results of the Cochrane systematic review. However, the Cochrane review did not make this conclusion. Rather, the review specifically states “We did not identify any evidence, meeting the review’s inclusion criteria, to determine the effectiveness of water fluoridation for preventing caries in adults.” Due to the lack of studies that met the inclusion criteria, the Cochrane authors were not able to make any conclusion on the effect of CWF on adults. In fact, there are studies that were not included in the Cochrane review that demonstrate a caries preventive benefit of CWF in adults.

See the letter I linked for the studies it's referencing with a demonstrated benefit to adult teeth. The Cochrane review's inability to conclude whether there was a benefit or not was a limitation of the Cochrane review's inclusion criteria, and not an absence of studies indicating a benefit.

[–] Squiddlioni@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Not sure why you're being downvoted. The anecdote happens to parallel the scientific consensus, but "I'm told that dentists can tell" isn't an appropriate argument when discussing medical research.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 14 hours ago

The internet do be like that sometimes, egos and the uninformed run free

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