Fluoride, Facts, and Fear
Scrolling through Threads one morning, I stumbled upon a post citing an article which stated that the FDA was moving to ban fluoride supplements. The replies varied from dismay to indignation, from indifference to celebration—with a smattering of snarky statements and eye roll emojis.
As a community health dentist, a mother, and general member of society, these movements to ban fluoride in public water and in fluoride supplementation, I am concerned and exhausted by the fear-mongering and sensationalism by the current administration about fluoride.
And while I started Simply Samantha to share about my life—the ups, the downs, and the sideways—I would be remiss if I didn’t listen to that gut feeling to share a few thoughts about fluoride, public water fluoridation, and oral health care.
I empathize with the desire to do right by one’s families. I am trying to do that very thing. We are bombarded with news articles about the dangers of X or the concerns of Y. I am a well-educated person and even I succumb to knee-jerk reactions and emotional responses to expertly crafted clickbait articles. I have been trained to read scientific papers, evaluate a study’s validity, question funding sources, and identify biases in the study design. And I still get overwhelmed by the constant flood of headlines and articles that make me fear for my children’s safety.
We should make educated decisions about our children’s safety. We should listen to experts in their fields. We should question sensationalized headlines and wellness influencers. But we’re tired. We’re bombarded. And I know we are all trying to make the best choices with the information we have.
I am first and foremost a mom and dentist, just trying to do right by my children and patients. I hope you’ll learn a little something here.*
*This information presented is for educational and entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for healthcare advice. Please speak with your physicians, dentists, and other members of your healthcare team regarding your personal healthcare decisions.
Fluoride facts
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in soil, water, and certain foods. It is most commonly either ingested in fluoridated water or applied topically in the form of oral healthcare products. It acts by strengthening the tooth mineral in a process called remineralization. In its ionic form, fluoride helps repair the damage caused by the acids produced by cariogenic bacteria (that’s just a fancy term for bacteria that cause tooth decay).
Early childhood caries—aka tooth decay—is the number one chronic disease in children in The United States. Its prevalence is exacerbated by other factors such as poverty, education level, systemic disparities, and other social determinants of health. Fluoride use helps bridge the dental care gap, especially for underserved communities.
As a community health dentist, I have seen the direct impacts of insufficient fluoride use in early childhood. I’ve had to do fillings and extractions on young children due to dental decay. Many of my patients come from rural areas in Central and South America without access to fluoride-containing products or fluoridated water. These patients often experience a life-time of oral health issues as a results. Early and frequent fluoride exposure reduces the incidence of childhood caries. Preventative measures keeps kids out of the operating room.
There are health educators that are much more eloquent than I am but I feel so passionately about this public health issue because I see its effects every single day. I see the child with a full-mouth of decay. I see the pregnant person with dental abscesses. I see the effects of dental caries day in and day out. And it’s important that the public has accurate information about this public health measure.
As a parent, I am also sympathetic to the fears expressed by parents. We want our children to be healthy, whole, and happy. Our society should want that too. There are concerns that fluoride is toxic. Well, so is water, oxygen, and certain vitamins in harmful doses. Currently, the most up-to-date research demonstrates that 0.7 ml/L is the optimal amount of fluoride in drinking water for caries prevention. Water fluoridation is a public health measure much like iodized salt or iron-fortified cereals. The public health benefits are measurable and proven effective.
Facts matter in a world of fear
Fear-mongering spreads fast. Clickbait articles and sensational headlines are designed to grab your attention and stoke your fears. Personal stances on vaccines, fluoride, childcare, birth plans, and the like are debated at length in parenting spaces. Social media algorithms are programed to feed you news and posts that already align with your worldview.
There is an insidious power in sensationalism and fear-mongering. But the real power lies in truth and facts. Well-tested, reproducible, and peer-reviewed scientific research should be the gold standard by which we form our policies. Society should have thoughtful public health policies that align with the current data and in the totality of reputable evidence. As new information is discovered and as technologies improve, so must our policies adapt to serve the public.
It is OKAY to ask questions, check the data, and educate oneself on that matters that you hold dear. But it is also OKAY to trust expert consensus when the data, facts, and science support it. I invite you to continue to seek answers from reputable, peer-reviewed, and scientific sources. And when in doubt, reach out to the professionals in their respective fields. I’ll trust a virologist about pandemics. I’ll trust a dentist about fluoride. I’ll trust an engineer about earthquake safe structures. I’ll trust a climate scientist about the climate crisis. Verify the research, follow the funding, and take care of each other.
