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%.

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
      12·
      24 days ago

      …That’s a dangerous position to take.

      How many times do you think there have been positions that were generally accepted as being correct that were later found to be wrong? Things that we had evidence at the time that demonstrated they were a net positive, that later ended up being deeply flawed or outright incorrect?

      Your version of ‘freedom’ would also say that no person has freedom of religion, both because it contradicts science, and because religion can cause real harms to both physical and mental health.

      • Halcyon@discuss.tchncs.de
        6·
        24 days ago

        I have not made any statement about a general definition of freedom. My position was solely focused on the uneducated instrumentalization of the concept of freedom with regard to the scientifically recognized use of fluoride to improve the dental health of the population.

      • PopcornTin@lemmy.world
        4·
        24 days ago

        As we’ve seen in the last few years, you can find experts to say whatever you need. That’ll have a longer lasting effect on the public’s psyche than anything.

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
          1·
          20 days ago

          “Worse” is a value judgement rather than anything objective. People that like tinfoil headwear accessories would say that putting fluoride in the drinking water makes their lives “worse”. So where does that leave you?

        • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
          3·
          24 days ago

          I disagree with them as well for different reasons but me not taking care of my teeth also doesn’t make yours fall out

          • Red_October@lemmy.world
            8·
            24 days ago

            You can do whatever you want to your teeth and you’re correct that it doesn’t effect me, but this isn’t a discussion about individual action or inaction. This is about what happens with the public water supply, which effects the entire public. That’s why his comment about “mandated exercise” is wrong. You not brushing your teeth doesn’t effect me, but removing the fluoridation from my water does.

            • meowMix2525@lemm.ee
              2·
              24 days ago

              I agree with you that its not about individual action, I was just saying your argument was kind of a non-sequitur. It was a hypothetical, so it’s more like if exercise was already mandated and the argument was to take it away. In this metaphor you would be arguing in favor of the mandated exercise, just like you’re arguing for fluoride, because you wouldn’t get enough exercise without it.

              Whatever, it’s early, maybe I’m not making much sense. I wasn’t trying to start anything. I’m more or less undecided on the whole fluoride thing.