Retired Dentist Distorts Fluoridation Facts

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A retired local dentist wrote (2/14) to the Rutland Herald in support of community water fluoridation, stating that the facts of the matter are today as they were in 2016, when he wrote a similar piece. Well, the facts have changed, but his misstatements and distortions have stayed the same.

 

Among the cracks, gaps, and low blows in his arguments:

 

While accusing fluoridation critics of scare tactics (i.e., the way we talk about harmful side effects of fluoride), Dr. Dick uses exactly those tactics. He warns of the dire consequences of ending fluoridation, namely, increasing tooth decay. 

 

This alarmist claim is directly contradicted by the authoritative Cochrane Review of 2015. The Review is often referred to as a “gold standard” in evidence-based reviews of health science. The Review stated, “There is insufficient information to determine the effect of stopping water fluoridation programs on caries levels.”

 

Dr. Dick urges us to “look at the bona fide research.” Presumably that would include three studies funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (Bashash, 2017; Green, 2019; and Till, 2019), all showing IQ loss associated with fluoride exposure of the pregnant mother or through baby formula.

 

Dr. Dick again, as in 2016, says he “never saw a case of fluorosis in my Rutland patients.” He is talking about the white-spotting and staining of teeth, often called “dental fluorosis.” Many of us have seen this condition in people we meet. Dental fluorosis is in fact the most clear-cut and documented side effect of fluoride overexposure. Note that in 2015 the U.S. Public Health Service reduced the recommended level of fluoride in fluoridated water systems to .7 parts per million from a range of .7 to 1.2 ppm. One of the reasons cited was the “prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis.”