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How do my teeth look?
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Pretty good?
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Okay great.
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Fluoride in the water might be helping that, but it might also be doing other things.
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Fluorine is the 13th most abundant element on the planet.
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It's in seawater, foods like fish, tea and gelatin contain it, and it's a naturally occurring
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substance in minerals -- that is to say, IT'S IN ALL THE ROCKS, because it's everywhere,
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fluorine is washed into the water supply during erosion.
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Fluoride is just fluorine with an extra electron, and when we see it in toothpaste, food or
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drinking water, it's actually sodium fluoride, or in our bodies it's calcium fluoride.
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In the 1940s, scientists found that people living near natural water sources with 1 part
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per million of fluoride had fewer cavities.
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So, they decided to add fluoride up to that concentration to reduce cavities for everyone.
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Unsurprisingly, controversy ensued.
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Today, two-thirds of Americans have fluoridated public water, but studies have thrown into
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question the benefit of water-borne fluoride compared to topical fluoride… or toothpaste
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with fluoride.
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A study of 23,000 skeletons from medieval archaeological sites found people who live
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near the coast and consumed fluoride-rich fish had fewer cavities.
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Another CDC study compared kids in the late-60s to kids from the early 90s, and found a 68
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percent drop in cavities.
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Though this could be due to fluoride toothpaste, not fluoridation as communities without fluoridation
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also saw a decrease.
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In the right concentrations -- that is, point-8 to 1.2 parts per million -- fluoride reduces
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tooth enamel solubility during its formation, helping it solidify and form teeth that are
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more resistant to bacterial attack.
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After the enamel is formed, fluoride helps prevent bacteria from producing acid that
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causes tooth decay.
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Of course, higher concentrations of fluoride can cause pitting in teeth, decay, and major
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health problems.
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Anything over 1.5 ppm can cause tooth decay, and 3 to 6 ppm can cause skeletal problems.
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And though there are some Chinese studies correlating high fluoride with IQ problems,
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no US city is even close to the 4 ppm EPA limit.
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Whether it's cool to add fluoride to the water is still a political and social point
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of contention.
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From a healthcare perspective, if we want our teeth to last, we've gotta keep the enamel
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free of harmful bacterial deposits - which fluoride does.
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Enamel, the outermost layer of the tooth, is the toughest stuff the body can make, but
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it can't repair itself.
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It needs help.
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Whether it belongs in the drinking water is a complicated question, because for those
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of us who didn't grow up with municipal drinking water, like me, we HAD it in our well water
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because the EARTH put it there.
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Municipal sources get it as an odourless and tasteless byproduct of phosphate fertilizers
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that makes no perceptible change to the water, according to the World Health Organization.
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The WHO also recommends community water fluoridation as the "most effective public health measure
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for the prevention of dental decay."
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Countries and states seem to be on board with fluoridation until someone finds damning evidence
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they shouldn't be, which, in 70 years, no one has yet found.
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So, for the moment, water fluoridation is still a thing, but what do you think about
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it?
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Do you care?