Opinion: NIDCR report reveals 22 years of effort, money, fluoridation failed to improve oral health

Editor’s note: the following information was submitted to Fort Atkinson Online by Paul S. Beeber, JD, president of the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. The information was submitted following a decision made Tuesday, Sept. 20, by the Jefferson City Council to continue to add fluoride to the city’s water supply. The measure came before council as Resolution No. 44, which sought to terminate the fluoridation of the city’s water supply. The measure failed by a vote of 6-2. The full resolution is here: http://fortatkinsononline.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Res.-No.-44-Resolution-re-Fluoride-1.pdf

Despite increases in public water fluoridation, dental visits, sealants, fluoride varnish applications, and significant financial, training, and program investments, oral health hasn’t improved in 22 years in the US, according to a National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) Oral Health in America Report (December 2021).  Further, there is no dispute that fluoride is neurotoxic, especially to babies’ developing brains, reports the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, Inc. (NYSCOF).

Fluoride chemicals (hydrofluosilicic acid and sodium fluoride ) are added to about 70% of US public drinking water supplies ostensibly to prevent tooth decay in tap water drinkers. But after 77 years of fluoridation, 50% of US 6-8 year-olds still have cavities, according to the CDC. Fifty-seven percent of adolescents aged 12-19 years have cavities (Journal of Public Health Dentistry). Seventy percent of US children and adolescents are afflicted with fluoride overdose – dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth – according to published federal data (NHANES)

Recently, the State College Borough Water Authority in Pennsylvania, made up of scientifically trained professionals representing various aspects of water quality, source water protections, engineering and business management, voted to reject fluoridation unanimously after members read the science and didn’t  just rely on outdated and unscientific endorsements.    

They criticized fluoridationists who “misrepresented and discredited the scientific evidence”

US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy: “Nine out of 10 adults 20 to 64 years of age have had dental caries, a figure that hasn’t meaningfully changed during the past 20 years…dental care costs have increased by 30%,” reported in the New England Journal of Medicine  

The Pew Charitable Trusts  writes: “the nation has failed to reduce the prevalence of untreated tooth decay among certain populations…limited access to dental care is a persistent factor contributing to oral health inequities among racial and ethnic minorities, low-income individuals, older Americans, rural residents, and other marginalized groups.” (February 9, 2022)

“America’s shockingly poor dental system, poverty and poor diets are to blame,” says attorney Paul Beeber, NYSCOF President. “Fluoridation can’t fix that.”

“It’s obvious that American’s need dental care; not fluoride in their drinking water or other band-aid fixes,” says Beeber.

NIDCR  reports little improvement since the 2000 US Surgeon General’s Oral Health report revealed “a silent epidemic” and its now-failed Call to Action “to eliminate oral health disparities.”

For example, the NIDCR reports:

·  The military continues to face challenges in meeting recruitment goals and military readiness because of oral health-related issues.

·  Untreated cavities among the poor remain twice that of non-poor. Disparities persist by race/ethnicity status.

·  Primary tooth decay increased in boys aged 6-11 and didn’t change in adolescents’ and adults’ permanent teeth.

·  Untreated decay in permanent teeth shows no progress.

·   In ages 2-11, decayed tooth surfaces increased with a greater impact on boys

·   Four out of 5 Americans aged 6 years and older experience cavities, irrespective of poverty or race/ethnicity status.

·   40% of children have eroded teeth. 

Carstairs 2015 wrote: “some of the early fluoridation studies had methodological problems which may have exaggerated their benefits” and “there are still questions about how effective water fluoridation is at preventing dental decay and whether the possible risks are worth the benefits.”

Dental Therapists could alleviate the dental access problem; but the politically powerful American Dental Association (ADA) lobbies against their legalization, according to the W K Kellogg Foundation and Wendell Potter

NIDCR admits vitamin D deficiency is a cavity risk. But the ADA turned this nutritional deficiency into a profitable fluoride drug treatment (Nutrients 2021). Forty-two percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient.  None are fluoride-deficient. Fluoride, like all drugs, has side effects.

Politics, not science, supports fluoridation as evidenced by the ADA’s lobbying the US National Toxicology Program to conclude fluoridation is not neurotoxic when the science says it is. Adverse health effects, outside of the oral cavity from ingested fluoride, are not within the purview of dentistry, according to the California Board of Dental Examiners4433/http://www.nofluoride.com/cal_dental_examiners.cfm

Few know that fluoridation chemicals aren’t natural, but are lead- and arsenic-laced waste products of phosphate fertilizer manufacturing (hydrofluosilicic acid or sodium fluoride) which often requires adding an acid-neutralizing chemical to the water such as sodium hydroxide.

Beeber says, “Artificial fluoridation is outdated, unscientific, ineffective, politically motivated, harmful and must cease across the US”

Hundreds of studies support 76 human studies which show fluoride damages babies’ developing brains. Prominent scientists urge you protect babies’ brains from fluoride

These studies are the basis of a current lawsuit against the US EPA to lower allowable fluoride contaminant levels in drinking water,  The next court date is October 20, 2022 (Food and Water Watch, et al). Counsel for the plaintiffs is Michael Connett, JD, Partner, Waters Kraus & Paul. 

A prominent professor and former public health dentist writes, “Pro-fluoridationists should not make the mistake of concluding that the anti-fluoridationists are all quacks or believers in conspiracies. This is a serious court case, and it behooves all interested parties to take the case and the evidence seriously.” (Nutrients 2022 “Fluoride: From Nutrient to Suspected Neurotoxin”)

Many fluoridation reviews consistently found fluoridation studies faulty. For example:

The US National Institutes of Health (2001)

The UK York Review of Fluoride (2003)

Chairman of the US National Research Council’s Report on Fluoride (2006)

UK Cochrane Research Group (2015)

Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dentistry (2016)

Journal of Risk Assessment (2016). 

New York State Communities which have stopped or rejected fluoridation are:  Suffolk, Nassau & Rockland counties, the capital city of Albany, Elba, Naples, Levittown, Canton, Corning, Johnstown, Oneida, Carle Place, Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Riverhead, Central Bridge Water District, Homer, Ithaca, Rouses Point, Pulaski, Romulus, Amsterdam, Walden and Manhasset.

NYS Dept of Health statistics show there is no correlation between the fluoridation rate of a county and tooth decay rates:  https://fluoridedangers.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_12.html

photo: Unsplash.com/William Warby. 

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One Comment

  1. KSpencer

    So 80% of kids and 90% of adults have cavities despite fluoridation, and more than half of those who grew up with fluoridated water supplies have stained teeth, too, due to fluoridation poisoning – a conditions associated with increased rates of learning disabilities. Yet the fluoride zealots are willfully blind to the science that documents little to no benefit and significan harm while thay continue to beat the f-drums.

    All this proves is that loud bullies more often than not can intimidate everyone from ordinary citizens to public officials into doing the wrong thing. Shame on the Jefferson City Council for failing to do their homework and failing to protect their constituency whose brains, bodies and bones are being poisoned from womb to tomb.

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