Comment by habosa
21 days ago
I’m disappointed in the news media fails to mention the cascading effects of dental health. Yes, the primary and direct benefit of fluoride is to have a healthier mouth.
But having a healthy mouth is far from the end goal, imo. If your mouth is full of cavities you’re more likely to build up bacteria that cause downstream effects as serious as heart disease. Also if your mouth is routinely uncomfortable you may gravitate towards soft processed foods and away from healthy whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables.
I know water is not the only way to get fluoride into people. But these politicians who are trying to take it out of the water are just saying basically “it’s fine, let’s do nothing”. They’re not going to fluoridate the salt. They’re not going to run public health campaigns stressing the importance of regular brushing. They’re just willing to let people’s teeth rot to score points.
It’s disgusting, and no matter how you feel about the water you should be able to see that these people are not on your side.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in...
If I went to the store to grab a bottle of water, and they were selling fluoridated water and fluoridated water, I would choose the non-fluoridated water.
I drink tap water now with fluoride so its not like I care strongly, but its a bit weird that many people buy only non-fluoridated water themselves and are confused when other people show a preference for non-fluoridated water in their own taps.
> If your mouth is full of cavities you’re more likely to build up bacteria that cause downstream effects as serious as heart disease.
I don't know that you have the causality here correct.
https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/oral-health
> They’re not going to run public health campaigns stressing the importance of regular brushing. They’re just willing to let people’s teeth rot to score points.
Do you really think there are sizable native born populations that are not aware of tooth brushing?
There’s plenty of people that don’t bother with it, but I don’t see a PR campaign being particularly effective at changing that.
I think there are lots of kids who don’t know how bad their teeth can get and how that can impact their life in the future (and I mean kids like teens, not like four year olds).
I think there are lots of adults who don’t realize that poor dental health can cause heart failure and worsen basically every chronic condition.
I think there are lots of goobers who don’t realize that there’s no reason that United and Elevance and the rest couldn’t be forced to cover dental care via regulation.
I get your point, but big picture there are a lot of impactful education campaigns that should be possible.
So you're saying that dental health is essential for the rest of the body? Yet, Canada doesn't include it in its famous 'universal free healthcare'...
I'd actually just like to see more money put into public dental assistance. And education.
The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) was introduced to provide dental services to uninsured Canadians meeting specific criteria. Its rollout began in December 2023, starting with individuals aged 87 and above, and is set to expand to all eligible adults earning less than $90,000 annually by May 1, 2025.
This is actually a perfect example of how under-served dental needs have been. It was only passed via some interesting political wrangling and alliances. And it hasn’t been a smooth rollout with some dentists not getting on board. Starting with aged seniors is good from a compassion standpoint, but the emphasis should be on prevention at earlier ages.
> I'd actually just like to see more money put into public dental assistance. And education.
I would want to see that in anti fluoride campaigns and laws as well, but have not see that happen in the laws and campaigns I have followed. Or in the HN comments I have responded to on the subject, most focus on banning and provide no follow, or no structured follow up like - free toothpaste, required educations, and follow up studies, reassess in X years.