Fluoridation: An 80-Year-Old-Blunder

January 25, 2025, was the 80th birthday of fluoridation in the US. Statistics and reports don't support its effectiveness:

Bullet Points (References Below):

  Dental costs soar to $174 billion  

More dental schools created from 42 to 73

Hospital ER dental visits climbed to 144.8 million

60% of 5-year-olds have cavities

Half of 6–9-year-olds have cavities

57% of adolescent have cavities

70% of US children are fluoride overdosed (dental fluorosis)

Oral health disparities persist

Black youth have the most dental fluorosis and tooth decay

34 million school hours and 92 million work hours are lost yearly for emergency dental care

$46 billion in productivity is lost yearly due to untreated oral diseases.

11% of Nat'l Guard & Army Reserve soldiers are unready for deployment due to poor oral health  

Americans have died from the consequences of untreated tooth decay

Filters don’t remove fluoride

Fluoride is Ubiquitous; Fluoridation Unnecessary

• In 1950 there were 42 dental Schools. Now it's 73.
• 16,555 were enrolled in dental school in 1969-70. Now it's 25,995, the most ever.
• There are 202,304 professionally active US dentists as of 2023, according to the American Dental Association (ADA)
• Dental spending reached an historic high of $136 billion in 2018.  Then went up even more to $174 billion in 2023, according to the ADA.
• In 2017, it is estimated to be  144.8 million  (ED) visits with aggregate ED costs totaling $76.3 billion.” (According to Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project)
• Tragically, 101 people died in hospitals, over a 3 year period, from the consequences of untreated tooth decay, according to the Journal of the American Dental Association. Uninsured patients made about 40.5 percent of all dental condition-related ED visits. 
• 70% of US children and adolescents are fluoride-overdosed and afflicted with dental fluorosis  (white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth) – some of it moderate/severe. Dentists profit from covering up fluoride-damaged teeth as these dentist advertisements attest to 
• tooth decay is epidemic, according to the American Association of Pediatric Dentists
• "By age 5, about 60 percent of U.S. children will have had caries at some point, including the 40 percent of children who have it when they enter kindergarten," according to the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
• "Half of all children aged 6–9 years have had cavities in their primary or permanent teeth," According to the CDC's 2024 Oral Health Surveillance Report.
• “Nearly 57% of adolescents, 12-19 years, have had dental caries in their permanent teeth” according to the National Institutes of dental and craniofacial research. 
• Oral health disparities persist, "The Persistence of Oral Health Disparities for African American Children: A Scoping Review,"(International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Heath)
• A 2025 study using US federal data (NHANES) shows urine fluoride levels are highest in Black youth who also “suffer significantly higher prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis" and “are still disproportionately affected by dental caries"
• The  CDC says “34 million school hours and 92 million work hours are lost yearly due to unplanned and emergency dental care, and roughly $46 billion in productivity (2015 US dollars) is lost yearly due to untreated oral diseases.”
• “A 2022 study found that 10.6 percent of National Guard and Army Reserve soldiers were unready for deployment due to their oral health,” according the the North Carolina Medical Journal
• More dentists and dental groups now oppose fluoridation. For example, the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology AOMT, the International Academy ofvBiological Dentistry and Medicine, and these dentists who signed a statement opposing fluoridation along with about 4,000 professionals.  More are opposed but fear speaking out
• Many groups either dropped its fluoridation endorsement or are now opposed to it.  
• Study shows, "No filter was able to completely remove fluoride from tap water, contrary to the claims made by three manufacturers."
• Fluoride is ubiquitous in foods, beverages, some medicines, absorbed from dental products, inhaled in air pollution. The US HHS estimated that some individuals consume 6.6 mg/F per day. Fluoridation is unnecessary at least; harmful at worst.

Senator Bernie Sanders declared a dental health crisis in America in 2012 and 2024.

In 2000, The US Surgeon General called dental and oral disease a “silent epidemic” 

 

in 2017, "Despite significant financial, training, and program investments, US children’s caries experience and inequities continued to increase over the last 20 years." (American Journal of Public Health)

Three modern studies show fluoridation has little, if any, benefit. (LOTUS, CATFISH and Cochrane)

World Health Organization data shows fluoridation went down equally in fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries.

The truth is that Americans are fluoride-overdosed and "dentist-deficient."

Fluoridation is based on poor science which has been known for decades. For example:

News Release from the 2001 Consensus Development Conference on the Diagnosis and Management of Dental Caries Throughout Life, convened by the National Institutes of Health on March 26-28, 2001 in Bethesda, MD: "the panel was disappointed in the overall quality of the clinical data that it reviewed. According to the panel, far too many studies were small, poorly described, or otherwise methodologically flawed." (over 560 studies evaluated fluoride use).

Harvard Public Health Magazine reported in 2016 that "The [highly respected] Cochrane report also concluded that early scientific investigations on water fluoridation (most were conducted before 1975) were deeply flawed. “We had concerns about the methods used, or the reporting of the results, in … 97 percent of the studies,” the authors noted. 

Likewise, Dr. John Doull, toxicologist and chairman of the 2006 National Research Council's Fluoride Panel which reviewed fluoride toxicological studies told an investigative journalist writing for Scientific American:

     “What the committee found is that we’ve gone with the status quo regarding fluoride for many years—for too long, really—and now we need to take a fresh look. In the scientific community, people tend to think this is settled. I mean, when the U.S. surgeon general comes out and says this is one of the 10 greatest achievements of the 20th century, that’s a hard hurdle to get over. But when we looked at the studies that have been done, we found that many of these questions are unsettled and we have much less information than we should, considering how long this [fluoridation] has been going on. I think that’s why fluoridation is still being challenged so many years after it began. In the face of ignorance, controversy is rampant.”

Criticism persists today, i.e. Legal Scholar Rita Barnett-Rose; Historian Catherine Carstairs, Phd; Social Scientist Brian Martin PhD; investigative reporters in Scientific American, Chemical & Engineering News, Newsweek and ABC-TV

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The American Dental Association successfully lobbied to have dental excluded from Medicare. Eighty percent of dentists refuse Medicaid and other gov't insurance preferring instead to treat the water of but not the teeth of low income folks.

The ADA thwarts any infringement on its lucrative monopoly even if Americans must suffer in dental pain. ("The Unexpected Power of Dentists,"  Washington Post 2017)

According to Senator Bernie Sanders "Today in America, nearly 70 million adults and nearly 8 million children have no dental insurance"

Those who are insured often can't afford out-of-pocket dental costs. Dental insurance purchased by individuals  doesn't reimburse the full cost of dental care.

Americans need dental care; not fluoride.

                                                The End

"The global dental high fluoride [higher concentrations compared to regular fluoride toothpaste] products market size was valued at USD 2.92 billion in 2023 and it is predicted to surpass around USD 4.47 billion by 2033 "North America dominated the market with the largest market share of 36% in 2023...due to escalating dental caries rates." https://visionresearchreports.com/dental-high-fluoride-products-market/41454