Fluoridation: Follow the Money, by Carol S. Kopf, BS, MA

Multi-billion dollar international conglomerates, which benefit from tooth decay and fluoride sales, pour money into organized dentistry, which is behind virtually every fluoridation initiative. Money makes dentistry politically powerful and enables them to get laws  passed to benefit dentists' bottom line. 

Further, promotion of fluoridation by government initiatives and public health campaigns have bolstered the market value of other fluoride products Fluoride application to teeth is valued at $12.9 billion in US dollars in 2023 to grow by 5.4% in 2032. (Ignoring the evidence that 70% of US children and adolescents are fluoride-overdosed.)

The American Dental Association (ADA), many of its over 250 constituent state and city  associations are benefactors of corporate dollars along with other fluoridation-promoting dental groups, schools and organizations.

Dentists, inside and outside of government and industry, seem to have vast amounts of money and influence to promote fluoridation. Where does it come from?

The ADA and the ADA Foundation received over $28 million from pharmaceutical companies, dental equipment manufacturers and insurance companies, from 2006 – 2009, according to a January 20, 2010, letter from the ADA’s Chief Financial Officer to U.S. Senator Charles Grassley.

Grassley wants more accountability and transparency between the ADA and industry. The ADA didn’t comply with Grassley’s request to publish its corporate funders on its website. However, Grassley listed them on his own website 

Fluoride-selling pharmaceutical giants listed include: Colgate, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, and others.

ADA’s Seal of Acceptance

Several companies on Grassley’s list paid a “Seal Program Maintenance Fee,” totaling $574,000 for four years (2006-2009). 

The ADA requires a one-time, non-refundable submission fee before reviewing over-the-counter products ($14,500 per product).  If given the ADA’s Seal of Acceptance, companies are required to pay an annual maintenance fee of $3,500 per product, according to Jan Lord, Manager, Acceptance Program, ADA’s Council on Scientific Affairs.

Approximately, 260 items appear on the ADA’s current Accepted “Shopping List.”   A large number are fluoride products.

More Legal Financial Exchanges between the ADA and Industry

Sometimes the ADA joins into “Cause-Related-Marketing” with for-profit companies. For example:  the William Wrigley Company agreed to donate a percentage of its ADA Accepted chewing gum products to the ADA’s Give Kids A Smile program, according to Guidelines Governing the American Dental Association’s Corporate Relationships. 

Wrigley paid the ADA $36,000 to review some of Wrigley’s sugar-free chewing gum studies to get the ADA’s Seal of Acceptance, according to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta.  Gupta writes, “The ADA stands by its seal and told us any company can apply for the seal, as long as the company pays for it.

Johnson & Johnson gave $900,000 to fund the ADA’s annual session’s distinguished speaker series (2006-2009).

In 2007, Barbara Walters and Lance Armstrong Headlined the ADA’s DistinguishedSpeaker Series. 

Many prominent journalists and politicians have been paid to speak at ADA conventions. In 2013 former President Bill Clinton was the main event. Some might say it’s a good way to buy influence. President George W. Bush in 2014.

Colgate funds the ADA research institute newly renamed after dentist Anthony R. Volpe, who recently retired as Vice President of Clinical Research and Scientific Affairs at Colgate-Palmolive Company. 

Colgate’s Volpe and a Henry Schein, Inc. representative serve on the Board of Directors of Forsyth Institute which bills itself as “the only independent research institute in America specializing in oral health and its impact on overall wellness.” Forsyth is where Dr. Phyllis Mullenix’s research found that fluoride can cause brain deficits in rodents. Mullenix was fired for publishing her results in a peer-reviewed, respected journal, against the orders her Forsyth boss, explained in the first chapter of “The Fluoride Deception.”

Dental Schools are corporation-subsidized

Henry Schein, Inc., the largest distributor of healthcare products and services to office-based practitioners gave the NYU Dental School a six figure gift in 2000 and a million dollars the year before.

The NYU Donor Honor Roll reveals that Colgate-Palmolive Company and Nobel Biocare USA, Inc gave from $1 to 4$ million (2011-2012).

The American Dental Association accredits all dental schools and fails to fully inform dentists about any adverse fluoride/fluoridation studies, according to testimony presented at the State College Borough Water Authority meeting whose members voted unanimously to stop fluoridation after reading the research and chastising fluoridation promoters who  "misrepresented and discredited the scientific evidence"

Centers for Disease Control

If a community elects to stop fluoridation, invariably a dentist and his posse shows up intimidating them to re-startfluoridation. As ammunition, they state that “CDC has recognized water fluoridation as one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.”

That statement may sound impressive. However it was made by dental professionals within the CDC’s Oral Health Division, who are paid to promote fluoridation.  The CDC also says, “It is not CDC's task to determine what levels of fluoride in water are safe.”

The CDC’s Oral Health Division may be a stepping stone into a more lucrative career promoting fluoridation for outside interests. When forced to defend fluoridation with words and not hide behind catch-phrases and government credentials, two former CDC Oral Health Division Directors fell short.

a) Dentist William Kohn - Now with Delta Dental, a dental “insurance” company that strongly supports fluoridation financially, Kohn does a poor job of convincing anyone to endorse fluoridation in a series of Delta Dental YouTube videos. I’ll bet he makes way more money in his new job.

b) Dentist William Mass was equally impotent when asked to defend fluoridation before a county legislature in his new job as Fluoridation Consultant to the billion-dollar Pew Foundation’s Dental Policy group. Under his guidance, Pew fluoridation initiatives in Portland, Oregon and Wichita, Kansas failed when voters rejected fluoridation 60% to 40% despite the vast amount of money spent trying to convince them to swallow the fluoride.

Even the EPA can't defend fluoridation. In a lawsuit asking the agency to lower fluoride levels allowed in drinking water, EPA  eschewed its own professionals and paid for defense from an agency known to protect chemicals

Dentists Doing Very Well, Thank You, Despite Fluoridation

Fluoridation hasn’t hurt dentistry’s bottom line at all. In fact, dentistry is big business today. Despite  7 decades of water fluoridation and a glut of fluoridated dental products, Americans spent about $108 billion on dentists in 2011, an inflation-adjusted increase from $64 billion in 1996, according to the General Accounting Office. But a dental crisis still exists.

In 2018 Dental spending reached a historic high of $136 billion, according to the second annual Dental Industry Report from the ADA Health Policy Institute.

Since fluoridation doesn’t reduce tooth decay, whose best interests are served by protecting fluoride’s image?

  

The Global Toothpaste Market is expected to reach $12.6 billion by 2015, according Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

And, as you know, toothpaste isn’t the only fluoridated dental product on the market.

The global dental equipment market is predicted to exhibit a compound annual growth rate of 9% to reach over $13 billion by 2016

Cosmetic dentistry continues to surge with an annual U.S. expenditure of $2.75 billion. 

Dental fluorosis (white spotted, yellow splotched teeth) now afflicts 70% of US children and adolescents, according to federal data (NHANES).  Fluoridation  helped create a lucrative new market for cosmetic dentists who advertise their services to cover up fluorosis

WebMD writes, “Although fluorosis is not a disease, its effects can by psychologically distressing and difficult to treat. Parental vigilance can play an important role in preventing fluorosis.”

Sales of fluoride varnish are soaring as organized dentistry lobbied legislators to increase, require or allow their use among more practitioners – even though the varnish contains a hugely toxic 22,600 parts per million fluoride and has never been FDA approved for cavity reduction or safety tested. http://www.cda.org/Portals/0/pdfs/ab667_topical_fluoride_faq.pdf

Money is Power

Why does the ADA need so much money?  Money is power in American politics. The ADA’s Political Action Committee is considered a Heavy Hitter by the Center for Responsive Politics. It seems that organized dentistry lobbies mostly for laws that benefit their member dentists. Some legislation masquerades as a public benefit. Fluoridation wears such a mask.

The New York State Dental Association brags about its legislative victories on its website

The New York Times reported about the NY Dental Association’s political clout and sleazy politicking, in 2008.

The Greater New York Dental Meeting which is billed as the largest dental conference in the country generates millions of dollars. Exhibitors look like a who’s who in the dental industry

 A National Journal article (1/20/2014) explains how organized dentistry heavily funds two dentists (Reps Mike Simpson and Paul Gosar) in the US House of Representatives. In 2012, The Wall Street reported that Simpson helped stall funding for a piece of the new health care law which the dental lobby opposed. In 2013, the American Dental Association listed two "action alerts" on its website, urging its members to write in support of legislation. Both bills were authored by Gosar, and Simpson was among the earliest cosponsors of both.

Simpson co-authored a dental bill that included fluoridation in 2004 and earlier

Gosar spearheaded a failed 2001 push to fluoridate Flagstaff, Arizona.

Gosar and Simpson co-signed a letter to all Congress encouraging water fluoridation. 

When the ADA rescinded its support of Gosar in 2021, he was freed to tell the truth, Gosar presented charts showing fluoridated water can cause a “loss of 6 IQ points” in children, and he suggested studies provide “some evidence that fluoride exposure during the early years of your life can damage a child’s developing brain.”

As of August 2022, 76 human studies link fluoride to lower IQ which are backed by hundreds of other studies. http://fluoridealert.org/studies/brain01

Healthy Diets Make Healthy Teeth without Fluoride

Even the ADA admits good dental health begins in the womb. It’s important for pregnant women to receive sufficient amounts of tooth-building nutrients, including calcium, protein, phosphorous and vitamins A, C and D  But dentists are mostly focused on fluoride, a drug with adverse side effects, that is not even essential for healthy teeth. American children are especially deficient in  Vitamin D and calcium, which is linked to more tooth decay.

In 2021, it was reported that ADA internal documents reveal how it influenced the world to ignore a preponderance of evidence proving vitamin D can prevent tooth decay in order to promote nonessential but profitable fluoride, according to Philippe P. Hujoel, PhD, DDS, Professor, Oral Health Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Washington (Nutrients December 2021)

But there’s no money in selling nutrients and healthy eating.

So it’s not surprising that the U.S. is experiencing a tooth decay epidemic along with a fluoride-overdose epidemic. 

Nearly 9,500 new dental providers are needed to meet the country’s current oral health

needs, according to a report by US Senator Bernie Sanders (Dental Crisis in America February 2012)

Who’s in Charge?

No government agency has direct oversight of fluoridation. The CDC it’s not responsible for fluoridation safety. The FDA regulates fluoride as a drug for topical application and considers ingested fluoride such as fluoride supplements, an unapproved drug. The EPA regulates fluoride in water supplies as a contaminant.  Organized dentistry, fueled by corporate cash, protects fluoride’s image and promotes fluoridation but not the American public.

So Why Fluoridation? 

The dental crisis America faces today is because dentistry has become a luxury service that most Americans can’t afford.  80% of dentists refuse to accept Medicaid patients, 130 million lack dental insurance.  Many with dental insurance can’t afford dentistry’s high out of pocket fees.  The answer is simple - legalize Dental Therapists in the US as they have been for decades in other first world countries.  They just need 2 or 3 years training to do simple dentistry. They will go into mouths and areas dentists refuse to go into. Studies show they are highly effective and more affordable.

However, organized dentistry, with its pockets full of corporate cash, lobby long and hard to keep affordable dentistry an oxymoron in the US.  Dentists lobby against dental therapists because, some say, they infringe upon dentists lucrative monopoly.

US Dental Fluoride Treatment Market 2020-2030

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dental-fluoride-treatment-market

Global Dental Fluoride Treatment Market 2024-2034

https://market.us/report/dental-fluoride-treatment/

November 26, 2024, the American Dental Association and the ADA Forsythe Institute announced formation of ADA corporate partners

"The initial list of ADA Corporate Partners include global oral care consumer or professional product companies such as

Colgate Palmolive Co, Kenvue, GC America, Young Innovations, Upcera, CareStream; innovative start-up companies such as OraBio, Overjet, Pearl AI, Voyager Dental, Oral Genome; distribution companies such as Henry Schein and Patterson;

insurance companies such as Delta Dental, United Concordia, Alliant Insurance Services; dental supporting organizations such as PDS Health and Association of Dental Support Organizations; and dental investors such as CareCapital, CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, Inc., Dental Trade Alliance. 

Links to the above companies are hyperlinked at the below URL

https://forsyth.org/ada-corporate-partners-announcement/

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In 2025, James Li reveals that a popular and prolific misinformed fluoridation protector, Dr. Zachary Rubin, has ties to a company (Thermo Fisher Scientific) that sells fluoride testing equipment for drinking and waste water

James also interviews Dentist, Staci Whitman, who opposes fluoridation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esJqunrl4wM

END

PEW Routinely Deceptive about Fluoride Safety

Launched in 2008, the Children’s Dental Policy arm of The Pew Charitable Trusts is using its political clout and money, coupled with misinformation and untruths, to promote fluoridation initiatives and preserve existing schemes in many cities and states.

According to Pew’s fluoridation promoter Matt Jacob (Ref 1), Pew’s outreach to states for community water fluoridation (CWF) included the following:

Arkansas: “Funded a poll and offered other assistance to pass a state mandate in 2011.”

California: “Provided assistance to a successful campaign to secure CWF in San Jose.”

Kansas: “Assisted oral health advocates in Wichita pass a fluoridation policy.” 

Mississippi: “Provided message training for oral health field staff.”

Montana: “Assisted successful effort to preserve CWF in the city of Bozeman.”

New Hampshire: “Helped defeat a statewide ban on CWF.”

 

Oregon: “Offering funds and research for a campaign in Portland."

Wisconsin: “Provided research and technical assistance to preserve CWF in Milwaukee.” 

Pew loses in Wichita and Portland However, PEW’s PR, money and devious tactics lost big time to common sense and truth in Portland Oregon and Wichita Kansas when voters rejected fluoridation in referenda in both towns with a margin of 60% to 40%. 

Buying votes In Portland the pro-fluoridation team –aided by PEW - outspent citizens opposed to fluoridation 3 to 1 and gave at least $143,000 to local minority groups who supported fluoridation. These five groups each received $20,000: Urban League of Portland, the Latino Network, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, Center for Intercultural Organizing, and the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization. The Oregon Latino Health Coalition got $5,000, while the Native American Youth and Family Center received $37,810. The Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who opposed fluoridation, received nothing (Ref 2). 

Pew hires Willam Maas In an effort to sway voters and decision makers, Pew has hired as its fluoridation adviser, dentist William Maas, former head of the CDC’s Oral Health Division. Those credentials may look impressive on paper but not in person. When grilled by the Sedgwick (KS) County Commission, he looked nervous and admitted that the so-called “mild” fluorosis (in this category 50% of the enamel of the affected teeth is impacted) occurs even in children who live in non-fluoridated communities, and then he actually claimed fluorosis is attractive.  (Watch the hearing – Maas speaks at 31:00 minutes).
This remark angered a Sedgwick Commissioner who says others may not find it so attractive. The Sedgwick Commissioner was right. Studies have repeatedly found that children find teeth with so-called “mild” fluorosis to be objectionable – a point that even the CDC, Maas’s old boss, has conceded.

The Sedgwick Commissioner added:

 “If I found on my daughter’s teeth a substance that is abnormal, caused by chemicals introduced in our water supply … I’d be beyond irritated,” Skelton said. “I would wonder what internal effects would be going on, what kind of white spots is she going to have on her bones, etc. That’s a symptom of something larger, sir (Ref 3).” 

Pew spokesperson Bill Maas insults opponent but won’t debate
In another appearance in Wichita a citizen asked Maas if he would debate the head of FAN, retired environmental chemistry Professor Paul Connett. He refused saying that Connett was a brilliant debater and he (Maas) had only given about 6 public presentations. But then he added that Connett was “the leader of misinformation on this issue in the country.” This didn’t sit well with citizens at the meeting, most recognizing that you shouldn’t insult someone if you are not prepared to take that person on in public when challenged. 

Pew continues to mislead the public on the Harvard IQ study
In the Pew Children's Dental Campaign October 2013 letter to Des Moines Water Works (Ref 4) Shelly Gehshan, Director, Children’s Dental Policy continues to misrepresent and misreport the fluoride/IQ studies conducted by a Harvard team (Choi et al., 2012) even though FAN and others have corrected her misrepresentations in media release. Gehshan wrote the essentially the same misinformation in a July 2013 letter to The Dalles (Oregon)


Pew’s Gehshan confuses concentration and dose
Ms. Gehshan writes that the “levels of fluoride in the water” (i.e. concentration) in the IQ studies were at least “four or five times higher than the level used to fluoridate water in Des Moines” (Ref 4) thus continuing to confuse the difference between concentration (measured in mg of fluoride per liter) and dose (measured in mg fluoride ingested per day). The latter depends upon how much water people drink and how much fluoride they get from other sources. 
According to Paul Connett, “An above average water drinker in a fluoridated community, and also getting fluoride from other sources, could easily get more fluoride than a below average water consumer in several of the Chinese studies.”

The need for margin of safety ignored by Gehshan Connett adds, “To make matters worse Gehshan’s simplistic comparison ignored the larger concern for the need to apply a margin of safety to a dose that has been found to cause harm in order to protect the most vulnerable children in a large population. For this a safety factor of 10 is usually chosen. The job of people in regulatory agencies is to make sure they are protecting everyone not just the average person. Gehshan should know that.”

A false charge Gehshan also repeated the false charge that “the Harvard researchers [Grandjean and Choi] publicly distanced themselves from the way that anti-fluoride groups were misrepresenting these IQ studies.” In actual fact Choi and Grandjean tried to distance themselves from comments made by a Wichita journalist who claimed that the Harvard team thought the study was irrelevant to U.S. populations.

The truth, Grandjean writes, is that "only 4 of 27 studies" in the Harvard review used had high water fluoride levels, and "clear differences" in IQ "were found at much lower exposures."

In his new book, "Only One Chance: How Environmental Pollution Impairs Brain Development, Grandjean says fluoride is a brain-toxic chemical that may lower the intelligence of generations of children.

More distortion by Pew in Portland

One of the first tactics of fluoridation promotion, as advised by Pew’s PR fluoridation specialist Matt Jacob, is to identify a problem and lead with a need.   So Portland fluoridation promoters claimed that non-fluoridated Portland has more tooth decay than fluoridated portions of Oregon.  An  ABC-TV investigative reporter looked into this claim and found it to be untrue.  In fact, non-fluoridated Portland children actually have less tooth decay than those in fluoridated areas.

Pew sullying its reputation For many people who have respected the Pew Charitable Trusts on other issues, its cavalier disregard of the possibility that a practice that Pew is advocating – in the name of improving children’s health - may actually be lowering children’s IQ is very disturbing. Especially so since this Foundation claims on its website:

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and stimulate civic life.

 

Where are they now?

Pew hired Salter Mitchell a PR firm to teach them strategy and created this website http://www.ilikemyteeth.org/ but this site is now under the umbrella of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Matt Jacob is now with the Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) https://www.cdhp.org/team/matt  Hopefully, the CDHP will be more careful about what Jacob says in their name about fluoridation. 

In conclusion The problem when advocates - with a lot of money to spend - hire a PR firm to present their side of the story is that truth and honest science go out of the window. Winning is everything. That’s what the PR firm is paid to do. That is what Pew is trying to do. But citizen power is capable of beating this “machine” when the truth is on their side and they are prepared to organize as the citizens in Wichita and Portland did. FAN was pleased to help.

Carol S. Kopf, Media Director Fluoride Action Network

www.FluorideAlert.org

 

Please help FAN to help more communities. Donate today!

 

Reference:

1. Jacob, 2012. Matt Jacob. A Prevention Agenda to Improve Children’s Oral Health, Florida Oral Health Conference, August 23, 2012. The Pew Center on the States. PowerPoint, page 33. 2. The Tooth Fairy: Minority groups backing Portland’s pro-fluoride measure have received $143,000 in payments from the campaign, by Nigel Jaquiss, Williamette Week (Portland), April 24, 2013.
3. Health aspects of fluoridated water debated at Sedgwick County meeting, By Dion Lefler, The Wichita Eagle, October 17, 2011.
4. Shelly Gershan. 2013. Letter to Des Moines Water Works, Iowa. October 15.