Fluoridation

There has been a lot of extremely animated discussion about whether or not Calgary needs to re-introduce fluoride into the public water supply.

Those that are pro-fluoridation quote studies that since we stopped doing it in 2011, the rate of cavities has gone up in Calgary compared to Edmonton. But this is one study, conducted by students, who did not take other dental health factors into consideration at all.

Those that are anti-fluoridation suggest that studies point to adverse effects of ingesting too much fluoride. I have discovered countless articles suggesting that these studies are being suppressed, but I can't conclude one way or the other.

Let's look at some facts. Quebec and BC for the most part do not add fluoride to their water. Only 4% of the water in Quebec is fluoridated. I wasn't able to get recent stats for BC, but Quebec's rate of cavities is 0.5 cavities more per child. Health Canada warned against drawing conclusions one way or the other because the studies to date have NOT considered other fluoride intake factors, such as the most common intake - toothpaste.

In Alberta, actual stats show that communities that do NOT add fluoride to their water showed similar decreases in tooth decay as those that did add fluoride. In one example of the inconsistencies of the data, Radway AB showed a 9% increase in decay with a natural well water fluoride amount of 0.12 ppm. Yet, Busby AB showed a 69% decrease in decay using well water with 0.19 ppm of fluoride. As a reference, communities that fluoridate their water tend to add 1.0 ppm artificially.

Every article I could find about Canada's dental health indicates that their sources show dental health improving over time, regardless of whether fluoride is added to the water.

From a Globe and Mail article:

There has also been a worldwide reduction in cavity rates, regardless of whether countries use the chemical, suggesting factors other than adding it to water supplies are at work.

One theory is that most people are already getting adequate exposure to fluoride through toothpastes, so the amounts in water aren't making much difference in tooth decay rates.

"The parallel reduction in caries [cavities] incidents in countries with a lot of fluoridation and countries with not much fluoridation is quite dramatic," says Warren Bell, former head of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, a group that questions the practice.

Dr. Limeback said factors that might be preventing caries include increased exposure to vitamin D, better oral hygiene, less sugar consumption, and even antibiotics.

When fluoridation started 60 years ago, doctors thought swallowing the chemical was beneficial by strengthening teeth from the inside out. Dr. Limeback said more recent research shows that if there is a benefit, it is from the topical application of fluoride to the surface of teeth, which suggests that brushing with a toothpaste is more effective than drinking water containing the chemical.

The problem I have personally with adding it has to do with the utility's inability to dose accurately based on our observations. Calgary also adds chlorine to the water. In our house, the water contains so much chlorine, when we fill our tub, sometimes the water has a blue tinge to it. We asked the City to test our water a few years back and they admitted that the level of chlorine in our water was rather high and that nothing could be done about it. In fact, they recommended we use a chlorine filter, such as Brita, to make our water drinkable.

So if the City can't reliably dose the water with chlorine in every home, how could one expect them to reliably dose fluoride?

Here are countries with no fluoridation that have good dental health: Switzerland; Sweden; Norway; Netherlands; Latvia; Italy; Hungary; Greece; Germany; France; Finland; Estonia; Denmark; Croatia; Czech Republic; Belgium; Austria.

Back to stats. Kentucky has the highest rate of tooth decay in the US. 98% of the residents get fluoridated water. Draw your own conclusions.

I vote no fluoridation. There aren't any conclusive studies that suggest it helps. There may be no conclusive data that it harms, but if it doesn't help according to modern stats, why bother forcefully medicating a population against their will?