After hearing from a couple of council members at its Oct. 7 meeting that fluoridation is being dropped by other cities and has quite possibly harmed Rolla children ever since it was introduced to the city’s water supply in the Sixties, the full Rolla City Council at its Nov. 18 began a thorough investigation into the risks and benefits of the substance.
Rolla dentists, members of the Ozark Dental Society, were invited to speak to the council about the benefits of fluoridation. They were followed by a presentation from Dr. Robert Kessinger, Ward 4 councilman, who spoke about the dangers of fluoridation, including lower IQs in kids.
Kessinger introduced the topic for discussion at the meeting last week, noting that the impetus for this gathering was a federal court ruling.
“There was a ruling by a federal court judge in California that said that .7 milligrams per liter, which is what we use in Rolla, is an unreasonable risk for some populations. It was a lawsuit that came against the EPA,” Dr. Kessinger said. “The judge admonished the EPA to look closer into these things.”
Kessinger continued, pointing out that other cities around the United States have pulled fluoride out of their water since this ruling. News reports indicate that Florida is taking a lead against fluoride.
“So I was in agreement with this, along with other council members, to have another perspective come out here, and so we asked some dentists to come out. So we’re very thankful for you guys to be out here serving the public,” Dr. Kessinger said, turning the floor over to the dental society.
Fluoride hardens children’s tooth enamel
Dr. William Moorkamp, who has been a Rolla dentist since 1984, said, “Our profession is a preventive profession, widely accepted since about the 60s. And why? Because of fluoride.”
And the reason fluoride is needed is because of the problem of tooth decay. Tooth decay is the result of feeding sugar to the bacteria that create the acid that eats away at the enamel, “the hardest surface of the human body,” he said.
Acid dissolves enamel and then moves into the dentin, which is the next layer, a substrata for bacteria, which eventually gets to the pulp or the nerve, and that creates toothache.
The solution is to eat less sugar and feed less sugar and sugar-inclusive foods, especially to children.
“But we can also make the enamel less dissolvable in acid,” Dr. Moorkamp said. That is done by introducing fluoride systemically during a child’s first six years.
Dr. Moorkamp gave a brief history of how the effect fluoride has on strengthening enamel was discovered at the turn of the last century. There were towns where fluoride occurred naturally in the water. In those towns people didn’t have tooth decay, but often they had brown stains on their teeth.
Doctors figured out there was a link to the fluoride and the cavity-free teeth. The next question to answer was how much fluoride should be introduced into water to keep cavities away, but not have brown stains.
The adjusted concentration has historically been one part per million, Dr. Moorkamp said. Rolla Municipal Utilities since 2016 has dropped that to 0.7 parts to avoid any staining.
Fluoride is not just in city water
Moorkamp said because fluoride occurs naturally, it can be found in much of the water throughout the United States, including in Missouri.
“Fluoride is not a drug, it’s a nutrient trace element,” Dr. Moorkamp said.
That trace nutrient does not occur naturally in Phelps County water, so the late Dr. Carl James led other dentists and the community to adopt fluoridation in the early Sixties.
It has been argued about off and on for all the decades since.
Dr. Moorkamp acknowledged that both fluoride and chlorine are toxic, but both are used in municipal water throughout the U.S. in small amounts.
The reason for fluoride in water is to introduce it into children’s systems during the first six years of life. That is because as the teeth form the fluoride builds hardness into the enamel, and “it is built layer after layer after layer through the full thickness of enamel.”
Fluoride toothpaste, while good for anyone over 6 years, affects only the outer layer of enamel for adults.
“Fluoride toothpaste does not help the inner layers. And really, frankly, one part per million does not help us as adults,” Dr. Moorkamp said. “Once the tooth is built, it’s built either with or without fluoride” to strengthen the layers against acid.
Continuing, he said, “The wealth of evidence shows and supports fluoride helps teeth of developing children.”
Removal will affect lower-income families
Also speaking to the council was Dr. Emily Taylor, a Rolla pediatric dentist.
“Water fluoridation is something that has existed in the U.S. since the 1940s,” Dr. Taylor said. “It is cited as being the most equitable and cost-effective method of delivering fluoride to all members of most communities. Numerous evidence-based reviews prove that fluoride used for the prevention and control of decay is both safe and highly effective in reducing dental caries.”
It is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry and the American Dental Association, Dr. Taylor said.
She pointed out that dentists, who stand to profit financially from treating the effects of tooth decay, are the leaders in advocating water fluoridation to prevent decay.
“But we are committed to the health and well-being of our patients, so we advocate for what is both safe and beneficial for our patients,” she said.
The people who will be most affected negatively in Rolla by the removal of fluoride will be children from families of moderate to lower income, she indicated.
Dr. Taylor said, “Communities that have removed fluoride from their water have documented increased social inequities in dental health, specifically an increase in procedures needed to treat cavities with the impact falling disproportionately on children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families.”
Positive effects of fluoride obvious
Dr. Chloe Stuck, chief dental officer at Four Rivers Community Health Center, said, “I’m here to provide the emotional side of things on a daily basis. I get to see this decay in the kids that come in that are those underserved populations.”
That includes children who don’t brush their teeth well, whose parents are not checking their brushing and who have access to too much sugar.
It includes children who do drink fluoridated tap water, she said.
“I have noticed a huge difference in kids that live inside city limits of Rolla versus outside the city limits,” she said. Even children from communities with public water but no fluoride have a higher incidence of cavity formation.
There’s a difference in these kids’ teeth as they get older, she said, adding, “We do surgeries four days a week to correct full mouth reconstruction for these kids, and it’s heartbreaking.”
Dr. Stuck, a dentist for seven years, said the difference in children’s teeth caused by fluoridation is remarkable.
“And we are just so busy taking care of these communities surrounding us, I just don’t want to see it happen here in Rolla,” Dr. Stuck said. “I really just hope that these facts and my stories can help you guys see the benefits of leaving fluoride in the water at the safe amount.”
Lower rate of decay over the years
Dr. Daniel Bruin, a periodontist stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, shared information from medical sources.
“According to National Institute of Health, dental caries, which is tooth decay, is the most prevalent chronic disease in children and adults, even though it’s preventable,” he said,
The rate of tooth decay has dropped over the last 70 years. Meanwhile, refined sugar, proceeded foo and fermentable carbohydrates have grown in use in the American diet, he said.
“So even though our diet has gotten so much worse for our teeth, we’re still dropping the rate of decay because of the fluoride in the water,” Dr. Bruin said.
Explaining that he treats primarily permanent party patients at the Army post, people aged 18-55 and occasionally a bit older, he said he can tell who grew up in areas with fluoridated water.
“I’m taking out teeth all day long that have been filled and filled and filled. And I can look at X-rays of people who have grown up here and here and here. And you can look at these things, and you know that this person was not subjected to fluoride in the water,” he said.
Diet and hygiene have much to do with healthy oral care, he said, “But when you see these people that come with healthy mouths, these people weren’t growing up in areas that weren’t fluoridated.”
His children all have good teeth because he takes care of them, and they have access to care.
“Removing fluoride from the water is not going to hurt my kids. It’s going to hurt the people who don’t have access to care and quite honestly need it the most, Dr. Bruin told the council.
Fluoridation is a top 10 achievement
In closing remarks from the dental professionals, Dr. Moorkamp said that San Franciso Judge Chen in his ruling had stated that the scientific literature presented to the court “provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present.” Judge Chen associated fluoride with lower IQ numbers.
“But the judge stressed he was not concluding with certainty that fluoridated water endangered public health. So I don’t know the mixed message there,” Dr. Moorkamp said.
He also showed the council that a class action lawsuit was filed against the city of Buffalo, New York, after it stopped adding fluoride in its water system in 2015. That lawsuit was filed by a group of parents on behalf of their children who needed dental surgeries due to the lack of fluoride. The lawsuit seeks damages and demands that the city put fluoride back in the water.
After nine years, Buffalo reintroduced fluoridation.
“It took nine years, a class action lawsuit by Buffalo parents and public pressure by area dentists on the Buffalo Common Council. But finally, starting Tuesday, fluoride will flow,” Dr. Moorkamp read from a news clipping. “This was Sept. 23, 2024, so what do you want to be afraid of? Lawsuit? Decay? Poison? I don’t know,” Dr. Moorkamp said.
He said dentists and the council agree that children’s teeth need protection and safe drinking water is necessary.
“I will tell you, if you choose to take out the halide called fluoride, then I would tell you also to take out chlorine, because it’s a very reactive molecule, just as well,” he said.
Dr. Moorkamp said more than 200 million people in the U.S. have access to fluoridated water.
“That’s two thirds of the United States. The program has been so successful that CDC named it one of the 10 greatest public health achievements in the 20th century,” Dr. Moorkamp said.
He cited a study that estimated for every dollar spent on fluoridation, it saved $20 in added dental costs.
In closing, Dr. Moorkamp said, “I really respect all these Monday nights you spend helping our community be better. We spent our time as a profession to come out here to help you see our perspective and hope you can make a good decision about this issue.”
Evidence of toxicity
Councilman Dr. Kessinger then took the floor in rebuttal, complimenting the dentists on their presentations.
“They spoke very well. I thought that they had a great presentation. And I started to believe it myself,” he said.
Dr. Kessinger said the dentists are relying on studies that were done many years ago.
“The preponderance of evidence that’s coming out over the last years, we’re seeing more and more evidence about the toxicity of fluoride, and it’s not just IQ, but it’s other things which I’m going to talk about,” he said.
Reviewing the recent judgment, Dr. Kessinger said the lawsuit was brought by Food and Water Watch and others against the EPA.
“This was a well-thought-out, well designed court case,” he said.
The judge stated that the plaintiffs have “proven by a preponderance of evidence” that water fluoridation at the level of .7 milligrams per liter, the prescribed optimal level of fluoridation in the United States, presents an unreasonable risk.
The judge also said the fluoridation presents “unreasonable risk of injury to the health or environment.”
And that includes “unreasonable risk to a potentially exposed or susceptible sub-population under the conditions of use,” Dr. Kessinger said, adding “And that’s the point I want to bring out: sub-population is a key word.”
Continuing, he explained, “There are some children and there are some people, pregnant, mothers, older people with kidney disease, they don’t have the same level of detoxification pathways, inherently genetically.”
Those are the subpopulations affected, he said, “That’s the population that gets dinged, even the poor, or, I should say, the population that that has less resources.”
Risk-benefit assessments needed
Dr. Kessinger said that every decision in life includes a risk-benefit assessment.
“You do it whether you know it or not. If you’re going to bungee jump, you’re going to think about the risk, and you’re going to think about the benefit,” he said.
Citing a meta-analysis of 157 studies that was released in October 2024, Dr. Kessinger said the findings indicate that fluoridation of water is not as effective as it was in the beginning.
“They compared communities that have fluoride added to their water supplies with communities that had no additional fluoride in the water, and they found that the benefit of fluoridation has declined since the 1970s when fluoride toothpaste became widely available,” he said.
Dr. Kessinger also said studies that show ingesting fluoride to build enamel were done in 1942 and 1952.
He said newer studies indicate that fluoride supplementation starting from birth is unnecessary. Fluoride in toothpaste is sufficient. Scandinavian countries, Germany, the Netherlands, all have the best teeth in the world, yet they do not fluoridate. They have fluoride toothpaste.
Dr. Kessinger also cited a National Toxicology Program study that shows a loss of three IQ points in fluoridation levels at .7 and six points lost at 1.5.
More studies question fluoridation
“Evidence is strengthening,” he said, citing more studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and the Lancet, a British medical journal.
There are findings that “suggest that prenatal fluoride exposure may increase the risk of neuro-behavioral problems among children living in” areas with .7 milligrams per liter of fluoridation.
“I know these are inconvenient studies, but this is what we’re seeing,” Dr. Kessinger said. “And I don’t doubt anything the dentist ssaid. I think they did a great presentation. I liked it. In fact, I enjoyed it. But at the bottom, at the end of the day, they’re not toxicologists, and I’m not a toxicologist either. I’m just reading these studies … that are verifiable, solid studies. So it means it’s something we have to consider.”
Dr. Kessinger also noted that another study shows a link to fluoride and hypothyroidism.
He also noted that fluoride is a medication and mass medication without informed consent could lead to a lawsuit.
The problem with children’s tooth decay is that “kids just don’t brush their teeth enough,” Dr. Kessinger said. “I don’t think it’s a city’s business to make sure they’re brushing their teeth. I think people got to take care of their kids and do the things they should. I think we live in a free country, and I think that, I think that this is something that that that we need to consider.”
After the presentations from several dentists in favor of fluoridation, the council indicated that it would like to hear more at a future meeting from people against the practice.
Original article online at: https://www.phelpscountyfocus.com/news/article_668281f4-ac21-11ef-9abd-0f42c39c6e4d.html