Even when fluoridated water is the most consumed item, cavities are extensive in low-income Americans when their diets are bad, according to Caries Research. (1)

Burt and colleagues studied low-income African-American adults, 14-years-old and over, living in Detroit, Michigan, where water suppliers add fluoride chemicals attempting to prevent cavities. Yet, 83% of this population has severe tooth decay with diets high in sugars and fats, and low in fruits and vegetables.

“The most frequently reported food on a daily basis was [fluoridated] tap water,” write Burt’s research team. Second were soft drinks and third were potato chips.

Tooth decay in fluoridated Detroit’s toddlers’ teeth is also shocking. Almost all of Detroit’s five-year-olds have cavities; most of them go unfilled.(2)

Low-Income Americans are often priced out of healthy eating.(2a)

“Soda and chips are a cheap and accessible belly-filling meal,” says lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.

“Fluoridation delivers only risks to poorly-fed Americans without any benefits,” says Beeber.

“Interventions to promote oral health are unlikely to be successful without improvements in the social and physical environment,” write Burt et al.

Further evidence that fluoridation fails:

— In New York State, fluoridation has not leveled out decay rates between haves and have-nots. Less cavities are not found in all fluoridated NYS counties. (3)

— In Illinois, where fluoridation is state-mandated, 70% of Spanish-speaking-only and 50% of English-speaking-only third-graders have cavities. (4)

— A recent large federal government study shows that low-income children’s primary tooth decay has spiked upwards. Non-poor children’s primary decay rates were stable (5).

— In fluoridated Anchorage, Alaska, sugar turned generations of the healthiest teeth in the world into some of the worst. (6)

— Most fluoridated cities and states are experiencing tooth decay crises. See: http://www.fluoridenews.blogpsot.com

Up to 48% of U.S. school children are fluoride overdosed and sport dental fluorosis (fluoride discolored and/or pitted teeth). (7) Excess fluoride leads to decayed teeth. (8)

Fluoride is ineffective in non-healthy eaters and of no benefit to healthy eaters.

Water fluoridation began in the US in 1945 and reaches 70% on public water supplies and virtually 100% via the food supply:

In 2000, Surgeon General David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., called poor oral health in America a “silent epidemic.”

“In spite of national recommendations, many children have limited access to dental professionals. For every child without health insurance, there are three who lack dental insurance, and the number of dentally uninsured Americans totals more than 100 million. Three out of four dentists do not treat patients with Medicaid insurance; many more do not treat those who are uninsured.” according to a 2007 editorial in American Family Physician. (9)

Yet, of the ten cities where dentists make the most money ($195,540 in Charlotte to $176,830 in Omaha) according to bizjournals.com (10), eight and 1/2 are fluoridated.

References:

1) Dietary Patterns Related to Caries in a Low-Income Adult Population, Burt, et al., Caries Research 2006:40:473-480

2) http://snipurl.com/n8m2

2a) http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0129-06.htm

3) http://www.freewebs.com/fluoridation/NYS%20Cavities%203rd%20grade%20county%20and%20%20fluoridation.jpg

4) http://www.voices4kids.org/library/files/KC07chap1.pdf

5) http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_11/sr11_248.pdf (Page 4; figure 2)

6) http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6468677

7) http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s403a1t23.gif

8) http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/teeth/fluorosis/caries.html

9) http://www.aafp.org/afp/20070215/editorials.html#e1

10) http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/slideshow/56.html?page=6