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Fluoride in your water supply isnt a cause for concern, Harvard experts suggest
Comments made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump regarding Robert F Kennedy Jrs desire to remove fluoride from US water supplies have catapulted fluoride a natural mineral found in many foods into the national conversation.
Fluoride is in most brands of toothpaste and some brands of mouthwash. Its a naturally occurring mineral that has been added to community water supplies throughout the US since the 1940s to prevent tooth decay. It has its detractors earlier this year, we reported on a biologist who insists there is no safe level of fluoride. More research is needed before anyone jumps to conclusions about stopping adding it to water supplies, but much of the research on which fluoridation policies are based is old and flawed…
Fluoride may be dangerous at high levels but in small doses, it benefits teeth
In spring 2016, Harvard Public Health Magazine published an article summarising some of the arguments about fluoride and the scientific consensus on whether or not it should continue to be added to community water supplies in the US.
The piece quotes Danish scientist Philippe Grandjean as saying fluoride has beneficial effects on dental development and protection against cavities.
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In its encyclopedia entry on fluoride, the Oral Health Foundation (OHF) notes that the mineral is found in many foods and in all drinking water.”
Fluoride can greatly help dental health by strengthening the tooth enamel, making it more resistant to tooth decay, it states. It also reduces the amount of acid that the bacteria on your teeth produce.
Children who get sufficient fluoride while their teeth are developing have shallower grooves in their teeth, it adds, which means plaque can be more easily removed.
Water fluoridation has reportedly been proven to reduce tooth decay by 40 to 60 percent, and children living in poorer areas where water supplies arent fluoridated can have 5 times more decay than those living in richer, or fluoridated, areas.
Yet, the story isn’t quite as simple as that.
The US has been fluoridating its water supplies since the 1940s
Scientists first linked low levels of tooth decay to high levels of naturally occurring fluoride in the early 20th century. Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first community in the world to add fluoride to its water supplies. That was in 1945, but other areas soon followed suit.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dubbed water fluoridation one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, according to the Harvard article mentioned above.
However, researchers have since concluded that many of the studies fluoridation efforts were based on were flawed. One reason to re-examine the evidence is that now, almost all toothpaste and mouthwash brands contain fluoride.
This negates the purpose of fluoridating water supplies and opens the door for people to consume excess fluoride.
It also explains why countries without fluoridated water have seen reductions in tooth decay that are more or less in line with countries with fluoridated water.
High levels of fluoride pose health risks, but more research needs to be done
Having way too much fluoride causes dental fluorosis. In its mildest form, fluorosis appears as very fine pearly white lines or flecking on the surface of the teeth, writes the OHF.
Severe fluorosis can result in pits and discoloration of the enamel. Its rare, but Harvard points out an altogether different concern. The most worrisome side effect of fluoridation, based on preliminary research in laboratory animals, is that high levels of fluoride may be toxic to brain and nerve cells.
Meanwhile, human disease studies have found possible links between fluoride and learning, memory, and cognition deficits. However, these studies have focused on populations that have much higher levels of fluoride than those added to US water supplies.
The bottom line, according to Professor Grandjean, is that more research is needed before anyone comes to major conclusions about the use of fluoride. He identifies three research priorities:
- Find out what the minimum amount of fluoride is to get the maximum benefit, and limit the dose that goes into community water supplies to this level.
- Do basic research on animals to help us understand how fluoride could be toxic to brain cells.
- Work out whether fluoride in drinking water might be harmful to bottle-fed infants, patients undergoing dialysis, and other vulnerable groups.
