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The fluoridation of drinking water is a good example of the sort of thing people distrust because it is "unnatural."
I would argue, however, that fluoridation is probably quite natural, and that we probably evolved in the context of fluoridated water.
The research that discovered the effects of fluoridation involved looking at people in towns that had high *natural* fluoridation levels in the water table versus people in towns where the water have low *natural* fluoridation levels.
In places with natural occurrence of fluoridation the children's teeth develop stronger. If you have fluoridation during the years of tooth development your teeth end up stronger.
Our biological ability to use environmental fluorides to make our teeth develop stronger is probably not a coincidence. Our teeth probably evolved in a naturally fluoridated environment, with those fluorides being part of the expected set of building blocks in our diet.
And when we moved someplace else, with a different chemical environment, our teeth were not so good.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)My father lost his teeth. I'm probably going to lose my teeth and my children have bad teeth as well. My father grew up dirt poor with abusive aunt and uncle so you can imagine they didn't really care if he brushed his teeth. My father never taught me the importance of brushing my teeth. I never got in the good habit of brushing and flossing regularly. I've tried to teach my kids to brush and floss. They certainly do better than I did but they still have several fillings in their mouth. Many people in this country can't afford medical or dental care. There are hundreds of thousands of children out there who are not getting the proper dental care. I've even heard of cases where children get abscesses and die because they don't get the proper care. They need that extra bit of health the fluoride provides.
Viva_La_Revolution
(28,791 posts)it's a by product of industrial refining.
The Fluoride Deception: How a Nuclear Waste Byproduct Made Its Way Into the Nations Drinking Water
DemocracyNow!
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/6/17/the_fluoride_deception_how_a_nuclear