Thread by @POH_Smiles

Sorry state of affairs. -|- "Like so many of England’s children today, most if not all will need extracting because of extensive decay. The prospect for the second teeth is not good."

Mustn't be so hard on themselves, 'disgrace' is bit much. After all, this is representative of the facts, such as they are. -|- "This is in spite of the fact that dental decay, or caries, is virtually entirely preventable. It makes the situation a disgrace to our modern society."

Even though the solution is known, the fact it is not being strongly advocated is bothersome. Neglectful even. -|- "The state of dentition there shocked me, especially the state of children’s dentition. It was not the deprivation that caused this; ..."

" ... it was poor diet and the almost complete lack of oral hygiene." -\- The question is raised, who neglected to inform patients that their diet, and their lack of personal oral hygiene, is killing their teeth?

Beneficence
"The dentist has a duty to promote the patient's welfare."

Teaching patients is their responsibility, by omitting that, they ensure that their patients health will deteriorate.
-|-
"The latest figure shows that 23,529 children between the ages of five and nine were admitted to hospital annually pre-pandemic because they had tooth decay."

So, "for the children's sake", what are they going to do? Get back to basics, teach their patients well & start actually preventing disease?

No.
-|- "Water #fluoridation is clinically proven for nearly a century to improve oral health and reduce oral health inequalities.

Kind of glossing over the facts here. They did not call it "Colorado Slight Stain". Dr McKay was actually enthralled by the horrible damage done to teeth by water with fluoride in it. Only quite a bit after the fact did anyone say anything about dental caries.

Once again, not quite accurate.
-|-
"Further research over many years in many countries has shown that setting the level of fluoride to 0.7 milligrams per litre gave the protection from decay without the marking."

It was only 6 years ago that the "optimal level of #fluoride" got a NEW "optimal". [sidebar: The optimal is a non-existant term in posology]
-|-
"Through this final recommendation, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) updates and replaces its 1962 Drinking Water Standards ..."

" ... related to community water #fluoridation."

Do not care about total intake anymore. In hot weather, the people just don't drink more today? -|- "The earlier PHS recommendation for fluoride concentrations was based on outdoor air temperature of geographic areas and ranged from 0.7–1.2 mg/L."

The biggest howler. -|- "Community water fluoridation is a major factor responsible for the decline in prevalence (occurrence) and severity of dental caries (tooth decay) during the second half of the 20th century."
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

So, back to this. It is a damnably hard word to spell.
Even in a headline.

Beware those pesky Pro-H2Only people with their silly concerns. Had NOT heard the one about VD. 🙄
-|-
"There will be claims that it causes cancer, that the Nazis used it as a poison in extermination camps, that it gives brittle bone disease and that it causes venereal disease."

Overlooked clue. Bad investigation.
-|-
"To make matters worse – for New Zealand the tea took on a funny taste."

This seems to be a constant with people who want to add bioavailable #fluorine to our diet. 70 years apart.
-|-
"The benefits spread nationwide as other areas introduced fluoride. Only dental benefits, with no negative effects have ever been seen in any correctly fluoride areas."

Whatever a "correctly #fluoride area" is...

"absolutely no effect"
&
"no negative effects".

For over 75 years, making sure everybody knows that there are absolutely no negative effects, anywhere in the body, in any tissue, at an ad libitum dose, ever, is imperative. #PinkySwear

In 1943, C. C. Bass, M.D. taught the World they must clean their teeth every night before bed, effectively, to prevent tooth decay and gum disease.
personaloralhygiene.net/images/Number1…

This information went around the World umpteen times in the years before Grand Rapids did their grand experiment to find out if adding an enzymatic poison to their citizens diet would prevent tooth decay. Oops, sorry, it was not an "experiment", it was a "demonstration".

The problem is sorting out which actually did the Good.
Personal oral hygiene, or adding the #GasOfLucifer to the environment.

And, since nobody but nobody wants to control for diet or personal oral hygiene habits, all the studies confirming the *effectiveness* of adding fluorosilicic acid to the diet of a Human Being in preventing tooth decay are moot.
Confounders do that.

"There is evidence that the prevalence of caries is declining in communities with unfluoridated water as well as in those with #fluoridated water."
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7089534/

Understatement from 1982. -|- "This trend should encourage reevaluation of research priorities and previously accepted standards for optimal fluoride use."

"The decline in caries that has occurred in industrialized countries over the past 30 years has been accompanied by major changes in the pattern of caries within the mouth. While the absolute levels of disease have declined, ..."

" ... a relatively higher proportion of pit and fissured surfaces and lower proportion of approximal and smooth surfaces are involved." -\- That from 2004.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

"The decline in caries has slowed"
-\-
We can gather that from about mid-1950's, to about the mid-1980's, rates of tooth decay declined, in a fairly linear order. Then in the mid 80's, the rate started climbing back up.

Which happened during the time frame when more and more communities added bioavailable #fluorine to the diet of their citizens. The question being, why did it start going back up, if more and more people consume #fluorine?

A better question might be, why did caries rates go down, in areas that did not pollute their watershed with #fluoridation?
#FlashbackFriday to 1986.
nature.com/articles/32212…

From 2007 -|- "For the past 50 years community water #fluoridation has been considered the milestone of caries prevention and as one of the major public health measures of the 20th century."

"However, it is now accepted that the primary cariostatic action of #fluoride occurs after tooth eruption. Moreover, the caries reduction directly attributable to water #fluoridation have declined in the last decades as the use of topical fluoride had become more widespread, ..."

" ... whereas enamel fluorosis has been reported as an emerging problem in fluoridated areas."
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17333303/

Sure looks good for adding the #TigerOfChemistry to little kids' diet, adults too!

Unless one compares it to all the others measured.

"The differences between the two graphs don’t leap out at the viewer. Nonfluoridated nations such as Belgium, Luxembourg, and Denmark actually have better dental health by this measure than the United States, one of the world’s fluoridation champions. ..."

" ... Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland tried fluoridation, abandoned it years later—and saw no rise in tooth decay. What’s going on?"
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

"The dental establishment’s argument for #fluoridating water in a society where a majority of people use #fluoridated toothpaste and go to the #dentist boils down to a contention that #fluoridation will likely help people who are unable to afford good dental care. ..."

" ... The idea is that poor children don’t brush their teeth, and fluoridation will fill the gap—a notion, incidentally, that the Cochrane team found no good evidence to support." -\- The only consistent effect of adding bioavailable #fluorine to our diet is enamel #fluorosis.

#EndFluoridationNow
Dr Bass put his microscope to the problem, published his first paper in 1943. The scientific basis for personal oral hygiene was a established. People learned to clean their teeth properly. The effects were immediate and life long.

The city fathers of Grand Rapids added #fluorine to the diet of their citizens, using their water, in 1945. The theory of using bioavailable fluorine to prevent tooth decay was put to the test. People drank non potable water. The effects were immediate and life long.

American #Dentistry never gave Dr Bass the time of day, even ignorantly "modified" his method of personal oral hygiene. "What could a Medical Doctor know about teeth? ha ha ha!"
Not giving Dr Bass his due, and instead clinging to a WWII era theory, with proven harms, is the Sin.

The CDC naming #fluoridation as one of the *Top Ten* Achievements of the 20th Century is giving credit where credit is not due. The improvement in oral health, Globally, over the last eight decades is due to people cleaning their teeth.

The research of C. C. Bass, M.D. should be on the top of that list.
"A Clean Tooth Does Not Decay."
[sidebar: The modification by someone to the Bass Method always got a good laugh out of the early #PreventiveDentists. It shows ignorance of the etiology of the disease.]

"New Health Bill opens water #fluoridation ‘breakthrough’, MP says"
dentistry.co.uk/2021/07/29/new…