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Kids' cavities would increase by millions if every state banned fluoride, study finds (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/health@lemmy.world

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Florida and Utah have already removed fluoridation from public water systems. What if the rest of the country follows?

The long-term effects of banning fluoride from public drinking water across the country could cost families billions of dollars and result in millions of rotten teeth, a new analysis predicts.

The study, published Friday in JAMA Health Forum, shows that if all 50 states stopped community water fluoridation programs, kids in the U.S. could expect to develop 25.4 million more cavities within the next five years.

That’s the equivalent of a decayed tooth in 1 out of every 3 children.

The number of cavities would more than double in 10 years, to 53.8 million.

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[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 67 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (39 children)

I hate just how the fluoride conspiracy theory is still a thing when it's been proven time and time again that fluoride is needed to maintain healthy dental hygine.

[–] Aninie@feddit.online 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is fluoride the only option? Is not hydroxyapatite in toothpaste as effective as fluoride in toothpaste and cannot it be used as replacement for fluoride in toothpaste?

[–] recursive_recursion@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Wikipedia: Hydroxyapatite#SafetyConcerns

The European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) reissued an updated opinion in 2023, where it cleared rod-shaped nano hydroxyapatite of concerns regarding genotoxicity, allowing consumer products to contain concentrations of nano hydroxyapatite as high as 10% for toothpastes and 0.465% for mouthwashes. However, it warns of needle-shaped nano hydroxyapatite and of inhalation in spray products.

Based off the article and the cited Opinion document by the EU's safety committee (SCCS) it seems like rod-shaped nano hydroxyapatite is safe for use in only toothpaste provided that at least 95.8% (particle count) are comprised of rod-shaped instead of needle-shaped particles and in addition are not coated or surface modified.

composed of rod-shaped particles of which at least 95.8% (in particle number) have an aspect ratio of less than 3, and the remaining 4.2% have an aspect ratio not exceeding 4.9;

I'll be honest in that a bit of this sentence especially regarding the aspect ratio is somewhat incomprehensible to me as the sentence structure obscures what they're trying to communicate.

[–] domdanial@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

I believe by aspect ratio, they mean the ratio of diameter to length of the rod shaped structures. At an aspect ratio of less than 3, the structures are more cylinder shaped than rod shaped.

So the minerals must be mostly stubby cylinder shaped, and less than 4.2% can be needle shaped or long rod shaped. Same problem we had with asbestos actually, that the long thin needle shaped fibers were physically damaging to tissue.

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