In other words, what happens when a population suddenly stops taking fluoride in their drinking water, like Juneau's citizenry did?
Now, thanks to a recent study led by first author and public health researcher Jennifer Meyer from the University of Alaska Anchorage, we've got new insights into the subsequent effects.
In the study, Meyer assessed Medicaid dental claim billing records for two groups of children and adolescents aged 18 or under.
One of these groups represented what the researchers call "optimal" community water fluoridation (CWF) exposure: 853 non-adult patients on behalf of whom Medicaid dental claims were filed in 2003, years before the fluoride cessation began in 2007.
The other group was made up of 1,052 non-adult patients from families who similarly met Medicaid income requirements, and who made the same kind of dental claims almost a decade later, in 2012.
[...] "By taking the fluoride out of the water supply... the trade-off for that is children are going to experience one additional caries procedure per year, at a ballpark (cost) of US$300 more per child," Meyer explained to KTOO News.
Reference: Jennifer Meyer, Vasileios Margaritis & Aaron Mendelsohn, Consequences of community water fluoridation cessation for Medicaid-eligible children and adolescents in Juneau, Alaska, BMC Oral Health, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-018-0684-2
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @08:17AM (3 children)
Based on your comment I actually read over the article (my first opinion was the same). Seems there is a bit more in the article and the researchers claim the difference is significant among all age groups. The time differences are IMHO not really a problem if you just take the amount of procedures changed, if you put the current price tag on that you get a reasonable indication of costs.
Let's assume the values the article mentions, 18 years times 1 extra procedure on average times $300 is $5400 per child (count a few hundred bucks extra if taking inflation into account). That's quite a bit of money that could have been saved for a few dollars.
My main wonder is though if all these children were brushing with tooth paste which has fluoride added as well and if that doesn't have a greater effect than the fluoride added to the water (I checked for my country (the Netherlands) and it seems they don't add fluoride as well, but there is some residual natural fluoride from the water source).
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @08:22AM (1 child)
They compare prices in two arbitrary years in arbitrary age groups without even properly accounting for inflation in the price medicare will pay.
There is nothing to take seriously here, it is GIGO. If they use the exact same method on a town that begins adding fluoride you will see them show dental expenses are greater after adding it.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @08:29AM
"between 1998 and 2008 the increase in the cost of dental services exceeded that of medical care and far exceeded the overall rate of inflation"
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_american_way_of_dentistry/2009/09/the_american_way_of_dentistry_2.html [slate.com]
I knew this was the case just using common sense (the price of anything the government pays for inflates far faster than CPI), but there you go.
This paper is written by retards, sorry. They have no idea what the numbers even represent.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 16 2019, @09:42AM
I have a hard time caring about this study knowing it is based on data from Juneau. In the same time frame there has been a lot of political stress due to various state issues (oil prices, feds fucking us harder than normal, and lack of jobs). So it could mean more people using medicare than they were before because of lack of other coverage, more people drinking their sorrows away, or people neglecting to go to the dentist (very expensive in AK) in the final Bush years due to the economy.
Not to say any of that makes me doubt the data, seems interesting. But at the end of the day Juneau is just politicians, lobbiests, lawyers, and alcoholics. F em.