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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: -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.