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Here's What Happened When a City in Alaska Took Fluoride Out of Its Drinking Water

posted by Fnord666 on Monday December 16 2019, @07:36AM   

MrPlow writes in with a submission, via IRC, for chromas.

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.

Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-what-happened-when-a-city-in-alaska-took-fluoride-out-of-its-drinking-water

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

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Original Submission

• Re:Weak Re:Weak (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 17 2019, @10:22AM (2 children)

  by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday December 17 2019, @10:22AM (#933223) Homepage

  Absolutely true. One of the many other foibles the US is internationally known for is its obsession with sweet foodstuffs and drinks. However, that goes back decades (and even counting decades, I might run out of fingers). I remember seeing a %sugar in breakfast cereals survey for the UK vs. the US about 25-30 years ago, and your average was higher than out highest even back then. I genuinely don't think there's been significant change upwards in the US in that time literally because you had almost nowhere to expand into. Until you've started just having cotton candy for brekky nowadays.

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• Re:Weak Re:Weak (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday December 17 2019, @03:48PM (1 child)

  by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday December 17 2019, @03:48PM (#933307)

  One of the many other foibles the US is internationally known for

  Meanwhile, the UK is known for their excellent teeth and fine cooking. /s

  The U.S. is chronically guilty of letting the packaged food and many other industries abuse the population, seemingly profits are our king.

  started just having cotton candy for brekky nowadays

  It's pretty ridiculous here, but more often it's disguised as "health bars," or "designer coffees" - things that at first glance you wouldn't expect to be hiding so much high fructose corn syrup. It really is the corn farming lobby (think: Monsanto) that has done the most damage over the past 50 years.

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  • Re:Weak (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday December 17 2019, @04:29PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Tuesday December 17 2019, @04:29PM (#933316) Homepage

    No idea what the UK is legitimately known for nowadays, I left there decades ago for a reason. I'm happy to credit them with their incredible ability to stab themselves in the foot, but it's not as impressive as some other countries' methods of pedal punishment.

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