Fluoride in the water. Yes or no.

Given the choice, I'd take pure, clean water straight out of the creek, nowhere near a mine. No flouride, no chlorine...pretty much impossible to find anywhere near a city, though.

 

i have heard of the scare stories over fluoride as well. now my SO who is a bit younger than me had a sealant applied to her teeth starting at age 5 until about 10. now i have never heard of that but they say it prevents cavities.

now they first started applying this stuff on her baby teeth but her dentist claimed that if her baby teeth rotted, the adult ones would too. well the sealant works so well (that and her parents did not allow her a lot of sugary foods) that all her baby teeth had to be pulled

but as far as fluoride goes, i have to look at my parents who both lost their teeth very early and the siblings they created. there were 3 of us, none had cavities, braces, nothing... dont know if fluoride was in the picture...but something sure changed

 

I vote NO.

Check out the information available at Fluoride Action Network

 

Evan, I'm new to this contoversy but is there any data concerning the release of flouride into watersheds and the effects on the biotic community? I would assume that flouride concentrations are monitored for human consumption but those same levels could be deleterious to other (likely smaller) organisms. I'm not trying to jump to conclusions here but our track record for such things is fairly poor.

 

Is that why the Brits have such bad teeth? No flouride?

 

My mom was raised before the fluoride era. She has dreadful teeth and has had to have lots of painful and expensive dental work. I was raised during the fluoride era and have had only 3 or 4 cavities in my life. I'll take the fluoride, thank you.

As far as drinking water, however, tap water in most locations tastes so bad that I use a Brita water filter to remove the taste. I don't know, or care, if it also removes fluoride, since I brush with fluoridated toothpaste.

 

You left some of the best stuff out of your quotes:

 

The dyes in your clothing and PVCs in your food plastic wrap are more dangerous than trace amounts of flouride.

 

Nuh uh! They eliminated because they're trying to do what is right for the people! It is the evil American government and it's corporations that are using our drinking supply to dump their left over chemicals into!

 

I vote include fluoride.

My wife is from the country using rain and bore water while I am from the city where we had fluoride in the water from when I was very young. Although I have a few cavities filled my teeth are pretty good, both my parents have false teeth and had them as long ago as I can remember so it isn't that I have a genetic advantage.

We have spent thousands on my wife's teeth with veneers and repairs, they just don't seem as strong as my city boy teeth. My son(city boy) has no cavities at 15.

When you read about the danger of ingredients in fillings could fluoride be a safer option?

I filter my tap water but I make sure I use a filter that allows fluoride through.

I don't like that the fluoride is in water used on gardens and in industry. Only a very small portion of town water is actually used for drinking.

 

I can second that Daniel, I grew up on a farm drinking well water that was not fluoridated, I too have absoutly horrible teeth.
I heard that the inventor of the toothbrush was raised on non fluoridated water, anyone else would have named it a Teethbrush.

 

i'm the first generation that grew up in the city, and i'm also the first generation to have nice teeth...

neither of my grandparents have ANY real teeth left, my mom's are in very poor condition (she moved to town in her 20s), and my uncle has had a number of rotten teeth.

 

I didn't think it was possible to eliminate mercury that has already settled into the body. For this reason I am suspicious of the above anecdote.

Mercury is a common environmental pollutant, and if there was a way to reduce my load of mercury I'd love to know about it. I think we all would.

Further, I think the effects of mercury toxicity are gradual. I don't think there's a tipping point. It just gets gradually worse and worse. I don't think the amount in a vaccine would tip someone over the edge from good health to incapacitated. Is there more or less mercury in one dose of a vaccine than in a can of tuna fish?

Any of our medical people care to weigh in on whether a tiny amount of mercury could tip someone over the edge as burritos describes above?

 

mercury does have an extremely long half-life in the body, depending on the form it takes.