Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

The culture wars have a new target: your teeth.

Communities across the U.S. are ending public water fluoridation programs, often spurred by groups that insist that people should decide whether they want the mineral — long proven to fight cavities — added to their water supplies.

The push to flush it from water systems seems to be increasingly fueled by pandemic-related mistrust of government oversteps and misleading claims, experts say, that fluoride is harmful.

“The anti-fluoridation movement gained steam with Covid,” said Dr. Meg Lochary, a pediatric dentist in Union County, North Carolina. “We’ve seen an increase of people who either don’t want fluoride or are skeptical about it.”

There should be no question about the dental benefits of fluoride, Lochary and other experts say. Major public health groups, including the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, support the use of fluoridated water. All cite studies that show it reduces tooth decay by 25%.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️@yiffit.netEnglish
    161·
    8 months ago

    The only thing “bad” about flouride I know that is true is that it can lower DHT levels in your blood. I put bad in quotes because I don’t know what DHT actually does, but the conspiracy I’ve heard is that DHT is needed to dream and imagine, so by drinking fluoridated water you’re destroying your own creativity or whatever.

    I always thought it was funny.

    • General_Shenanigans@lemmy.world
      211·
      8 months ago

      A friend of mine who believed a lot of conspiracy theories told me it was bad because it calcifies your pineal gland. I called bullshit and googled it.

      Turns out, it actually does. There was no proof at the time that this causes any sort of issues, but there it was. I was unhappy that they were actually right about something; I didn’t want to give them the idea that any of their other crazy ideas had any validity.

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
      2·
      8 months ago

      Well, DHT can cause hair loss in people that are sensitive to it. But it’s also an essential androgen for men. Overall, you probably don’t want to decrease the natural levels in men, but lots of different, entirely normal things can cause fluctuations in hormonal levels, so it’s likely not a large concern.

    • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
      316·
      8 months ago

      Yeah that’s #1 bullshit. DHT is a sex steroid and hormone that defines the male genitalia during the embryonic development. It builds out the entire male reproductive system right down to pubic hair.

      Steroids always affect testosterone and that mostly affects men because they carry substantially more. So that’s sort of a clue in what area they target.

      Creativity and “intelligence” are entirely abstract, human concepts. There is no one mechanism that governs them let alone a single hormone for that matter.

      Also, just want to point out that our ancestors had literally perfect teeth. Perfect. Crooked and fucked up teeth is a modern infliction (no one really knows why). So just sayin.

      • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
        16·
        8 months ago

        Also, just want to point out that our ancestors had literally perfect teeth. Perfect. Crooked and fucked up teeth is a modern infliction

        I would adore to see your sources on this

        • sazey@lemmy.world
          4·
          8 months ago

          This isn’t some occult knowledge, a simple search will show many results concuring but here is one source:

          In his book The Story of the Human Body, evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman writes: “The museum I work in has thousands of ancient skulls from all over the world. Most of the skulls from the last few hundred years are a dentist’s nightmare: they are filled with cavities and infections, the teeth are crowded into the jaw, and about one-quarter of them have impacted teeth. The skulls of preindustrial farmers are also riddled with cavities and painful-looking abscesses, but less than 5 percent of them have impacted wisdom teeth.”

          “In contrast, most of the hunter-gatherers had nearly perfect dental health. Apparently, orthodontists and dentists were rarely necessary in the Stone Age,” he added.

          …In 2015, researchers studied 292 human skeletons found in the Levant, Anatolia, and Europe that dated between 28,000 to 6,000 years ago. Their findings showed that people from more recent agricultural communities had smaller (and differently shaped) lower jaws compared to earlier hunter-gatherer people.

          • Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
            6·
            8 months ago

            Aye I suppose a lot would be explained by the fact that the skulls they find are likely to be people who died in their 20s and 30s, as was the fashion back then

          • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
            2·
            8 months ago

            Cheers. It’s wild people still prefer to believe that fluoride makes them dumber and less creative lol.

            What an absolute dumpster fire 🤪