Question:
Over 1/3rd of Americans don't see a dentist even once a year. That
figure rises to over half of the poor. Medicaid does not cover dental
care in many states (only dentures), and in those where dental care is
covered, reimbursement rates are so low that few dentists participate.
The most interesting thing is that California is now basically a third
world state when it comes to dental care. California has rates of
water floridation worse than West Virginia and Mississippi, and does
not even have a state dental health coordinator in its public health
department, a factlet it shares only with three other third-world
states (Louisiana, South Dakota, and Kansas, none of which are known for
their robust economy or high incomes). This is yet another sign that
California has lost its glow. California destroyed what was once one of the
best school systems in the country with Prop 13 (California kids now
perform on par with Mississippi kids on national tests), and now Mississippi
outdoes California on dental health too. Makes me glad I don't live there.
Answer:
We give Oral Health America an F minus for promoting fluoridation without
researching the current literature. The country with the most people drinking
artificially fluoridated water, the United States, got a sinful C in their oral
health report card by Oral Health America, a dental advocacy group, whose
partial remedy is to fluoridate even more people. However, fluoridation is not
the cure-all for tooth decay it was expected to be. Here are some examples:
"Some 24 percent of the elderly have lost all their teeth, even more in
Kentucky, North Dakota and West Virginia, " which are 100%, 96.4% and 82.1%
fluoridated, respectively. (1) Calilfornia and Hawaii are the least fluoridated
states; yet they have the largest populations of residents who have retained
their teeth.
After over 50 years of water fluoridation, many children in Newburgh, New York,
have more cavities than children in never-fluoridated Kingston, New York,
according to a New York State Department of Health study.(1a) No significant
differences were seen in decay rates between children with or without
fluoridated home water in Rural Georgia (1b)
Connecticut (85.9% fluoridated)(1c) and Kentucky (100% fluoridated)(2) and
fluoridated Southbridge, Massachusetts, (5) report oral health crises.
In fluoridated Bladen County, North Carolina, 206 of 447 children screened in
kindergarten were found to have tooth decay. (3)
Youth in fluoridated Detroit show poor oral health.(4)
Adults in fluoridated Harlem have urgent oral health care needs (6)
In fact, studies show that when fluoridation ends, cavity rates go down (7)
And, a Canadian government study concludes that fluoridation may do more harm
than good (8)
To add insult to injury, African children have less tooth decay than American
children even though most African children don’t use fluoride toothpaste or
even a toothbrush to clean their teeth. In fact, African children who drink
high fluoride water have more tooth decay (but still less than American
children) than their equals in low fluoride districts (9)
Despite fluoridation, soda drinkers have more tooth decay even in wealthier
communities, dentists report, (10)
Instead of leveling out decay rates across the US as predicted, fluoridation
has contributed to children's fluoride overdose symptoms - white spotted,
yellow or brown permanently stained teeth (dental fluorosis) according to
"Dentistry, Dental Practice and the Community," by Burt and Eklund, who write
that excess fluoride actually causes tooth decay as well as fluorosis.
Meanwhile, with 62% of Americans drinking fluoridated water and the rest
consuming foods and beverages made with that water, the Surgeon General reports
we still have an oral health epidemic among our poor and minority populations
who already mostly live in fluoridated inner cities. The solution is NOT more
fluoride.
We also give the dental profession an F for excessively, mostly unnecessarily
and unscientifically promoting fluoride and an F- to the media who rarely doubt
them.
Nice statistics. Now correlate to income class. I believe you will
find that elderly people in California and Hawaii are more affluent
than those in Kentucky and West Virginia, and more likely to have
regular dental care.
In short, you present a textbook example of "how to lie with statistics" --
present a correlation then assert that it somehow "proves" something.
A correlation is just that, a correlation. More people drown while it is
sunny outside than when it is rainy, but that does not prove that sunshine
causes drownings. The cause is something else, of course -- water causes
drownings. Similarly, income level is the most important indicator of
whether you will lose your teeth or not as you age (though the real value
of income level is as it correlates to regular dental care -- i.e., poor
people don't go to the dentist).
