If elected, Donald Trump is expected to give Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading role in overseeing public health policy. In a message posted November 2 on the platform X, Kennedy suggested one way he would use this authority. He wrote that if Trump prevails, the new administration “will advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”
Contrary to Science
According to the Washington Post, Kennedy’s anti-fluoridation views have “puzzled many experts who see little upside in the idea.” Public health and scientific leaders have voiced concern at Kennedy’s vow to encourage an end to fluoridation.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the “safety and benefits of fluoride are well documented” and water fluoridation reduces tooth decay by 25% for children and adults.
Costly and Counterproductive
Fluoridation is disease prevention, and we have seen the far-reaching impacts of removing it from public water supplies. The city of Calgary, Canada, stopped water fluoridation in 2011. Canadian researchers investigated the impact of that decision by studying the rate of children who were treated for severe decay under general anesthesia (GA). Over an eight-year period, the rate of children receiving treatment under GA jumped by 78% in Calgary. Meanwhile, the rate of GA treatment in Edmonton — a fluoridated city to the north — rose by only 12%.
Stopping fluoridation seriously undermines efforts to promote health equity. oral-Health-in-America-Advances-and-Challenges.pdf” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow,noopener noopener”>In a 2021 report, the National Institutes of Health wrote that reaching more of the U.S. population with water fluoridation “not only benefits the entire population but disproportionally benefits economically vulnerable groups, producing a flatter socioeconomic gradient in dental caries among children.”
For the health care system, the impact of numbers like those in Calgary is fiscally significant. Imagine the dollars saved from those surgeries put to use for public safety, parks, etc. For children, the impact of disease prevention is fewer and less severe cavities and, for many, not having to endure the pain and trauma of extensive oral surgery under general anesthesia. Just as important, though, is the impact on us as a society. Common sense, effective and safe public health measures like fluoridation render us more humane.
Fluoridation laws have been supported and signed by elected officials in both major parties. These are decisions are typically made at the state and local levels. Let’s get back to basics: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
