The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday announced it will begin the process of pulling prescription fluoride drops and tablets for children off the market. The supplements are usually given to kids at high risk for cavities.
The federal government and some state legislatures are increasingly drawing attention to what they claim are the risks associated with fluoride, a mineral that’s been used for decades in community water systems, toothpastes and mouth rinses to prevent tooth decay.
Dentists fiercely contest the notion that the harms of fluoride outweigh the benefits.
This is even more nuts than removing fluoride from municipal water systems. At least with that, parents who believe the science that their kids’ teeth will be better off with targeted fluoride treatment can buy the drops and tablets, and those who are afraid for some reason can choose to just not use it.
This is just trying to ban access to fluoride entirely, despite research showing its benefits and the distinct lack of significant harm. Madness.
What next, are they going to criminalize sending fluoride drops/pills through the mail, like mifepristone?
Calgary, AB Canada removed fluoride and a decade later added it back after seeing the effects of its absence.
This is just trying to ban access to fluoride entirely
Well yeah. These are extremists, absolutists, radicals. Their dogma must be simple and without exceptions. If they admit even one scenario where fluoride has more benefits than deficits, their whole ideology and worldview crumbles. Nuance is an existential threat.
Narcissism as a fascist dictatorship of a whole country.
The mechanisms of narcissism and of cults are remarkably similar.
You could make a great movie about the fluoride prohibition of the 2020s.
[Opening shot: A dark, rain-slicked cityscape. Neon signs flicker. A child’s toothbrush lies abandoned in a puddle.]
Narrator (gravelly voice): In a world where fluoride is forbidden…
[Cut to a sleek black SUV speeding through a checkpoint. Inside, a woman in a lab coat loads a capsule into a hidden compartment behind a false toothpaste tube.]
Narrator: …one syndicate dares to keep the smiles alive.
[Cue dramatic music. A warehouse door slams open. Inside: crates of fluoride tablets, glowing faintly blue. Armed guards in dental scrubs patrol the perimeter.]
Agent Plaque (sternly): “They’re dosing kids in back-alley clinics. We need to shut them down—permanently.”
[Montage: high-speed chases through suburban cul-de-sacs, a drone crashing into a jungle gym, a slow-motion shot of a fluoride pill flying through the air and landing in a glass of water.]
The Molar (smirking): “You can take the fluoride out of the pharmacies… but you can’t take the sparkle out of the people.”
[Cue epic music drop. Explosions. A toothbrush sword fight. A child grinning with unnaturally white teeth.]
Narrator: This summer… the fight for dental freedom begins.
FLUORIDE WARS: THE SPARKLE SYNDICATE
Coming soon to a theater near you. Brush responsibly.
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I do not assert that merely swallowing water with fluoride offers any benefit to do with dental health.
It should be obvious that the act of directly swallowing water containing fluoride would give the water little to no opportunity to interact with one’s teeth, which would be required for the intended preventative effect.
This is very similar to the decision by most nations to put low base levels of iodine in table salt. Given peoples’ daily habits and diet, it was determined to be a safe and reliable way of ensuring exposure to a needed substance for general health. Not everyone has or will have the discipline to apply fluoridated paste to their teeth regularly (hell, many people don’t even brush their teeth regularly!). Nor would many people take steps to ensure they had a recommended dose of iodine if they had to think about it, rather than just getting it through their daily meal …
It should be clear to anyone that it’s the incidental daily, weekly, monthly, yearly cumulative effect of fluoridated water, even in the brief interval before it is swallowed, swishing in the mouth and in direct contact with teeth, that can be of benefit.
Explain to me the science of how municipal fluoridation causes health issues so severe that it should be discontinued.
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They’re not on general sale, they’re prescription. I’ve never been recommended these as a kid or as a parent (for my kids) and this is the first I’ve heard they even existed. They must be uncommon at best.
The tablets get chewed before they are swallowed.
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RFK Jr. strikes again. I’ll never understand why people like him can’t grasp the idea that the difference between medicine and poison is often dosage.
The amount of fluoride in these tablets is nowhere near unsafe levels. It’s not even close.
Dude took his grandkids swimming in a sewage infested waterway… I mean, you expect someone like that to have even the loosest grasp of anything resembling nuance?
Because understanding that would mean his heroin addiction was his own fault, not the heroin’s fault.
So much for parents doing research and deciding if it’s right for them. Yet another bad faith argument.
This is such a fundamental change to get used to - some branches of government have been a meritocracy my entire life, doing their best to do the right thing, being careful to heed the best scientific advice, that my immediate reaction is to trust them. Then I remember we’re living in a time where the only qualification is personal loyalty and this particular circus is run by a clown
Next up: vitamin c tablets. We won’t stop until scurvy is in full come back!
I bet C will stay forever because some successful marketing campaign convinced people it’s a natural remedy against all types of colds and flu, despite being worthless for that cause. Science ain’t got nothing on a good commercial.
I don’t know. You can’t overdose on Vitamin C. Rubes don’t like a cure-all unless it’s really bad for you. Vitamin A is the new panacea.
Vitamin C supplements are mostly bullshit anyway. Almost nobody needs them.
So - this started as a John Bircher thing right?
I’ve just been befuddled at the purpose and the point of this conspiracy theory. I guess Alex Jones’s dad is a dentist (and a Bircher) but I doubt that dentists conspire for us to have bad teeth.
Just generic “I don’t like the gubmit”? Was it a Jewish person who suggested that we improve dental health on a population level? What’s the initial bit of skin or hair that this stupid booger coalesced around?
I guess these weirdos have always been around. We just didn’t put them in charge of health.
I doubt that dentists conspire for us to have bad teeth.
People with bad teeth is literally their main revenue stream?! I wouldn’t put it past them.
This reminds me of Swish. Did anyone else have Swish growing up?
It was this program and I think they did it because like the entire community was on well water. Once a month they came into our school and had us rinse our mouths with this really high fluoride mouthwash. We had to swish it for like 2 whole minutes or something that seemed like a long time as a child.
It was probably the only thing that saved my teeth growing up (neglectful parents).
We had this fluoride foam the dentist put on twice annually. Fruit-flavored foam, suctioned it back off, no rinse, and you couldn’t eat or drink for 30 minutes. Got that for a good number of years. I also recall that due to the combination of that, your city’s fluoridated water, and toothpaste, you could get these faint white spots in the middle of your teeth.
Cool, then regulate sugar in industrial food and beverage.
They try to make Americans weak, sick, and dead on all fronts. As of the US government was under control of a hostile country.
If Trump is a Russian sabatour he’s doing a fantastic job.
Don’t forget stupider
When I said we should restrict children’s tablets this is not what I meant, worm.
Silk Road for fluoride, got it.
Next up, Mewmaxxing czar and Orthotropics advisor Mike Mew
I guess the fluorides are harmful to the worm lord.
