US EditionWith fluoride under siege and a shortage of dentists, rural America risks surge of tooth decay
- On March 27, 2025, KFF Health News reported that the anti-fluoride movement is gaining momentum, leading dozens of communities to stop fluoridating their water in recent months, with state officials in Florida and Texas urging the same.
- This trend occurs amidst a backdrop of nearly 25 million Americans residing in areas with dentist shortages, particularly impacting rural and poor communities that heavily rely on Medicaid for dental care.
- A government report released last summer found a possible link between lower IQ in children and fluoride consumption at levels exceeding those recommended in American drinking water, energizing the anti-fluoride movement, while Harvard research identified over 780 counties with dentist shortages and at least 230 of those also have mostly or completely unfluoridated public drinking water.
- According to Steven Levy, a leading fluoride researcher at the University of Iowa, "If you have folks with little access to professional care and no access to water fluoridation, then they are missing two of the big pillars of how to keep healthy for a lifetime,", while Andy Anderson, who has chaired the Ozark Mountain Regional Public Water Authority's board since 2007 and opposes fluoridation, said the fines for not fluoridating are stuffed in a cardboard box and left unpaid.
- Dental experts, including Catherine Hayes from Harvard and Chelsea Fosse from the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, warn that the combination of Medicaid cuts and the elimination of water fluoridation could reverse decades of progress against tooth decay, especially affecting children and those with limited dental access, potentially leading to a visible increase in widespread decay within years, as predicted by Stuart Cooper.
53 Articles
53 Articles
GOP lawmakers’ push for fluoride ban in Ohio getting pushback
CLEVELAND (WJW) -- Efforts to ban fluoride in drinking water are now trickling down in Ohio. But one local dentist says not so fast. 15-year-old arrested in connection to fatal shooting at Shaker Heights Library "Efforts to remove fluoride from Ohio's water systems are concerning because they put people, especially children, and those in lower-income communities and seniors, you know, at a greater risk for preventable dental disease." Doct…
With fluoride under siege and a shortage of dentists, rural America risks surge of tooth decay
In the wooded highlands of northern Arkansas, where small towns have few dentists, water officials who serve more than 20,000 people have for more than a decade openly defied state law by refusing to add fluoride to the drinking water.
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