On the plus side, I smell a great opportunity for a longitudinal population study. 🤔

  • SaladKing@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    If you are dentist in the area or plan to be a dentist you are about to make big money in the next few years.

  • orclev@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    There are two ways to prevent tooth decay. First is the easy way which is to put fluoride in the drinking water. It’s easy and protects everyone, but particularly the poorer segments of the population that might struggle with things like preventative dentist appointments.

    The second way is the hard way which is to modify your diet to avoid foods high in sugars and carbs and to prefer more proteins and fiber. This is the approach some European countries take.

    If you do neither you will get significantly increased rates of tooth decay.

    • Vipsu@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Most European countries do not fluoridate their water. Our solution is brushing our teeth and public healtcare that also includes dental care (albeit it can still be fairly expensive and many prefer private due to long queues in public (Private is like 100-250 per visit in Finland and generally its recommended to do 1-2 visits a year but many visit much less frequently)

    • Sweetpeaches69@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The irony here is that the Mormons in Utah LOVE sodas because it’s the only thing they can have. Tons of them are literally addicted to soda.

    • Ooops@feddit.org
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      4 days ago

      Actually lots of areas in Europe tested fluoride in water locally at some point. But they never found convincing evidence of this being preferably to getting fluoride the “classic way” (personalized in small doses already included in toothpaste).

      Are USians not brushing their teeth? Or have they changed the toothpaste formulas to exclude fluoride, too, now?

      • orclev@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Fluoride in toothpaste does help as well but it only does so much, and yes some toothpaste brands also don’t include fluoride. To get the most out of fluoridated toothpaste you need to pair it with a better diet. Most Americans eat a diet that’s incredibly heavy in sugars and carbs as compared to Europe. That’s part of the reason why many European countries found little benefit to adding fluoride to their drinking water, their rates of tooth decay were already significantly less than in the US due mostly to dietary differences.

      • Hawke@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        It is possible to get fluoride-free toothpaste but it’s a bit of a niche/specialty item.

          • Hawke@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            Seems like it would be the opposite. It’s not like the government is buying the toothpaste, and sane people are going to be needing proper toothpaste to compensate for the lack of fluoride in their water.

            • orclev@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              Key word there is sane.As we saw with the last election there is a sizable chunk of the US population that that label doesn’t apply to.

                • orclev@lemmy.world
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                  Well no, many of them will have only decided they have a problem with fluoride now that Dear Leaders proxy in the FDA has decided it’s a problem. And if you think for one minute the pharmaceutical companies won’t all rush out new fluoride free versions of their existing toothpaste brands to try to get a chunk of those morons money you haven’t been paying attention to corporate America for the last century.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      or be the first to add fluoride to bottled water, or ‘import’ tap water from elsewhere, for sale in the state.

      i remember seeing bottled city of houston water on shelves in san antonio grocery stores back in the 1990s. san antionio was then, and until ~2002, the largest u.s. city without fluoridated water.

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        4 days ago

        I’ve got a great idea. What if we thicken up the flouride water into a plaster-like consistency so the people hesitant to swallow it can put it directly on their teeth? We could even sell little brushes to make it easier!

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Invest in anything and everything related to tooth decay management.

    Reality doesn’t give a fuck about opinions.

    You’ll make money.

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    3 days ago

    DISCLAIMER: This is only true to the population that does take care of their teeth, which means that it will actually negatively affect some people in a serious way.

    While stopping the usage of fluoride in water is a bad decision that will lead to people having more dental issues, I would like to say that there are other developed nations that don’t have fluoride in their water and it’s not the end of the world. Because in modern times people use toothpaste and dental floss and have all of this routine that most people do twice a day, the fluoride in the water is not nearly as significant as that routine.

    I don’t have the research right now but I do remember that I once dove into it and most of the studies are pretty old and the dental hygiene that we have today did not exist to the same degree and therefore fluoride in the water was a more significant additive.

    • derpgon@programming.dev
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      3 days ago

      You’d be surprised how many people don’t brush their teeth, let alone twice a day, and let alone floss. Those who do the correct shit will probably not feel the difference, those who don’t will lose the only protection they had left.

    • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
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      Rural dental care is notoriously poor in the US. Also, for some ridiculous reasons, dental care is treated separately from medical care when it comes to insurance. I know people who can’t afford to go to the dentist and one who is lucky to have access to low cost dental school care. Putting fluoride in water at least helps those who don’t or can’t take good care of their teeth.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      Yeah, I was actually wondering if it’s still necessary if every toothpaste already has fluoride in it. It’s probably still better to keep adding it just in case, since there’s no real downside to doing it. But I guess we’ll see in a generation what the long term effect is.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        It’s absolutely still necessary. There’s a hundred reasons someone isn’t brushing their teeth and it’s a crucial support for them.

      • matjoeman@lemmy.world
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        There’s flouride free toothpaste and the kind of people who don’t want flouride in their drinking water also don’t buy toothpaste with flouride in it.

  • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    4 days ago

    You see, the brilliant part of this is that the leopards drink the same water. It’s going to make it a lot harder for them to eat everyone’s faces if their teeth are all rotted out.