• Thorry84@feddit.nl
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      1 day ago

      What are you trying to say? Those are all shit hole countries so it doesn’t matter what they do?

      I live in Germany, no fluoride is added to our water and it isn’t there naturally. There is salt with added fluoride available and almost all toothpastes have it. There’s also fluoride tablets people can take. And the dentist will apply fluoride treatments where needed or prescribe high fluoride toothpaste.

      Dental care and hygiene is excellent here.

      The same thing applies for many countries in Europe.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        Clearly there are many ways to administer it and you’re almost proving my point that it’s an important part of dental health. It just sounds like Germany has decided to deal with this problem on an individual level rather than en masse. Big difference with places like Florida is that they don’t have universal healthcare.

    • Redex@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Africa, the Middle East, and Russia

      And, like, about 98% of the population of Europe…

      I hate most of what Trump and his cronies do, but from what I’ve seen fluoridating water has meager benefits in today’s day and age with fluoridated toothpaste, whilst potentially having side-effects according to a few newer studies. Personally, it’s whatever in my opinion, I’d wait for more conclusive studies that prove whether it’s worth it or not, but I also don’t think it’s a big deal if it’s stopped.

      • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Flouride can naturally occur in drinking water. In some parts of Europe (same article) it’s actually in excessive amounts. Just because they don’t add it doesn’t mean it’s not there.

        • Redex@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          Ok but that’s kinda shifting goalposts. My point was that the vast majority of Europe doesn’t artificially add fluoride into water, probably not without reason. Even then, just 3% of French people receive naturally fluoridated water, for Germany its < 1%, Italy also by the sound of the article probably <1%, Spain is 10%. It doesn’t give information about natural fluoridation levels in Croatia but it’s probably at the same levels and I can attest to the fact we don’t have a cavity epidemic.

          Interestingly it also notes this in the article:

          In the GDR (East Germany) in the late 1980s, about 3.4 million people (20%) were receiving water with added fluoride… A fluoride cessation study found that consistent with a previously observed population-wide phenomenon that the rate of cavities continued to drop after the fluoride concentration in water fell from the augmented 1.0 ppm to its natural level below 0.2 ppm. Water fluoridation was discontinued after the German reunification although still exists on some US military bases.

          My point is that I think it doesn’t really matter whether you fluoridate water or not and that it’s fine to be skeptical of it when the benefits in today’s day and age are minor and there might be potential drawbacks.