Australia - Eat your Weeties and earn more

.....................In an attempt to discover the impact on wages of good dental health, the academics compared data on the wages of people who grew up in areas with fluoridated public drinking water, versus those who grew up without fluoride in their water.

Those who drank fluoridated water up to the age of five, the period in which a person's front four teeth are formed, were found to earn 2 per cent more on average than people who didn't. The difference was even greater for women, who were more commonly judged on their looks, according to the academics (one male, one female). It was greater still for low-socio-economic women who could least afford corrective dental treatment.

"The results ... suggest that fluoride exposure in childhood has a robust, statistically significant effect on hourly earnings of women. The higher effect for women is consistent with our hypotheses that (1) women may be more affected by consumer or employer discrimination and (2) that women may be more likely to select occupations based on their physical appearance.".........................