Scientific Review Shows Fluoridation May Not Prevent Cavities

By Dr. Mercola

After decades of toxic fluoride being added to public water supplies without the public’s consent, we now have significant validation that this practice needs to be stopped.

The Cochrane Collaboration has released a comprehensive review with points that are nearly impossible to dispute. Fluoride doesn’t work to prevent cavities and it’s proven to cause harm in the form of dental fluorosis.

The Cochrane Collaboration is considered to the gold standard in evidence-based reviews, and only three studies conducted since 1975 had enough merit to be included. None showed that swallowing fluoride prevents cavities while it was clear that it causes harm (dental fluorosis).

Fluorosis – mottled discolorations on teeth – is not purely aesthetic. It’s a visible sign that you’ve been exposed to this known developmental neurotoxin at excessive levels.

Worse still, even the “best” studies were not considered to be high quality and nearly all were flawed, for instance failing to control for other contributing factors, such as dietary sources of fluoride aside from tap water, diet and ethnicity.

'Nobody Would Even Think About' Approving Fluoridation Today

The Cochrane review is only the latest study to question why so many US municipalities are still adding fluoride to drinking water. In 2000, research lead by Trevor Sheldon, the dean of the Hull York Medical School in the United Kingdom, similarly found a lack of reliable evidence showing water fluoridation to be beneficial… along with a strong link to harm (again, dental fluorosis).8Sheldon told Newsweek:9

“I had assumed because of everything I’d heard that water fluoridation reduces cavities but I was completely amazed by the lack of evidence… My prior view was completely reversed… There’s really hardly any evidence [the practice works]… And if anything there may be some evidence the other way.”

As Newsweek further reported:10  "Sheldon says that if fluoridation were to be submitted anew for approval today, 'nobody would even think about it' due to the shoddy evidence of effectiveness and obvious downside of fluorosis."

Also revealing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) there is no discernible difference in tooth decay between developed countries that fluoridate their water and those that do not.11 It’s become clear that swallowing fluoride poses little, if any, benefit along with unacceptable risks. Even the topical benefits (such as in fluoride toothpaste) are being questioned.

A 2010 study published in the journal Langmuir, for instance, uncovered that the fluorapatite layer formed on your teeth from fluoride is a mere six nanometers thick12 -- you'd need 10,000 of these layers to get the width of a strand of your hair.

Scientists now question whether this ultra-thin layer can actually protect your enamel and provide any discernible benefit, considering the fact that it is quickly eliminated by simple chewing. They wrote: "…it has to be asked whether such narrow… layers really can act as protective layers for the enamel.".................

I wonder how Steven would dismiss this?