The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday announced it will begin the process of pulling prescription fluoride drops and tablets for children off the market. The supplements are usually given to kids at high risk for cavities.

The federal government and some state legislatures are increasingly drawing attention to what they claim are the risks associated with fluoride, a mineral that’s been used for decades in community water systems, toothpastes and mouth rinses to prevent tooth decay.

Dentists fiercely contest the notion that the harms of fluoride outweigh the benefits.

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    RFK Jr. strikes again. I’ll never understand why people like him can’t grasp the idea that the difference between medicine and poison is often dosage.

    The amount of fluoride in these tablets is nowhere near unsafe levels. It’s not even close.

    • alaphic@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Dude took his grandkids swimming in a sewage infested waterway… I mean, you expect someone like that to have even the loosest grasp of anything resembling nuance?

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      10 days ago

      He literally doesn’t believe in germ theory.

      And I don’t mean ‘literally’ as in ‘figuratively’. He genuinely doesn’t believe in the most basic element of modern health and medicine.

      You can’t expect him to then grasp something as nuanced as dosage.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    This is such a fundamental change to get used to - some branches of government have been a meritocracy my entire life, doing their best to do the right thing, being careful to heed the best scientific advice, that my immediate reaction is to trust them. Then I remember we’re living in a time where the only qualification is personal loyalty and this particular circus is run by a clown

    • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      To be fair, the FDA was incompetent / hamstrung in many other areas before. The overriding purpose was to increase profit.

      They, at least they are trying something new :D

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    So much for parents doing research and deciding if it’s right for them. Yet another bad faith argument.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    They try to make Americans weak, sick, and dead on all fronts. As of the US government was under control of a hostile country.

    • madjo@feddit.nl
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      8 days ago

      Regulations?! In trump’s America?! No way. It costs too much for shareholders

      • utopiah@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Funny. We’re soon going to see how much shareholders like an environment without regulation… like a working SEC.

    • Wahots@pawb.social
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      9 days ago

      Someone here recently said RFK is literally just Pestilence incarnate, and I don’t think they are wrong. The dude is the Randall Flagg of diseases. Just waiting for his actual bugchaser arc. Then he’ll plan a mass gathering and dissolve like Gravemind into deadly spores.

    • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I bet C will stay forever because some successful marketing campaign convinced people it’s a natural remedy against all types of colds and flu, despite being worthless for that cause. Science ain’t got nothing on a good commercial.

      • Soggy@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Vitamin C supplements are mostly bullshit anyway. Almost nobody needs them.

      • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I don’t know. You can’t overdose on Vitamin C. Rubes don’t like a cure-all unless it’s really bad for you. Vitamin A is the new panacea.

        • olon97@lemm.ee
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          8 days ago

          You can overdose on Vitamin C, it just takes way more than for fat soluble vitamins and minerals (also not usually fatal). Two 500mg tablets per day has shown a strong increase in long term kidney stone formation. One whole bottle (10g) in a day is “almost certain severe diarrhea within hours; transient hyper-oxaluria, especially risky for people with renal issues. “

          Source

        • selkiesidhe@lemm.ee
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          8 days ago

          I am gonna be so pissed if that worm-infested moron effects my skin care regimen. Vit C and Vit A are very big for me.

          Also I don’t wanna pay more for it because people started to freakin EAT skin serums…

      • Zenith@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        if you have basically any access to fresh food you don’t need to take vitamin C, even half a small potato will give you an entire days worth of of vitamin C and anything more than that will be peed out anyway. Unless you ban all fresh food people will be getting enough vitamin C, this isn’t a 1600s pirate ship, no one needs to supplement it, the supplements are a pure cash grab

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    9 days ago

    Let’s go all out and replace them with meth. Instead of protecting teeth, we’ll eliminate them. Who needs a dentist when you have no teeth? Think of the savings!

    Lisa needs braces.

  • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    if you visit any of the reviews of FLOURIDE-free toothpaste, you can tell at least some of them have reported cavaties.

    • renzev@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      I once tried brushing my teeth with baking soda instead of toothpaste for a few weeks. From what I understand, they have about the same level of abrasiveness, so they should be about as good at scrubbing the gunk out of your teeth. The key difference is that toothpaste has fluoride in it. After a while I started having pain/irritation in my mouth and gums. It went away when I went back to toothpaste. So if anyone was looking for anecdotal evidence of fluoride being good for your teeth, there you go.

        • renzev@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          This comment was removed incorrectly. What exactly is the “disinformation” here? This guy was literally just giving his interpretation of what happened to me, not making any assertions about fluoride and its efficacy in general. They even affirmed that it’s ANECDOTAL evidence right in their reply! Stop reading conspiracies into everything!

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        i used toothpaste with potassium nitrate and flouride thats useful for sensitivity, just gotta find the right one.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        9 days ago

        BAKING soda is pretty abrasive, according to the dental sub, the grain size is usually coarse, so it wears down yuor enamel. i used some whitening toothpaste that uses a combination of baking soda, hydrated silica, and hydrogen peroxide, i stopped after it i learned it damages the teeth, but also it was causing severe gum irritation and ulcers, and gave me angular chelitis.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        10 days ago

        I brush with Nano-hydroxyapitite for like 3 weeks and then do flouride for a couple weeks. I don’t think results happen that quickly.

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          9 days ago

          which ones do you use? i originally had the OG nudge 10% but it causes chelitis so i stopped, i bought a different brand, i havnt used it yet. all 10%, and there were reports on some of these nHA have very sketchy concentration of nHa IN THEM. I MOSTLY use the ones with potassium nitrate, it helps with sensitivity.

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            9 days ago

            X-Pur Remin. Its expensive but at least its tested and not sketchy. You have to be careful they are using a medical grade because the rod shaped stuff is apparently not tested for safety and is likely harmful when ingested.

    • howrar@lemmy.ca
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      8 days ago

      Is there actually a need to? Does ingested fluoride do anything that toothpaste fluoride doesn’t do?

    • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I beat the rush and stocked up in December, and I hate that that purchase is already feeling justified. One option to keep in mind as well is that tea is relatively good natural source of fluoride. So if things get bad enough, becoming an unsweetened tea-drinker might help.

        • MrMcGasion@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          Yeah, I agree it’s weird. As an American who grew up in an area where sweetened tea wasn’t the norm, I hate having to specify. But I also don’t have any faith left in my fellow countrymen, and feel like I have to make it clear for them.

        • warbond@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          I don’t order tea often, but we would also have to specify if we want it hot. I guess I always thought of the options as sweet/unsweet iced tea, or probably nothing because I’d be surprised if they have some earl grey back there.