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Fluoride Ban Could Create Cavities For 1 Of Every 3 U.S. Kids
- June 2, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, June 2, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Removing fluoride from the U.S. water supply could result in more than 25 million more decayed teeth in children and teenagers within five years, a new study warns.
That’s the equivalent of a decayed tooth for 1 of every 3 kids in America, according to researchers from Mass General Brigham.
“Fluoride replaces weaker ions within tooth enamel, making it stronger and less susceptible to tooth decay caused by bacteria,” said senior researcher Dr. Lisa Simon, an internist and dentist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“Our study offers a window into what would happen in the United States if water fluoridation ceased,” Simon added in a news release.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in April that he intends to halt federal recommendations that fluoride be added to public drinking water supplies.
Lawmakers in two states, Utah and Florida, banned the fluoridation of drinking water earlier this year.
Kennedy called fluoride “industrial waste” while campaigning last fall and claimed that it can cause a wide variety of health problems, including cancer, according to CNN. Fluoride opponents also are concerned about the effects of the mineral on children’s brain development.
But the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has hailed community water fluoridation as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.
The CDC also notes that fluoridation “is recommended by nearly all public health, medical and dental organizations including the American Dental Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, US Public Health Service, and World Health Organization.”
At least one major municipal water supplier – Calgary, in Alberta, Canada – has backtracked following a fluoride ban, researchers said. Calgary removed fluoride from drinking water in 2011, only to reintroduce the mineral this March in response to a surge in children’s cavities.
For the new study, researchers analyzed detailed oral health and water fluoridation data for nearly 8,500 children participating in a nationwide, federally funded health survey from 2013 to 2016.
Based on this data, researchers developed a simulation model to see how banning fluoride from drinking water would impact American kids’ oral health.
Eliminating fluoride increased the total number of decayed teeth by 7.5 percentage points, equal to more than 25 million more teeth with decay within five years of such a ban, researchers reported May 30 in JAMA Health Forum.
The extra dental care would cost $9.8 billion over five years and increase to $19.4 billion after 10 years, researchers noted.
“Most of the increased cost could be attributed to publicly insured children, meaning it would be a direct public health cost,” Simon said.
The research team did note that a fluoride ban would decrease, by 200,000, cases of fluorosis, a discoloring of tooth enamel that can occur with excessive fluoride intake.
The study did not look at potential cognitive effects of a fluoride ban, noting that the CDC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the National Toxicology Program all show fluoride to be safe for kids’ brains when provided at recommended safe levels.
The survey data used in the study found that 1.5% of U.S. children are exposed to excessive levels of fluoride, while 40% are exposed to recommended levels and 46% to less-than-optimal levels.
“We know fluoride works,” Simon said. “We’re able to show just how much it works for most communities and how much people stand to lose if we get rid of it.”
The head of the American Dental Association said there is not a good substitute.
“There is no better replacement for the time-tested, doctor trusted use of fluoride in community water programs,” Dr. Brett Kessler said in a statement, according to CNN.
“No amount of political rhetoric or misinformation will change that good oral health depends on proper nutrition, oral hygiene and optimally fluoridated water, or fluoride supplements if community water programs lack fluoride,” Kessler added.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on fluoridation.
SOURCES: Mass General Brigham, news release, May 30, 2025; JAMA Health Forum, May 30, 2025; CNN, May 30, 2025
