Did you know? Fluoride comes from phosphate rock.
The fluoride we use to fight cavities – with water, toothpaste, and fluoride from the dentist – comes from phosphate rock in a few different regions in the U.S.
This phophate rock outcrop is in the Phosphoria Formation, a geological formation covering 140,000 square miles over parts of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
The Phosphoria Formation is an important natural resource for healthy teeth!
Photo Credit: Geologist James St. John, CC-BY-2.0, see amazing videos from Professor John here: https://www.youtube.com/user/jsj1771/videos and more incredible geology photos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/with/50113152078
Hey, it’s also Fluoride Fact Friday!
Drinking fluoridated water prevents tooth decay by providing frequent and consistent contact with low levels of fluoride.
“All sorts of things can happen when you’re open to new ideas and playing around with things.” Stephanie Kwolek
Play science, make discoveries!
Addressing name-calling from anti-fluoride readers — some thoughts on engaging in good faith in the face of folks who aren’t giving us the same …
Anti-fluoridationists are often really passionately against fluoride and fluoridation. Especially when they get deep into conspiracy theories. Fluoride makes people docile … it came from Hitler … there are a lot of conspiracy-minded ideas out there.
We try to stay hopeful and open, even when these passionate folks start the name-calling on our social media pages and in our contact form. We appreciate passion, because we are pretty passionate about fluoride and fluoridation, too. Because we see it as a great way to learn about science!
One theme in the name-calling from anti-fluoride folks is calling us idiots. We think that one reason they resort to such name-calling is that they are trying to get under our skin. But this theme just doesn’t rile us up very much. Why?
Because it is so true that there is so much we do not know. Science is so amazing, and humanity’s knowledge base is so vast, there is no one on earth who can understand the entirety of the scientific research – so we like to stay humble and acknowledge that we, like everyone, always have so much more to learn about how the world works and how the chemistry and biology on our planet and in our universe work. But we’ve got some areas where we’ve really studied the research and we do know some things – like teeth, cavities, and how fluoride reverses and prevents them.
We are scientists running this project, and our real goal is to promote everyone learning more about science. More about the scientific method, more about the scientists who do the research, more about the scientific institutions where those scientists work and how those institutions run, and more about what they find out in their research.
For example, it’s not really the United States finding out how fluoride reverses and stops cavities from forming. It is professors like Dr. John Featherstone at the University of California, San Francisco. He’s one of the giants in research on how cavities form and how fluoride works, he spent years in the lab doing painstaking work on “caries” – that’s the technical term for cavities! He was then the dean of the School of Dentistry for years, and he has won awards for all his work on cavities and fluoride from the International Association for Dental Research, the American Dental Association, and dental organizations in Europe, too. One of his most famous papers was actually a review – it’s called “The science and practice of caries prevention.” It is all about preventing cavities. You can check it out here: The science and practice of caries prevention
It’s tough reading but we’ve really worked at it and can help anyone out with understanding it. Let us know! If you’ve got good faith questions about Dr. Featherstone’s review, we love to talk science of cavity prevention!
So the insults don’t rile us up, but they do make us sad about the lost potential for gaining real understanding. We are really passionate about science, learning more science, and all the science behind fluoride. But none of us learns well when insults are being flung at us. If anyone – pro-fluoride, anti-fluoride, unsure-about-fluoride – wants to hang out here with us and learn science, we’d love that. But to do that, folks have to stop any name-calling they’re inclined towards and need to start commenting in good faith. The best way to engage and learn is to use the approach described here for what’s called “iron man arguments.”
We’re always looking forward to some real discussion that helps us all learn more and more cool science!