It's in other products instead. I think it depends on the country, but usually salt and toothpaste. I don't think there are any developed countries that have stopped fluoridation entirely.
Salt fluoridation schemes are reaching more than 100 million people in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Cuba as well as
85% of Switzerland and 67% of Germany.
France has some too, but it always was an option for those who care and not a default. As such it's clearly labelled and marketed (same for iode and other additives)
And I am happy to live in a country that doesn't fluoridate its water. That way I can just wait out the whole scientific and political discussion and start drinking fluoridated water when it has finally and conclusively has been proven that it's beneficial. I suspect it wont be though, because it seems like the real scientists are saying no and the political scientists are saying yes.
Not sure if you are trolling but are you alluding that the US population has healthier teeth? The "difference you see" is most likely just the much more widespread usage of bleaching in the US (which actually worsens the health of your teeth).
I have no idea if there is a genetic difference in the US, but according to Wikipedia, it seems modern toothpaste first took hold in America.
Colgate, a US company, introduced modern toothpaste in 1873. Later, toothpaste that had been developed by researchers in the UK and US, did not find commercial success in the UK, and they focused on the US where it took off.
This suggests that the US were more interested in the appearance of their teeth.
Do you have a reference for that? I'm from Sweden and I can definitely say preventive dental care is a huge thing here. I felt your statement sounded weird so I googled around. DMFT seems to be one index used to rank countries oral health, which is produced by WHO. In that ranking several European countries beat or sit at US levels. Do you only mean eastern Europe?
That study is for children. Oral health problems take years to surface and looking at adults would be a better way to measure these things.
Having lived in both the US and France, I can say that it’s been my experience that Americans have “nicer” looking teeth. Whether that translates into anything medically relevant is apparently really difficult to prove.
WHO produced the exact same data but for adults. I did see similar results there (several EU countries above US). You gave no references as response, instead giving another personal experience.
My original response were specifically about references. But sorry if it sounded more aggressive than it was. I mistook you for the original person I replied to, which made me answer more direct than maybe was necessary. Also, it was my bad for not linking the actual reference for WHOs adult data. I'll link it here instead [1]. That said, on second look it is from 2000, so it is much older than the one on children. Maybe not as reliable. I remain am quite sceptical to the claim that there is an actual difference between in oral health between EU and US though. And my original response were to someone saying preventive care is completely non-existent in EU, which is simply demonstrably wrong.
Sorry that it took me so long to respond. I was wrong to over generalize to the EU. My personal experience is with countries around the Mediterranean and I maintain that while it may be available it’s not taken advantage of the way it is in the US.
And? I was very clear that this was anecdotal and responding in a thread about the aesthetic aspect of teeth.
I’m sorry I didn’t dig any deeper than the link that was presented but it was about adolescent kids. And no one is saying that these differences show up in young people.
I don't really know what this means for the US, but in Belgium you are required to go to the dentist at least once a year if you want to keep being reimbursed by social security.
When I lived in Canada (which I assume isn't too different from the US) with poor social security due to my legal status, I never went to a dentist because it was far, far too expensive.
As a European people here often make comments about American teeth being ridiculously white and unnaturally straight. You guys went a bit far on that one.
Unnaturally straight? What is natural to you? My teeth are perfectly straight and so is my entire family’s and none of us has ever had braces. Is that not natural?
Corrected vision is unnatural. Did we go a bit far on that too?
Europeans’ teeth would be white too if they smoked less.
Apparently anything man-made to modify natural outcomes is unnatural.
There are extremes, like elective cosmetic surgery, fake tans, cranial implants, etc., but some things just make living as an ordinary person easier. Glasses, hearing aids, normal medicines, etc.
We can all agree that somewhere in between is certainly the preferred option. Walking around with all veneers or crowns is a problem, but so is walking around with constant cavities and yellow teeth, so likely somewhere in between what the US does and the EU does.
Healthy teeth have nothing to do with veneers and crowns. The opposite of a decorated mouth is not a sick mouth, just like the opposite of a bright pink house isn't a burned down house.
Sure, that’s obviously true, but misses my point; on average, European teeth are less healthy than American teeth. At the same time, American teeth tend to have too much work done on them on average.
There is a paper linked on Wikipedia stating that studies conducted in Germany showed that "Water fluoridation was followed by a decrease of caries, and interruptions in fluoridation were followed by increasing caries levels." but also "There was a significant caries decrease down to the lowest DMFT (2.0) since 1959 in spite of the fact that only F-poor water was available over years [...] explained by changes in caries-preventive and environmental conditions."
They don't have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their children's teeth to make sure that their kids can find professional jobs without being written off the first time they smile during the job interview. It's a symptom of our sick culture in the US.
