Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Tooth decay and fluoridation essay
Essay on fluoride and health issues
Positive and negative effects of fluoride
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Tooth decay and fluoridation essay
Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral that is found world-wide and is primarily used for dental health. Fluoride has been praised for being one of the top successes in dental health throughout the century. Today more than ever, fluoride is used in many households’ commodities with or without the knowledge of the user. In the 1940’s fluoride was added to the water supply in order to lower tooth decay. Before the 1940’s not one common household item contained fluoride. In the past 60 years, the use of fluoride has drastically increased. Today fluoride is found in mouth wash, tooth paste, water and bottled tea to name a few. Studies have shown that fluoride in large doses are not only damaging to human health, but also to the environment.
Fluoride research began in Colorado Springs, Colorado, when a young dentist by the name of Frederick Mckay opened a dental practice in 1901. He noticed that some residents of the community had severe browning of their tooth enamel that wasn’t recorded in any dental books. After a few years of research, he suspected that the cause behind the browning was due to water. In 1923, Mckay met with parents of children in Oakley, Idaho, who had the same peculiar browning of teeth. These stains began to appear shortly after a water pipeline had been constructed to supply the city with fresh water from a spring. Mckay analyzed the water and found nothing suspicious, but advised the city to cut off the water supply from the pipeline anyway. Within just a few years the browning on children’s teeth began to stop, leading Mckay to concluding that the problem was because of the water. In 1931 after extensive studies and with the help of research conducted by the chief chemist of The Aluminum Company o...
... middle of paper ...
...tion of fluoridated water by infants poses a serious health hazard to the well-being of the child.
Because fluoride has been proven to show no significant health benefits and in fact, actually poses some very serious health hazards, the consumption of fluoride should be avoided at all costs. The United States Government attempts to regulate how much fluoride is in every part per million, but the cities that are continually allowing this toxic waste byproduct from the fertilizer industry to be dumped into the water supply is completely outrageous and sickening. Until the public is informed about the possible dangers associated with consuming fluoride and the damage it can do to the environment, private industries will continue to sell this waste to cities in order to keep costs low and profits high; all the while poisoning their very own friends and families.
Credibility Statement: It is fact that we all consume fluoridated water regularly; whether it’s through water directly, food, or other beverages, we could very likely be putting ourselves at risk.
This experiment was conduct to investigate the fluorescent behaviour of Leucophor PAF and to investigate the quenching of QBS with NaCl. It was found that the Leucophor PAF indeed satisfied the characteristic to act as whitening agent. It was also found that the quenching of QBS with NaCl was a diffusion-controlled collision process.
All water sources, whether fresh or salt, have varying levels of fluoride (Awofeso, 2012). Around 1945 it was discovered that communities with higher rates of naturally occurring fluoride had lower rates of tooth decay (Dean, 1938) which resulted in the addition of artificial fluoride to public water supplies. The incidence of tooth decay fell drastically in fluoridated communities as a result, leading to widespread adoption of public water fluoridation as a public health strategy.
Fluoride is the only substance added to water that doesn’t affect the water itself but the person consuming the water- fluoride is a medical treatment. The same NHS website that boasts the marvellous pros of the UK’s fluoridation scheme also explicitly explains ‘Consent is required from a patient regardless of the intervention – from a physical examination to organ donation’ on a page regarding the legalities of medical consent. It is required by law that all patients must be aware and accepting of the treatment that they receive therefore feeding us a medicine (if it can even be called that) that we as society in many cases, know very little about is highly illegal and dangerous for everyone involved. Today doctors who give patients treatment without their consent face legal procedures and punishments so the fact that this practice goes on everyday under our noses with no repercussion is astonishing and shouldn’t happen just because the perpetrator (the government) is more powerful than a
This is why the Flint water crisis is so critical today. Because young children are being exposed to lead and they should actually be screened from the lead. The pipelines with lead in the water system and the whole community of Flint, not being able to drink water out of the facet as well as not being able to
They are concerned that their kids are getting too much lead in the bloodstream because they have been drinking the tap water.
Few object to the therapeutic use of fluoride to stop tooth decay, but fluoridation, the addition of fluoride to the public water supply, can spark avid controversy. Most dentists, medical groups, and government officials argue that fluoridation is a cheap and risk-free venture that doubles cavity prevention. In contrast, a small minority of dentists and conservative political groups argue that fluoride is a hazardous, poisonous substance that should not be consumed. Some antifluoridationists even claim that fluoridation is an untrustworthy form of socialized medicine. But rather than just attacking fluoridation as socialized medicine, opponents originally claimed that it was a conspiracy to poison or brainwash Americans through the water supply. This theory arose in the 1940s when the scientific community refused to endorse or reject fluoridation, thus allowing the debate to expand into the social sphere. While fluoridation opposition may be subconsciously inspired by naturalism, the social development of fluoridation into a Communist or fascist conspiracy resulted from a conscious effort by conservatives to suppress a growing government.
Fluoride is a trace of nutrients that occurs naturally in water and foods (Wilson). Fluoride has been a problem in the US for quite some time now. And as time goes along, it gets more worse. The only way to fight this problem off is to use less fluoride in our daily lives. This is something everyone should know about because it is getting to the point where it is affecting people's health. The question is, is fluoride being overused in the US? Many people are getting little benefits by the naturally occurring fluoride, plus they are getting more fluoride from the dentist office. There is only a certain amount of fluoride you should intake per day, and these days those numbers are higher than they should be. Fluoride is shown that is it being overused in the US by health issues, chemical intake, and children concerns.
Improper nutrition and misbalance in our body may be the causes for tooth decay. Always pay attention to your nutrition when your teeth are considered, instead of choosing fluoride or dentistry. Our health can also be in danger when fluoride is used, even though the main reason for using fluoride is to make the teeth stronger. According to a recent study, mental disabilities are often made more difficult with the usage of fluoride. Among fluoride, mercury and arsenic are also dangerous in cases of autism
Both Barnett’s claim that bottled water is not better than tap water (139-141) and Gleick’s claim that specialized water is not better than tap water (118-120) demonstrate that companies’ claims are unreasonable. Furthermore, consumers assume bottled water is better than tap water because they have the impression that tap water is dangerous because of the tap water incident in “2003 [where] 400,000 people [got] sick” from drinking tap water. One may wonder whether companies use this incident to remind consumers how dangerous tap water is with the way Gleick presents bottled water companies even after the tap water is taken care of. Because Gleick portrays the deception of advertisement from bottled water businesses, he makes it clear that Barnett hints that they are taking advantage of the case by informing consumers that their water is safer than tap water in an indirect, subtle way. However, Barnett ensures readers that tap water are safe to drink again after the incident by proving that both bottled water and tap water are equally safe to drink with a study she provides: The testing from Florida Trend (magazine brand) concludes that Publix brand bottled water and tap water both contains “0.020milligrams per liter [of] THMs (trihalomethanes)”, a “common byproduct…linked to increased risk of cancer” (139-140). Although other bottled water brands may not have
Dental carries is one of the most common oral diseases in the world, and it often goes untreated due to the expense of treatment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) 60 to 90 percent of school aged children throughout the world suffer from untreated dental carries. Ethnic minorities, the poor, the elderly, and those who are mentally and/or physically disabled are other disparities who also suffer from untreated dental caries (Alcorn & Rogo; 2012). Looking for a way to solve the epidemic of dental caries by providing affordable treatment, silver diamine fluoride (SDF), also known as the “silver fluoride bullet,” was created. Claiming to be both affordable and effective, SDF could be the answer to low cost carries treatment the world has been searching for. The purpose of this paper is to research the efficacy of silver diamine fluoride in comparison to sodium fluoride varnish. Our PICO question is: In a patient with dentinal caries, will the use of silver diamine fluoride compared to sodium fluoride varnish, be more effective at arresting caries?
Another instance of the government neglecting us and our complaints over our health concerns by these chemicals was when it came to nuclear and atomic testing in Utah and Nevada in the 1950s. Terry Tempest Williams wrote the passage “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” and explained how the government was funding these tests to be had in the desert and did not once think about the consequences that the explosions would have on nearby residents and wildlife. The Nuclear testing in Nevada brought with it cancers upon residents who were affected by the contamination brought by winds and fallout, but at this time in history the country was very patriotic in self defence as the Korean War and the Cold War were happening in different parts of the world
Fluoride is considered a drug by the Food and Drug Administration therefore a type of mediation which is why I made the claim of mass medication, which I believe is unethical to put in a public goods such as water. That is one of the reason other developed nations like Europe decided to stop this practice (FluorideAlert). Fluoride is already found in items such as toothpaste and other like items, putting it in the water just farther leads to over dosing the set limit of fluoride before the FDA declares it unsafe which is 2.4mg per liter of water (FluorideAlert). It can be clearly proven that this limits are surpassed daily for the average person and one sign is that more children are being affected by dental fluorosis, a condition that causes white or brown discoloration or spots on the enamel, or tooth surface that only occurs from to much fluoride and this should not be much of surprise if you include the fact that on top of water having anywhere from 0.7-1.4mg of fluoride, toothpaste is 94% fluoride, processed beverages also contain it, and many other products we would not think of like tea. While its just considered more of a cosmetic issue, it is also an indictor or red flag of over exposure on the rest of the
Not Fluoridating Water People around the world wake up each morning and brush their teeth with toothpaste, not knowing what's in it. Fluoride is being used in things that shouldn’t be, like water. Water is H2O that people around the world drink constantly. Some drink more than others, like athlete’s, manual laborer’s, diabetic’s, and people with kidney disease who are exposed to more fluoride than other’s (12 Reasons). All the other water treatment chemicals are added to improve the water for safe drinking, but fluoride does not.
I was not very conscious about HFCS because I looked at it as just a byproduct of many foods. But analyzing the article with the Sociological Imagination made me realize the health aspects, the economic aspects, and the social aspects that can result from HFCS. Now that I am aware of the effects of HFCS, I will be more diligent when purchasing and consuming certain food products.