Many thanks….
To the editor:
As a retired dentist who practiced for more than 39 years, I just want to congratulate the Lee County Board of Commissioners on their recent vote to remove fluoride from our water supply. I know first-hand how lucrative this will be for our local dental practitioners. My practice was located in Duluth, Minnesota, where water was fluoridated, but we also served many patients from nearby Superior, Wisconsin, where there was no fluoridation. The kids I saw from Superior consistently experienced significantly more decay than their Duluth counterparts did. If a family from Superior came into the office, I knew their child was likely to need about a thousand dollars more dental work than a kid living in Duluth would.
Hydroxyapatite is the main compound in enamel. When enamel is exposed to fluoride, a water molecule is replaced with a fluoride molecule, converting hydroxyapatite to fluorapatite. Fluorapatite is much stronger than hydroxyapatite, making teeth less permeable and more resistant to decay. As teeth start to form in utero, and if an individual is exposed to fluoride beginning at this stage, all the layers of their enamel, as they form, will be composed of stronger fluorapatite molecules rather than weaker hydroxyapatite ones. Studies show that high concentrations of fluoride (above 40 parts per million) can certainly be dangerous. So can Vitamin A, D, E, and K, which are key nutrients at appropriate levels. In treated water, fluoride concentrations are at 0.7 parts per million (over 57 times less than the level considered dangerous by numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies!). Moreover, decades of experience show that communities with fluoridated water enjoy dental benefits without any harmful effects.
These days, the average dentist graduates with over $300,000 in student loans. New practitioners will surely find newly un-fluoridated Lee County a lucrative site to practice, as young patients each generate at least $500-1,500 more in dental revenue than they did when our water was fluoridated. It will take a few years for these effects and their profits to show up, but we should consider this a wonderful recruitment measure for new dentists. Who cares about scientific research and decades of experience when we have an opportunity for dentists to make more money and relieve young families of all the extra cash they have these days?! Terrific idea, commissioners!
Kim Chart, DDS
Sanibel