An Augusta dentist went on national television Thursday morning to talk about bottled water’s connection to rising tooth decay among children.
Dr. Jonathan Shenkin appeared on the Weather Channel for a live interview about how the popularity of bottled water could be contributing to kids’ dental problems.
The piece coincided with World Water Day.
“We’re finding out that as more children are given bottled water instead of fluoridated tap water, we are returning to higher cavity levels,” Shenkin said in a press release. “Parents are often surprised when they bring their children and the children have dental decay. It’s becoming a national problem.”
Shenkin, who appeared on the program via Skype, is a pediatric dentist and spokesman for the American Dental Association. He recently was interviewed by the New York Times and MSNBC about the rising rates of cavities in children.
Where is the water being bottled? Some bottled water contains fluoride. Children that drink water between meals don’t have cavities. Children that drink juice/sugar between meals get cavities. ADA promotes fluoride in the prevention of cavities. One can prevent cavities by eliminating sugar drinks and starchy snacks between meals and brushing twice daily. Parents need to read all the pros and cons of fluoride and make a decision as to if they want their children to have it or not. If not, then stay away from sugar/starches for snacks. The increase of decay is more so due to the increase in junk drinks and foods that is promoted by those companies making millions off junkfood.
Well as a diabetic I am Prone to reading labels…even on bottles of water. My now grown son was born with low enamel and is prone to decay due to this…however to this day, because of MY interest as his parent, he still has all his teeth, and only one cavity . With REGULAR dental check ups and a mothers love, I taught him the proper way of brushing, and made sure he drank water containing lots of fluoride.
The community that we lived in while he was growing up had NO FLUORIDE in the drinking water so I made it my mission to be sure he grew up with ALL his teeth. There are many ways to get the needed fluoride for a child’s teeth with out relying on the towns water supply. But first, the parent/parents must be willing to help prevent tooth decay. Read labels…regular dentist appointments, and parental guidance.
Shenkin is lying. He and the ADA know that there are no studies that link tooth decay to kids who drink bottled water. But there are studies showing NO link. Why would he lie?
After 67 years of water fluoridation, 57 years of fluoridated toothpaste, a glut of fluoridated dental products, a fluoride saturated food supply, fluoridated pharmaceuticals, US children are fluoride-overdosed with 60% of adolescents affected with dental fluorosis – white spotted, yellow, brown and/or pitted teeth.
Yet, tooth decay is rampant in fluoridatated cities and states http://www.FluorideNews.Blogspot.com
and ER care for severe cavities in toddlers is costing American taxpayers
millions of dollars because most dentists refuse Medicaid patients, 130 million
Americans don’t have dental insurance. Many of those that do can’t afford
dentistry high out-of-pocket expense.The problem is a dentist deficiency not a fluoride deficiency.
Organized dentistry has created a tooth decay crises in this country and now they are trying to blame it on bottled water to save themselves from what really needs to be done – mandate that dentists treat more low income folks or get out of the way of viable groups willing to do so.
There is a viable solution to the dental disaster happening in America today. Dental therapists can be trained for 2 or 3 years to do same work dentists do. They have worked for decades in other first world countries – very successfully. The first US Dental therapists are working in rural Alaska where residents were pulling out their own teeth because no dentists would work or live there. There are thousands of “dental desserts” in the US where dentists won’t treat residents. The American Dental Association spent a million dollars on a failed court case trying to stop the Alaska Dental Therapists. The ADA’s constituent groups continue to do oppose legislation allowing dental therapists or hygienists or denturists to work directly with the public. Dentists don’t want to be excluded from getting their “taste of the action” as Tony Soprano used to say.
Organized dentistry with its pockets filled with corporate cash lobbies our legislators against allowing dental therapists to work in the US. Instead, dentists lobby for more and different ways of getting fluoride into and onto our body – which happens to put more dollars into the pockets of the corporations who make money off of tooth decay and fluoride and more money into legislators campaign coffers.People in America are dying from the consequences of untreated tooth decay.
When free dental missions set up, people stand in line for days with teeth that resemble those of third world countries. You don’t see people who are so sick or poor without transportation or who must work three jobs . Shenkin needs to go to one of these and ask the people standing on line if drink bottled water – many have to decide whether to eat at all or pay the rent.Fluoride is neither a nutrient nor essential for healthy teeth.
Its ludicrous to blame the rise in tooth decay on a fluoride deficiency which doesn’t exist in nature or actuality. Dentists lie about fluoride, people. Stop quoting them.
Dentists are trained, and most dentists/staff work their butts off to get patients to do what is necessary to prevent dental disease. In essence, they work to decrease the problems they get paid for. You are absolutely wrong to blame dentist for the skyrocketing decay rate. Read peace talker’s post just before yours. She takes responsibility as a parent to ensure her children’s dental health. Lifestyle, not dentists, are to blame. People choose not to make good choices in many aspects of their lives resulting in detrimental health consequences. As a nation though, we always want to blame our demise on someone else. We are always the victim. Our entitled thinking society has taken personal responsibility to an all-time low. Some will say it is more education of the general public that is needed. If that were the case there would not be one smoker. Behavioral change is what is needed, and a bunch of less trained, less skilled providers will not solve the core problem. Blaming dentists or making them work for free is not the solution. And you are correct that fluoride is not the answer either. It can be a part of the solution for parents that choose. It takes three things for decay to occur. A tooth which can be made more decay resistant with fluoride. Acid producing bacteria that can be brushed and flossed off the teeth before the damage is done. And sugar those bacteria, not brushed away, turn into decay causing acid. All three of these must be present for decay to occur. If you choose to avoid fluoride to make the teeth more decay resistant, then I suggest you be more diligent keeping the bacteria off them, and avoid sugary foods and drinks. Decay is preventable, and if it is to be it is up to me. Not the dentist and their staff, and not the government making someone work for free. Go see them regularly so a small problem starting can be fixed for a small fee.
Dentists absolutely are to blame. How can you claim ‘ Lifestyle, not dentists, are to blame’ when dentists are the very people spreading such propaganda? I could possibly agree with you if the vast majority of dentists weren’t waging an active campaign to convince and coerce parents that consuming hydrofluorosilicic acid is good for their children.
There is no credible evidence whatsoever that ingested fluorine prevents tooth decay in any manner. This is why all fluorinated toothpaste has warnings regarding its accidental consumption, even though sodium monofluorophosphate is demonstrably less destructive and corrosive than hydrofluorosilicic acid.
Your claim that three conditions must be met for tooth decay to occur is patently false. Tooth decay is a very likely outcome for any person who consumes sugar or acidic foods but neglects dental hygiene, regardless of their intake or application of fluorine compounds.
I haven’t seen a dentist in two decades and have yet to get a single cavity. This is not because I have impeccable dental hygiene, though I do what I can to ensure the good health of my teeth, it is because I have had limited exposure to corrosive fluorine compounds.
If your reply wasn’t so laughable, I would give you a serious answer to your question. Haven’t seen a dentist in over 20 years? Market your skills, prove your results, and you could be a wealthy person! A guy gets a job driving truck. To pass the boredom, he starts sipping on a mountain dew all day. He goes from no cavities to a bunch within the year. It is lifestyle baby, lifestyle! Don’t blame the cavities on dentists. Blame their association for over fluoridation or mercury poisioning, but don’t blame them for the rampant decay babies get because their parent puts them to bed with a bottle of milk or juice.
I don’t blame dentists for an individual’s tooth decay unless they are negligent in their profession. I do blame dentists for pushing the fluorine agenda, in fact every single one who doesn’t strictly oppose fluorinated drinking water is complicit.
At least I was able to refute your entire paragraph using science and logic as opposed to resorting to quasi-insults and condescension.
You gave no scientific literature references. You used your anecdotal evidence of not going to a dentist in two decades. Every dental school in the word teaches the three requirements for decay. You showed no science and no logic to back your case. I agree that fluoride can be dangerous, and people should choose rather than municipalities dictate how much fluoride they should consume. What is your degree and clinical experience sir?
What do ‘degrees’ have to do with the presentation of facts? Did you present a detailed bibliography of the works upon which your comments are based?
I said previously ‘sodium monofluorophosphate is demonstrably less destructive and corrosive than hydrofluorosilicic acid’.
Is this not scientific fact? Would you also like written proof the world isn’t flat?
Is my first-hand anecdotal claim somehow subject to more reproach than your quaint fantasy about truck drivers?
‘Every dental school in the word[sic] teaches the three requirements for decay.’ That’s great, because they also advocate consumption of fluorine under false pretenses.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair
The judge of the man is not his myriad paper accolades, but the objectivity with which he approaches a given subject. I sincerely apologize for not sharing your penchant for being a supposedly well educated fool.
I guess you have to respect someone who doesn’t get educated beyond their intelligence. What is it with you and Obama’s penchant with the world not being flat? And the funny thing is he is well educated. If what you say is true, don’t you feel a responsibility to society to make your factual case in court so fluoride can be banned? “Just do it!”-Nike. The judge of a man is not what he says, but what he does.
Yet I still clearly possess a greater mastery of the English language than you do. How could I possibly be well educated while not having numerous degrees?
What does the president have to do with any of this?
You’re just mad because you can’t out-troll me.
You couldn’t pay me to matriculate at any university which has seen fit to issue you a degree.
Have a wonderful day. I am!
As will I. It’s been a mycologist’s dream in the woods today.
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