06/10/2024
If someone tells you about a recent study questioning community fluoridation and its effect on neurobehavioral development of toddlers, here's what you can tell them:
1. They used a very specific subgroup of subjects in a very specific area, each of which have their own confounding variables not corrected for
2. The sample size of 263 mother-child pairs is significantly less representative than a 2023 study that had 10 times as many, and which contradicted these findings
3. "Spot samples of urinary fluoride are not a valid measure of an individual's exposure to fluoride."
Remember too that your baby or toddler generally isn't brushing with fluoride toothpaste, so there's much less concern about the additive effect of multiple sources! This small study is hardly reason to change our recommendations or how we treat our very own children. But it is an invitation to continue researching the many intricacies of our health. Happy studying!
https://www.cda.org/newsroom/newsroom-archives/fluoridation-exposure-misinformation-spreads-due-to-circulation-of-a-flawed-study/
