@tedd The amount the touches your teeth is quite small (probably so it doesn’t help with cavities anyway), but you don’t swallow toothpaste. And you have the choice to buy it without fluoride (as is recommended for kids). But everyone drinks and cooks with water—so why should we all be forced into drinking all this fluoride when there’s literally no benefit (and possibly real harm) that can come from having it our bodes?
Yes, you do probably ingest some fluoride when you brush your teeth. And for most people (especially adults), the fluoride they’re ingest through tooth paste and tap water may not cause any huge problem. But especially for young children, it could. That’s why even the ADA now recommends infants under 12 months don’t ingest fluoridated tap water. More here. If the dentists are saying that babies shouldn’t drink regular tap water, I think it’s clear we have a problem. 30% of kids now have fluorosis, which is an effect of overexposure to fluoride. We don’t yet know how serious other effects of this could be.
And there’s are thousands of esteemed dentists, scientists, and nobel laureates who’ve signed on opposing water fluoridation.
This is what always convinces me. European countries studied the effects of water fluoridation pretty extensively over the last few decades. They looked at unbiased data and ran new studies. And almost every single one decided not to fluoridate. As a result they don’t have any more cavities than we do. It turns out, all these cavities we’re getting all from the insane amount of sugar we eat, but that’s another story.
Also, I’d be a little more careful to toss out the word “ignorant”, especially if you haven’t been looking at the data and studies yourself.