BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.
I THINK WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT “LOOK, Mom—no cavities!” is good news. But we continue to disagree about the best way to achieve that. Fluoridation of public water sources remains controversial as a public health measure despite the strong evidence that fluoride prevents tooth decay. Public debates can become quite heated, with one side praising water fluoridation as an essential preventive and the other side demonizing it as coerced ingestion of a poison. Recently fluoridation has faced new accusations that it lowers IQ. Which side is right? Let’s see how the evidence and the arguments on each side hold up to scrutiny.