In 2011, Calgary's leaders decided to end water fluoridation after hearing from Wikipediatricians who claimed added fluoride in water poses significant health risks. At the time, actual pediatricians predicted that such a move would raise the rates of dental caries in local kids.
So it's no surprise that five years later such predictions have come to pass in the Alberta city.
The journal Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology recently published data showing that Grade 2 students in Calgary averaged 3.8 more cavities from 2013 to 2014 than they did from 2004 to 2005.
However, just 300 km north in Edmonton, where the water is still fluoridated, dental caries increased by just 2.1 on average during the same period.
"Our results show that even after a relatively short period of time, we have seen a negative effect of removing fluoride from the drinking water," Lindsay McLaren, a public health researcher at the University of Calgary and lead author of the study, tells the National Post. "It's one piece of information that was not available when the decision was being made."
Issues such as poor nutrition — yet another area where we parents are largely responsible — could have contributed to the increase in cavities, notes Steven Patterson, a professor of dentistry at the University of Alberta. Patterson also points out that more people are drinking bottled water, which tends to contain little to no fluoride.
And because Canada's public health care doesn't typically cover dental visits for children or adults, parents who lost out on this free prevention method are now footing the bill for fillings and other treatments for their youngsters.
Such is the story in other countries like the United States, where payments for dental appointments are more often than not up to the patient — or their parents — whether they have insurance or not. Perhaps as a result, about 20% of Americans currently have at least one untreated cavity.
And the less money parents have for dentist's bills, the less likely it is that those cavities will see treatment. This is especially true for Canada's poorest families, who will only see those problems get worse as private health care costs rise.
Now, some public health researchers say the fluoride removal was just one symptom of a larger problem.
According to The Globe and Mail's Andre Picard, "the unscientific rantings and overblown fears of a small but loud minority of self-centered chemophobes" are largely to blame for the increase in Calgary children's cavities.
The so-called "chemophobes'" movement is part of a trend toward more natural, homeopathic health care remedies. For example, parents who are concerned about the number of chemicals their children may ingest in everyday foods -- even fruits and vegetables -- will often rely on organic, non-GMO diets instead of vaccines and traditional medicines to keep their kids healthy.
Yet by forgoing vaccinations and demanding that things like fluoride are removed from community water supplies, these parents aren't just gambling with their own children's health. They're also affecting the care and preventative medicine that children in other families receive.
Picard lays out fluoridation opponents' arguments in four major points:
Fluoride is a "chemical" that is poisoning people
By putting fluoride in municipal water, people are being treated against their will
Adding fluoride is a waste of tax dollars because you can get fluoride elsewhere
There is a growing scientific “controversy” about the safety of fluoride
These claims, Picard concludes, are bogus. Yes, fluoride is a chemical that could be poisonous to a person who ingests too much of it, but the same goes for table salt. The average glass of tap water has about 0.7 parts per million of fluoride, while common toothpaste contains up to 1,500 parts per million of fluoride. It would take far larger quantities of fluoride to produce any adverse effects in one's health.
And certainly children can receive their daily dose of fluoride when brushing their teeth, but why not use the extra support from municipal water supplies to fight off cavities?
Ultimately, there are no real "controversies" about fluoride in the water except for those manufactured by the conspiracy-theorist set, Picard says. The removal of fluoride in Calgary's water supply was an empty gesture by politicians that has only backfired in the long run.
Raising chemical-free kids might sound like a great idea, but it's not all it's cracked up to be. Alternative medicine can range from healthy living, like eating organic fruits and vegetables, to holistic exercises like yoga.
But when anti-science parenting is taken to extremes it can lead to tragic consequences.
By now, almost everyone in Canada has heard about the couple standing trial for the 2012 death of their 19-month-old son. The child's death from meningitis could have been prevented with a visit to a pediatrician. Instead, the toddler's parents only took him to a doctor after he stopped breathing.
David and Collet Stephan initially tried curing their little boy, Ezekiel, with home remedies like maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, and horseradish root, among other natural foods and products. The couple also have ties to a company that produces natural supplements, which they may have administered to their son as well.
Meningitis can also be prevented with a vaccine -- something that Ezekiel and his siblings didn’t receive.
The couple reportedly told police that they had had negative experiences with doctors in the past. But one has to ask just how negative these experiences could be if the doctors had only tried to offer the couple's children life-saving medicines.
Such is often the story with the "anti-vaxxer" activists, opponents of standard medical treatments like vaccinations, who shout to make their misinformed voices the loudest in the room.
Bacterial meningitis, especially in young children, can lead to high fever and stiffness throughout the body, but it can be treated with a course of antibiotics and corticosteroids. While viral meningitis can't be cured with antibiotics, the use of other medicines to prevent swelling of the brain and seizures may be necessary in some cases.
For doctors, errors during surgery will result in a medical malpractice lawsuit roughly 34% of the time. Yet children who don't get the care they need can't sue their parents. In fact, those parents may not see punishment at all, if more anti-vaxxers have their say.
Ezekiel's death could have been easily prevented. So, too, could the cavities that thousands of children across Canada may face with the loss of fluoride in their drinking water.
Yet whether there's fluoride in the water or not, parents play the most important role in our children's health. Doing more than a cursory Google search is key, especially when confronted with the pseudo-science that so easily floats to the surface of the internet.
Above all, perhaps it's time we listen to medical professionals -- who have earned their credentials for a reason -- rather than letting the conspiracy theorists and Wikipediatricians out there try to do our parenting for us.
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