TimS comments on Water Fluoridation - Less Wrong

1 Post author: Alexei 17 February 2012 04:33AM

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Comment author: gwern 17 February 2012 07:36:32PM 1 point [-]

Ah. I wondered whether it was a big enough market to support a non-flouridated toothpaste, but I didn't have enough energy to look it up. (Head cold.)

Comment author: TimS 17 February 2012 08:23:13PM 1 point [-]

I suspect the largest market is for very young children. My son's pediatrician recommended we brush his teeth, but all the children's toothpaste I've bought has been non-flourinated. I assume that this is based on some sort of medical advice to the manufacturers, but I've never actually checked.

Comment author: gwern 18 February 2012 04:36:53PM 2 points [-]

At a guess, it's a precaution: very young children may eat it down as a kind of candy. (Don't all flouridated toothpastes come with warnings against swallowing?)

Comment author: TomM 04 June 2012 05:34:49AM *  1 point [-]

Not just the very young - my 5 year old son was consuming toothpaste at such a rate that we have had to cut off his formerly unfettered access to it.

No amount of telling him 'eating a tubeful every few days is probably unhealthy' had any effect - he just loves the stuff.