kilobug comments on Rational Toothpaste: A Case Study - Less Wrong

68 Post author: badger 31 May 2012 12:31AM

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Comment author: kilobug 31 May 2012 03:09:22PM 2 points [-]

Interesting article, but it lacks one important issue to me : are there negative effects from the proposed solutions ? Like for fluoride toothpaste, does it have other (positive or negative) side-effects ? On cancer rate or anything else ?

More generally it's an important thing to do when rationally trying to analyze a problem and find solutions : check if the solutions found don't harm something unrelated to the initial problem (ie, checking all the consequences).

Comment author: khafra 06 June 2012 12:07:47PM 2 points [-]

Good question. I looked, and--although electric toothbrushes do remove more plaque and tartar--they also remove 3x as much healthy tooth enamel.

Comment author: kybernetikos 06 June 2012 12:49:40PM *  3 points [-]

3x sounds really scary, but I have no knowledge of whether a 4 micron extra loss of sound dentin is something to be concerned about or not.