this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2025
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United States | News & Politics
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Do you really need it?
Out of a population of about three-quarters of a billion, under 14 million people (approximately 2%) in Europe receive artificially-fluoridated water. Those people are in the UK (5,797,000), Republic of Ireland (4,780,000), Spain (4,250,000), and Serbia (300,000).
Most European countries don't use it and we are fine.
I think it would be less important in a place with universal health care and dental care as kids would probably be brushing their teeth and get taken care of properly, but it's more dire in North America than you would think. Canada doesn't have free dental and America doesn't have free health or dental whereas lots of European countries have universal healthcare.
Almost none of which include dental care.
They're called luxury bones for a reason..
Wait hold on really? I saw NHS covers dental and eye exams. Do the countries with universal healthcare that do not cover dental, also not cover eye exams?
I'm from the Netherlands, we have healthcare but dental is usually not included and most people pay it themselves. You can include it but it's usually more expensive than a normal yealy check-up.
Why do Americans and Canadians have bad teeth? Is brushing something people just don't do?
https://iwcn.nl/living/healthcare/dental-care/
So you are wrong, you had free dental as a child, the fluoride is aimed at children who are not guarenteed that in the US, it varies state to state and depending on your income.
That I didn't know, the healthcare system was very different when I was a kid myself. We have made it a lot more commercial on the last 20 years.
And if you look at Canada the province with the worst dental health is Quebec and it's the only province where fluoridation is pretty much non existent.
But why is dental health so bad? Is going to the dentist very expensive? I don't have dental insurance and I pay about a 100 euros to get my teeth checked and cleaned yearly. But for most people it's about 50 for a normal check-up.
No more expensive than anywhere else in Canada especially now that they've launched an instance program for anyone under 18 and over 65 for the whole country.
If you’re not getting X-rays, how are they finding cavities or other issues?
I pay about $200 CAD per visit for cleanings and x-rays, so about $400 per year. That is an acceptable amount for me, personally, but that can be a lot for some people, especially low income households that have more than one child.