for that reason.

However, I encounter quite the variety of products that folks brush with (or don’t brush with), and there’s clear market momentum away from boring old fluoride toothpaste.

In removing all supplemented fluoride from Utah water, as this recent legislation did, those sponsoring lawmakers claimed to be moving it from a public decision to a personal one. They concluded that rather than sharing cheap fluoridated water, people can call their own shot with prescriptions, pastes, and applications from the dentist. While that is conceptually true, I suspect the rhetoric involved in pushing the legislation through is likely to have a dampening effect on fluoride use from any source.

I predict the end result of this Utah experiment— the first state to remove all supplementation — is not going to be just an incremental and tailored reduction, but a significant reduction in the personal use of fluoride sources compounded by the loss of the public fluoride backstop that was at least partially available.