Lindsay McLaren:
Certainly, in the Calgary case, we were fortunate to be able to build this study and to demonstrate that there are consequences to removing fluoride from drinking water. It’s not just an innocuous policy decision.
And so that information, I think, figured importantly in the decision to reintroduce the measure, which should be happening soon. What I think I would also want to add here is that, if you decide as a community, if you have a kind of a grown-up conversation and decide as a community to not fluoridate the water, that is one thing, but you have to accompany that by a discussion about, what are you going to do instead?
Because tooth decay is not an innocuous health problem. It’s a serious health problem. It’s very common. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s almost entirely preventable. And so what kind of a society are we if we don’t prevent an entirely preventable problem that causes harm and pain to kids and to others?
So, sometimes, the discussion is quite incomplete. It’s just about fluoridation, but it’s actually a bigger question around, how are we going to build sort of the public supports and resources that allow everyone to have good oral health and good general health?
