When Bill Osmunson was in dental school back in the 1970s, fluoridation of water and the use of topical fluoride on patients’ teeth were heavily promoted. “There was only one instructor who had reservations,” says Osmunson. “He said one of the reasons people developed goiters in some places was because people were not getting enough iodine, but also because they were getting too much fluoride, which also affects the thyroid.”
In the face of vast medical and public approval of water fluoridation, Osmunson dismissed the information, going on to establish a dental office in Canada and eventually moving his practice to the state of Washington (smilesofbellevue.com).
Because city water was fluoridated, but not the water in outlying areas, he decided to make a game of trying to guess where a new patient lived based solely on looking in their mouth and the number of dental caries (aka cavities) they had. “About 90 percent of the time, I was correct when I said that the patients with the least amount of decay came from urban areas where the water was fluoridated,” he says.
“I was so convinced that fluoride had benefits, I gave my children prescription fluoride, because our local water supply didn't have it. Fortunately, my wife was slack on giving it to them, and she almost never did.”
“LONG BEFORE FLUORIDATION WAS INTRODUCED INTO PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS, THERE WAS ALREADY A DRASTIC REDUCTION IN DENTAL CARIES IN URBAN POPULATIONS BECAUSE OF IMPROVED HEALTH AND LIVING
