What does a Trump presidency mean for oral health?

During the US presidential election campaign, Robert Kennedy Junior tweeted that a Trump White House would advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water supplies. Trump has previously indicated that Kennedy would likely have an influential health role in his administration. Now that the election outcome is clear, should the dental profession be concerned about this threat to water fluoridation?

Already we have seen two Australian politicians – LNP ⁠Senator Matt Canavan⁠ and UAP ⁠Senator Ralph Babet⁠ - make statements questioning water fluoridation. Babet went so far as to say that he would ban fluoride from all water supplies in Australia if he was ever in a position of power. This rhetoric emboldens those who campaign to remove or prevent water fluoridation, and we have previously seen the impacts with many communities pressuring local councils to cease water fluoridation.

In Canavan’s home state of Queensland, 50% of teenagers have tooth decay, much higher than the national average of 38%. Moves to further reduce access to water fluoridation will see tooth decay rates increase, and this will be disproportionately felt in vulnerable and disadvantaged community groups.

We have previously discussed ⁠safety concerns⁠ related particularly to cognitive impairment, and the problematic ⁠National Toxicology Report⁠ into water fluoridation. It’s although worth revisiting the ⁠NHMRC⁠ review of water fluoridation, which ‘strongly recommends community water fluoridation as a safe, effective and ethical way to help reduce tooth decay across the population.’ This review concluded that there is reliable evidence that community water fluoridation at current Australian levels is not associated with cancer, Down syndrome, cognitive dysfunction, lowered intelligence or hip fracture.  

In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast we look at the history and evidence of water fluoridation, and discuss the risk to public dental health if opponents are emboldened by events in the United States.

In case you missed it, you can catch up with the previous episodes of the Dental As Anything podcast here and read news articles here.