Dentists warn of taking fluoride out of NY water. But many counties already don't have it

USA Today

18-06-2025

Dentists warn of taking fluoride out of NY water. But many counties already don't have it
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Fluoridated water important, stresses Ossining NY Supervisor Feldman
Elizabeth Feldman, who worked as a dental hygienist, is joining the effort to push back against groups seeking to remove fluoride from public water.
In New York, 336 community water systems, out of a total of 2,790, have fluoridated water.
These 336 community water systems provide water to more than 13 million people, or about 72% of all New Yorkers.
Now the nation's top health official, RFK Jr., is pushing for bans on water fluoridation, prompting pushback from many public health officials and local leaders in NY.
Elizabeth Feldman sees her dental X-rays as a warning of the life-altering consequences of living in a community that doesn't add fluoride to its drinking water.
The stark black-and-white images are rife with cavity-riddled translucent teeth. Bright white spots cover most teeth, revealing an extensive patchwork of dental fillings and crowns. Screws dig into parts of the jaw pockmarked by root canals.
Taken together, the X-rays tell the story of a lifetime of dental pain and suffering.
But Feldman, a town supervisor in New York's Hudson Valley who's worked as a dental hygienist for 30 years, believes she would have avoided most of that dental work, which cost thousands of dollars, if her childhood home had access to fluoridated drinking water.
Instead, Feldman grew up drinking unfluoridated well water, and she missed out on the lifelong oral health benefits that many New Yorkers get from living in towns, cities and neighborhoods that have added fluoride to community water systems.
Now Feldman is fighting to protect others from her fate as New York becomes a key battleground of the anti-fluoride movement being led by the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
'I just wish people would get educated and look at real science and not be led astray,' Feldman said.
New York's fluoride fight
Kennedy has endorsed claims that fluoride is behind a host of health conditions, from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and hypothyroidism to lowering IQ. Dentists and epidemiologists have hit back at those accusations as scientifically unproven.
At the same time, public health officials in New York are pushing back against anti-fluoride groups seeking to pass state or local measures to remove fluoride from public drinking water.
Decades of research, health officials noted, has shown water fluoridation reduces tooth decay for entire populations, while uniquely benefiting poor and marginalized New Yorkers.
"Because the fluoridated water supply reaches everyone equally, health disparities decrease, as we know not everyone has access to regular dentist checkups,' state Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said.
'Water fluoridation provides everyone with the same starting opportunity of having a healthy smile,' he added.
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Overall, cavities drop by about 25% for those who drink fluoridated water when compared to others who don't, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, some states are considering passing measures that ban fluoride from community water systems, with Republican-controlled state governments in Utah and Florida recently taking that step.
While a statewide ban is unlikely in deep blue New York, the fluoride debate has exploded at the local level in recent years. It was the focus of a class-action lawsuit filed in Buffalo in 2023 after residents learned the city quietly removed fluoride from drinking water, and it sits at the center of emotionally-charged town hearings that divide even the most close-knit communities from Ithaca to Westchester County.
How many New York towns have fluoride in water?
In New York, 336 community water systems, out of a total of 2,790, have fluoridated water. But these 336 community water systems provide water to more than 13 million people, or about 72% of all New Yorkers served by community water systems.
That percentage mirrored the national average, as many of the largest water systems in the U.S. have added fluoride for the past nearly 80 years.
But major disparities in water fluoridation persist. New York City and some upstate counties, such as Monroe and Onondaga, have nearly 100% coverage, while other counties, such as Rockland and Tompkins, have never added fluoride to public drinking water.
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The stakes of that disparity are unfolding in real time for Dr. Fanny Vainer. They are written on the faces of scores of parents who were stunned to learn their child has advanced tooth decay during visits to Vainer's Sparkill Dental practice in a tiny Rockland County hamlet.
Many of those parents were simply unaware that Rockland County's lack of water fluoridation played a role in rotting out their kids' teeth, Vainer said.
Recalling her talks with the guilt-ridden parents looking for ways to reverse the damage, she said, in many ways, 'It's already too late when you arrive here in the dentist's chair.'
Further, Rockland's overall oral health should be studied, Vainer suggested, to improve understanding of the extent of damage done in communities with unfluoridated drinking water.
If conducted, that research would seek to build upon a landmark 2010 state Health Department study that found, in part, the use of serious dental procedures and tooth extractions for New York kids on Medicaid was 33% higher in communities without water fluoridation.
'An unnecessary public health crisis'
Meanwhile, in neighboring Westchester County, one town's leadership has already reversed course on its approach to adding fluoride to its water.
Town leaders in Yorktown, a wealthy New York City suburb, voted in December to remove fluoride from their community drinking water system. Yorktown Supervisor Ed Lachterman spearheaded the action, citing in part a federal court ruling that asserted water fluoridation presents an 'unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment.'
The American Dental Association has since criticized that federal court ruling, however, noting it was based largely on an August 2024 report from the federal National Toxicology Program that included invalid biomarkers and insufficient sample sizes.
Put simply, the federal court ruling reflects a 'fundamental misunderstanding and misapplication of the prevailing scientific literature on the safety of fluoride and community water fluoridation,' the national dental group added.
At the same time, Yorktown's decision captured national attention, prompting public health officials across the Hudson Valley to launch new efforts to combat medical misinformation, citing rising distrust in everything from water fluoridation to vaccines.
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'Like measles, this is catching on and once the anti-fluoride groups win in one community, they go on to the others,' said Susan Siegel, the lone Yorktown council member to oppose removing fluoride from drinking water.
Westchester Health Commissioner Dr. Sherlita Amler attended Yorktown public hearings last year to provide facts about the benefits of water fluoridation. But she left them feeling concerned about how deeply anti-science sentiments had taken hold in some households.
Recalling the conspiracy theories and debunked science claims being raised during the hearings, Amler said, 'I don't know how you wrap your head around that.'
The Yorktown fluoride removal vote was also a call-to-arms for Feldman, who's been supervisor of nearby Ossining for three years and vowed to quell any anti-fluoride incursions in her community.
'So few things can be done so inexpensively to impact positively the lives and health outcomes of all the residents,' Feldman said of water fluoridation.
How we reported it: NY, facing dental crisis, taking on RFK Jr.'s anti-fluoride push
Addressing claims that people get enough benefits from fluoridated toothpastes or dental treatments, Feldman noted those do indeed help but are incapable of achieving the level of protection from drinking fluoridated water.
Put differently, ingested fluoride becomes part of the tooth before it erupts and strengthens kids' teeth in a way that nothing else in dentistry comes close to, and adults with limited access to dental care benefit from drinking fluoridated water, too.
'It's baffling to me that they would want to create an unnecessary public health crisis and walk back on a proven public health achievement,' Feldman added.
Includes reporting by Cybele Mayes-Osterman of USA TODAY.