It was free and it was fun. You got out of class and you got free toothpaste and toothbrushes. We didn’t know why, but it didn’t matter. We got out of math for a while. And got fewer cavities.
They gave us a white tube with a number on it. We used it every day at school and home. We walked down the hall to a converted room to a long metal sink with water spraying from a metal pipe. Like the army. Later a dentist would come to see if we had any new cavities.
This was sixth grade in the 1950s in Philadelphia.
I learned years later they were testing fluoride in toothpaste. It was to be called Crest (some called it a Communist). It became the first toothpaste approved by the American Dental Association.
The point of all this? Winter Haven will no longer add fluoride to the city’s water.
Why? Because fluoride may lower IQ and cause brittle bones in children. Note the word ”may.” However, it does prevent cavities. Lots of them. No “may” there.
My hope is the city, along with 75% of America’s others, leave the big F alone. Before they come for my Crest.
Norman Small, Winter Haven