Many dentists and fluoride advocates tout the benefits of fluoride by saying that it's great for teeth, cavity prevention in particular. Furthermore, they often maintain that it's not harmful to your health and is naturally occurring, so no worries about the fluoride that shows up in your drinking water. In fact, the American Dental Association's (ADA) website boasts the headline, "Fluoride in Water is Safe and It Works," preceding a brief write-up about its safety.(1)

"Simply by drinking water, Americans can benefit from fluoride's cavity protection whether they are at home, work or school," the ADA site says. "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named community water fluoridation one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."(1)

Many are on board with this thought, often backing up their claims by going to the "it occurs naturally in the environment" point. Therefore, they argue, it must be perfectly safe, because anything that's naturally occurring is obviously a good thing.

If water fluoridation is fine, then why not the addition of naturally occurring arsenic, too?

Wait a minute.

Arsenic is naturally occurring too. So why doesn't the ADA and other let's-add-fluoride-to-water advocates favor adding that toxic substance to drinking water also? Might as well, right?

Of course not. This is simply to illustrate a point in which facts are getting seriously jumbled up.