Regardless of whether fluoride is a serious risk or not, it seems ridiculous to take a topical drug systemically. Fluoride works by inorganic reactions with the teeth themselves. There's no benefit to flooding the whole body with it. It's reasonable to be suspicious of water fluoridation when the same benefit can be achieved with fluoridated toothpastes, which deliver the fluoride only where it's needed.

That is a good point, but according to http://www.ada.org/~/media/ADA/Member%20Center/FIles/fluorid... (p.10)

"Systemic fluorides can also give topical protection because ingested fluoride is present in saliva, which continually bathes the teeth providing a reservoir of fluoride that can be incorporated into the tooth surface to prevent decay."

It also says fluoride ingested during teeth-formation is incorporated into the teeth.

As someone who grew up on well water with no fluoride in it I can confirm that my teeth are looking fine after all these years of regular dental checkups and twice daily tooth-brushing.

Fluoride occurs naturally (in varying concentrations) in water. Water with high natural concentrations is how we found out fluoride prevents tooth decay in the first place.

Source?

While I can't source the IQ claim, the evidence "showing" that fluoridation is safe to drink (as opposed to measuring by tooth health) is fairly scarce.

OTOH I've heard teeth are especially poor around Portland Oregon where they don't fluoride the water. I'd simply say the jury is still out.

I tend to think of iq claims specifically with a particularly large grain of salt: it's an index of society that people follow closely and is related to many, many factors.

The practice of fluoride in drinking water does seem to be getting some push back of late. I did a quick google scholar search for "fluoride drinking water" and found some articles on both sides.

So does the practice of vaccinations, and without strong evidence that it's not safe, I'm inclined to take the lack of such evidence as significant, in light of the abundance of evidence that it seems to be helpful.

Aw shucks, I'm merely intelligent, rather than a genius?

i'd rather be stupid than have bad teeth.