My SIL just told me a couple days ago that she is seriously considering becoming a dentist. Her dentist has talked her into it. She is a nail tech and her dentist has been a client for a decade or so. She convinced her that she has the fine motor skills and temperament to be a dentist. She also said she would hire her if she did it.

I'd be a whole lot better about going if she does become a dentist. I have a cousin in NY that is, but I've never seen him that way. Mom has.

Brita and other pitcher filters don't filter out fluoride. Reverse osmosis removes most of it. Distillation removes it completely, but it also removes all the good minerals like magnesium and calcium. (I fell down the "fluoride is killing us" conspiracy rabbit hole a few years ago.)

Most water systems in New Jersey (the last I knew) didn't fluoridate the water. Neither does Hawaii, although since it's volcanic, the water may naturally contain fluoride. Utah was really slow to start doing it, but I think they do now. Most other states in the US started it in the late 50s or early 60s.

For me, that's interesting, because I lived my first four years in NJ (no fluoride), and then moved to a farm with well water in TN, so I got fluoridated water only at school. I didn't live somewhere where I got fluoridated water all the time until I went to college. Yet I have great teeth, and also some streaks of fluoridosis in my teeth. (Fluoridosis shows up as white streaks, or if it's really heavy, brown. That part of the tooth is more porous and thus more likely to pit and break, and get cavities.) Supposedly fluoridosis occurs in teeth before they erupt.

And, that's about all I know about fluoride.

Whether flouride is added or removed from tap water in the US depends on how much is in it to begin with - the goal is to bring flouride levels in line with a concentration known to be safe and theraputic. Most of the scare studies about how flouride is going to kill us all is based on data from parts of rural China where the amount of naturally occurring flouride in the water (including well water) is dangerously high (many times more than anywhere in the US).

She is a nail tech and her dentist has been a client for a decade or so. She convinced her that she has the fine motor skills and temperament to be a dentist. She also said she would hire her if she did it.

That's very cool.

Most water systems in New Jersey (the last I knew) didn't fluoridate the water.

I just checked, and about 14% of NJ residents get fluoridated water. That 14% must be concentrated in the NY suburbs, since that's where my dental hygienist said that she could see the difference between the people who grew up with fluoride and the ones who didn't. (Oh, and, huh. I just looked up the water company that serves the town where I grew up, and their webpage says they don't add fluoride to the water. So, I guess I must just genetically have really good teeth, then.)

I think our well water had flouride, or some other mineral that was good for teeth.

When I was a kid, before fluoridation was as common as it is, we had fluoride drops that my mother dripped into our orange juice (my sister and I) in the mornings. Then they started adding fluoride to the town's water (came from a well and only needed minimal treatment - it was delicious - spoiled me for all other tap water) and we stopped getting the drops. I still had bunches of cavities, and I know my sister had some, but not as bad.

My mother had capped front teeth; she had a serious overbite, so it mostly worked out, but I remember periodic panics when one of the caps came loose. My father had pretty good teeth, except for the ones he ground down to the gumline and the front teeth I kicked out as a baby (wearing my first hard shoes).

Congratulations Jessica and Plei!

I just realized that I came to wok with my dress on inside out

I hope you owned it. By next week, everyone will be wearing their clothes that way!

I have perfectly straight teeth and they are naturally relatively white. But I've had way more than my fair share of cavities, despite doing a decent job caring for them. Although I definitely agree that depression is not good for dental hygiene. I've slacked off a lot the last few years, particularly with flossing, and I am sure it will catch up to me eventually.

All day dental talk?

I shouldn't be surprised.

Tonight is karate and I am pretty sore from Tuesday's class b/c he had us do push-ups. Hoping to learn a new defense tonight. Then I'll have learned half of the ones I have to know for my first belt test. I think i will be able to test in early March.

That seems so fast!

ETA hence my tag I suppose