The Greatest Fraud: Fluoridation
a book by Philip R.N. Sutton
The Greatest Fraud: Fluoridation. Philip R.N. Sutton. Lorne, Australia 3232: Factual Book, Kurunda Pty., Ltd., 1994. 352 pp. $25.00, shipping included, (paper). Also available for $19.00, shipping included, from Maureen Jones, 1205 Sierra Ave., San Jose, CA 95126 while supplies last.
Reviewed by:
Dan Montgomery
September 1996
For years, it has been generally assumed that fluoridation must have done at least some good because all those beautiful statistics couldn't be wrong. The statistics have been reviewed and the reviews have been reviewed and the reviewers continued to declare fluoridation to be effective. Scientists trust other scientists for the same reason that anybody would trust a scientist. They are supposed to know what they are doing. When one examines the documentation more carefully, then it can be seen that the reviewers have depended upon the opinions of others as if one were to depend upon the authority of science rather than the experimental facts. They have accepted the interpretation of selected statistics by a few people who thought they knew what they were doing.
Dr. Sutton pointed out long ago that the statistics were wrong. The Greatest Fraud: Fluoridation is the result of many years of thoughtful research. If fluoridation really doesn't work, then someone really ought to explain concisely why it doesn't work. Dr. Sutton's explanation is that fluoridation causes a delay in the onset of cavities. This delay in onset is caused by a delay in the eruption of permanent teeth. The reason the permanent teeth come in later is because fluoride has destroyed or damaged the resorbing osteocytes which are cells that resorb the roots of baby teeth to prepare the way for the permanent teeth. Dr. Sutton has also done us the favor of expounding the scientific details which he meticulously gathered in language that is plain enough for non-scientists to understand.
Philip Sutton was a Doctor of Dental Science. He was a Foundation Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. He was elected to the Council of the Victorian branch of the Australian Dental Association. He also completed a course in statistics and later became chairman of the Biometric Society. In 1956, he was appointed a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. In 1957, the Dean of the University's Dental Science Faculty asked Dr. Sutton to examine the published data of the fluoridation experiments in the United States. His findings were published in a 1959 monograph, Fluoridation: Errors and Omissions in Experimental Trials. The pro-fluoridationists bitterly attacked it, but thirty years later had to admit he was right. In 1964, he was appointed Senior Lecturer in Dental Science at the University of Melbourne. Dr. Sutton passed away on March 12, 1995, not long after he completed the manuscript for The Greatest Fraud: Fluoridation.