Dental issues hurting military readiness could be exacerbated by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s obsession with removing fluoride from water supplies, Senator Elizabeth Warren is warning.

The Pentagon says 10 percent of service members currently cannot be deployed due to dental issues. Ms. Warren claims Mr. Kennedy’s war on fluoride will make things worse.

Ms. Warren asked the military to release information on how dental health is impacting the military. She says the Pentagon reports that dental emergencies account for 20-30 percent of all illnesses and injuries that are not battle-related.

The head of the personnel and readiness division at the Defense Department says that dental health issues are often the largest cause of not being able to deploy within a military unit, according to Ms. Warren.

The Pentagon reports that removing fluoridation would likely lead to increased rates of dental decay. There are  concerns about the risk of acute and painful teeth problems among deployed military personnel. That can make it difficult for affected troops to focus on their mission or even require immediate emergency treatment.

“[B]enefits of optimally fluoridated drinking water have been proven repeatedly,” the chief of staff of the Air Force, General Kenneth Wilsbach said, while adding the surgeon general of the Air Force supports maintaining fluoridated water systems on bases.

Mr. Kennedy has pledged to remove fluoride from the American water supply and announced in April that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would stop recommending fluoridation in drinking water systems nationwide. Mr. Kennedy says that fluoride is a “dangerous neurotoxin,” linking it to conditions such as arthritis, bone fractures, and thyroid disease.

“Our military is already falling short on delivering high quality dental care for our service members, and Secretary Kennedy’s fluoride crusade is threatening to worsen this crisis and hurt our military’s ability to deploy where they’re needed,” Ms. Warren said in a statement. “Our government should be focused on improving dental health access for our service members, not pushing anti-science conspiracies.”

Ms. Warren sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in May asking for an investigation into how removing fluoride from water would hurt medical readiness. She wanted to know how fluoride bans in two states would affect troop readiness. While military bases currently fluoridate drinking water, a majority of service members and their families outside of military bases.

In March, Utah banned fluoridation. There are 16,700 active duty, reserve, and National Guard servicemembers in the state. Florida passed its own fluoride ban, potentially affecting more than 100,000 servicemembers, according to Ms. Warren.