What did you think about oral health when you were five years old? Chances are you didn’t think about it at all, unless you had a painful cavity. We asked preschoolers to talk about how brushing their teeth keeps them healthy and strong. See what these four, five and six year olds have to say about keeping their teeth shiny and strong. Many of today’s young parents grew up with the benefits of fluoride. Whether in their toothpaste, drinking water or treatments at the dentist, recent generations of adults have enjoyed better teeth than their parents and grandparents. Remember dentures? Now mill ..read more

In recent years, multiple studies have compared communities with and without the preventive health benefits of fluoride in water. Each one of these studies has revealed fluoridation’s benefits, but let’s take a closer look at the most recent study, which was conducted in England. The purpose of CATFISH (Cumbrian Assessment of Teeth a Fluoride Intervention Study for Health) was to examine whether children in fluoridated areas of northern England had less decay than those living in non-fluoridated areas. The CATFISH study determined that children in the fluoridated areas had lower rates of tooth ..read more

Like any vitamin or trace element, fluoride in water must be properly balanced for maximum benefit to prevent tooth decay. The recommend amount of fluoride in water is currently 0.7 parts per million, a level that prevents both cavities and fluorosis. Although fluoride occurs naturally in all water, in the U.S. it rarely exceeds the recommended amount. Most water systems add fluoride to bring the level up to the amount that has been proven to prevent tooth decay. Who is responsible for setting these limits? The Safe Drinking Water Act regulates drinking water and sets standards to en ..read more

The capital city of New York State will begin to fluoridate its tap water next year. The Common Council in Albany voted 12-0 last month in favor of the proposal, and the mayor has signed the measure. This victory for public health is a long time in coming. Oral health advocates have tried for decades to convince city officials to initiate water fluoridation. Although the roadblock was often the Common Council, the city’s mayors — one of whom called fluoridation “un-American.” — have also opposed this common sense public health practice. As several advocates in Albany pointed out, there is prob ..read more

Opponents of water fluoridation are quick to cite a 2019 Canadian study (Green et al.) to claim that fluoride affects the IQ of 3 and 4 year old children. A new peer-reviewed analysis refutes the validity of this study, showing that the Canadian researchers relied on invalid measures of both fluoride exposure and IQ. For years, opponents have promoted this and other Canadian studies that have misused the same data set. The new analysis, authored by Guichon, Cooper, Rugg-Gunn, and Dickinson, details the serious weaknesses in those studies. It cautions that claims about fluoride and IQ based upo ..read more

When officials in Collier County, Florida, recently voted to end fluoridation, dental professionals and pediatricians weren’t the only people who were disheartened. School nurses were concerned too. School nurses see firsthand the negative impact that chronic disease, of which tooth decay is one, has on children’s ability to attend school and learn. After the county’s board of commissioners made its decision, leading voices from the school nursing community went on social media to express their professional concerns. Martha Bergren, executive editor of the Journal of School Nursing, called Col ..read more

Amid the fighting of World War II, an urgent need to relocate children in Great Britain led to a powerful discovery — one that helped to revolutionize public health and children’s oral health. In a recent newspaper article, British dentist Ray Lowry told this fascinating story. Early in the war, children from North and South Tyneside, England, were evacuated to the Lake District to avoid the risk from Germany’s bombing of the region’s shipyards. Dentists in the Lake District soon noticed a major difference in the teeth of the children. Those from South Tyneside had much healthier teeth than th ..read more

In recent years, multiple studies have compared the impact of water fluoridation with communities that lacked access to this preventive health practice. Each one of these studies has revealed fluoridation’s benefits, but let’s take a closer look at the most recent study, which was conducted in England. The purpose of CATFISH (Cumbrian Assessment of Teeth a Fluoride Intervention Study for Health) was to examine whether children in fluoridated areas of northern England had less decay than those living in non-fluoridated areas. The CATFISH study determined that children in the fluoridated areas h ..read more

A new study has linked community water fluoridation (CWF) in Israel with lower rates of tooth decay. The authors found no such link between decay and the effects of free dental services which were mandated in 2014. When Israel adopted nationwide water fluoridation in 2002, tooth decay among children fell significantly. The practice was discontinued in 2014, a few years after an Israeli law mandated free dental care for all children and teens under the of age 18 to compensate for the anticipated cessation of water fluoridation. To assess long-term tooth decay trends, the authors of this nine-ye ..read more

Like any vitamin or trace element, fluoride in water must be properly balanced for maximum benefit to prevent tooth decay. The recommended amount of fluoride in water is currently 0.7 parts per million, a level that prevents both cavities and fluorosis. Although fluoride occurs naturally in all water, in the U.S. it rarely exceeds the recommended amount. Most water systems add fluoride to bring the level up to the amount that has been proven to prevent tooth decay. Who is responsible for setting these limits? The Safe Drinking Water Act regulates drinking water and sets standards to ..read more