We all want the best for our children, including sparking white teeth. Children today have fewer fillings than ever before, but what is the truth behind this great success story? Better care of our teeth or the magic ingredient in our toothpaste fluoride? Some parts of Britain like Birmingham already add fluoride to the water and there are now plans to extend this to other cities: Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and London. But fluoride is a poison. It may work in small quantities, but people are worried that there is just too much of it around.
Dental health has been transformed, especially among poorer people. Before fluoride, toothpaste decay was rampant. Yet, dental health has also improved dramatically in countries which do not add fluoride to their water. Britain’s fluoride is imported from Holland, where ironically, fluoridation has been banned.
Water fluoridation is the controlled addition of fluoride to a public water supply in order to reduce tooth decay.[9] Its use in the U.S. began in the 1940s, following studies of children in a region where water is naturally fluoridated. It is now used for about two-thirds of the U.S. population on public water systems[10] and for about 5.7% of people worldwide.[11] Although the best available evidence shows no association with adverse effects other than fluorosis, most of which is mild,[12] water fluoridation has been contentious[11]and opposition to water fluoridation exists despite its support by public health organizations.