To Fluoridate or not to Fluoridate? That is the question…
As you may know, Hull City Council is considering launching a public consultation on water fluoridation. At 543 we support this initiative and would like to encourage residents of Hull and East Riding to visit the ‘One Part Per Million’ website onepartpermillionhull.co.uk and find out more about why water fluoridation is so important to our dental health.
Here’s a brief overview:
- Hull has a very poor dental health record – the worst decay rates in the area and much higher than the average for England. 37.8% of 5-year-olds in Hull have experienced tooth decay, compared with just 27.9% across England.
- Fluoride occurs naturally in water. Fluoridation simply involves raising the naturally-occurring fluoride levels to one part per million (1ppm), a level at which it provides optimum dental protection.
- Water fluoridation reduces decayed, missing and filled teeth in children by an average of 40%.
- Fluoridation benefits everyone – particularly the old and the young.
- Those in deprived areas, with the greatest decay rates, benefit most, so dental health inequality is reduced.
- Contrary to the claims of anti-fluoride campaigners, there are no known adverse health effects at the low levels proposed (1ppm).
- Fluoridation has the full support of not only dental professionals including the British Dental Association, but medical professionals as well, with endorsements from the British Medical Association, the UK Faculty of Public Health and the World Health Organisation.
- 25 countries around the world fluoridate their water, with around 390 million people benefiting from intentionally-fluoridated water.
So what does one part per million look like? Well, we were wondering that too, so we found this handy video that suggests a few different ways of visualising how small 1ppm really is:
As you can see, we’re talking about tiny amounts of a naturally-occurring substance that will only help public health, not hurt it. There is simply no good reason not to fluoridate and many good reasons to start.
At 543 Dental Centre, we have long been strong advocates for the benefits of fluoride on children’s teeth, and have been heavily involved with the Teeth Team, a charity which goes into schools to provide dental health education to our children and apply fluoride varnish where necessary. We believe the water fluoridation initiative is an extremely positive step towards safeguarding the dental health of children across the area, from all socio-economic backgrounds. Let’s work together to protect our children from dental decay.
For more information, visit onepartpermillionhull.co.uk.
