Dental organisations say access to water fluoridation is a postcode lottery
Too many communities with high levels of dental disease are being deprived of fluoridation benefits
The British Dental Association echoes concerns expressed by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) today (24 November) that limited access to water fluoridation – only 10 per cent of the UK's population – means we are failing children who live in communities with high levels of tooth decay.
The BSPD highlights in its latest report on fluoridation that 60,683 children and adolescents in England were admitted to hospital in 2012/13 to have multiple decayed teeth removed under general anaesthetic, costing the NHS at least £27.6 million.
By contrast, evidence suggests that children living in fluoridated areas, such as the West Midlands, have around half the rate of tooth decay of those living in non-fluoridated areas, and thousands have been spared from traumatic and distressing operations. Research indicates that adults also benefit.
But despite the dramatic improvements in the oral health of children in areas where water is fluoridated, the BDA questions why a fluoridation scheme was recently abandoned in Southampton after being endorsed by Public Health England and a High Court ruling that the process in recommending water fluoridation had been lawful. Similar to the BSPD, the BDA is also concerned that water fluoridation was excluded from the NICE recommendations (published last month) for local authorities to consider when tackling high levels dental disease in their population.
The BDA believes that political and clinical leaders should ensure that dental health policies are driven by the available evidence, rather than pandering to misinformation and fear.
The BDA's scientific adviser, Professor Damien Walmsley, said:
"Water fluoridation is safe and is one of the cheapest and most effective measures to reduce unacceptable inequalities of tooth decay, yet public debate on this is often reduced to misinformation and scaremongering with little or no regard to the communities affected most by this largely preventable disease."
The Chair of the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee, John Milne, said:
"My practice is based in one of the most deprived areas in Yorkshire, and it's frankly heart breaking to have to refer young children to hospital to have several decayed teeth removed under a general anaesthetic when I see the dramatic improvements in dental health in areas that are fluoridated.
"Local authorities with a high prevalence of tooth decay in their communities should be able to consider water fluoridation if advised to do so by their experts in dental public health, but as the BSPD has noted, NICE wasn't bold enough to include this in its recent guide on measures to reduce tooth decay. What kind of message does that signal to politicians and experts in dental health?
"Critics of fluoridation often say that tooth brushing schemes in nurseries and schools are the answer. Whilst these may be part of the solution, they are resource-intensive, require parental consent and don't always reach those communities with highest need, as we know from the fact that one in eight of our three-year olds have tooth decay."
About the BDA
The British Dental Association (BDA) is the professional association and trade union for dentists in the UK. It represents dentists working in general practice, in community and hospital settings, in academia and research, and in the armed forces, and includes dental students. The BDA promotes members’ interests, advances the science, arts and ethics of dentistry, and contributes towards improving the nation's oral health.
For further information, please contact the BDA's media team on 0207 563 4145/46 or visit the BDA's BDA news centre. You can also follow news from the BDA on Twitter. Membership packages reflect the varied needs of dentists.
4 comments:
We may of won for now, but i suspect they will be back...Those poor deprived children that Public Health England will not do anything about unless they can fluoridate the whole community, and that should tell you all you need to know about public health in this country...Why can we not provide fluoride to those who need it,i'm no health guru but even i could arrange this as it's definitely not rocket science...The (PHE) are starting to sound like a winging dog at dinner time,grow a backbone you spineless morons and stop pushing your voodoo chemicals upon the public...
"The BDA questions why a fluoridation scheme was recently abandoned in Southampton after being endorsed by Public Health England and a High Court ruling that the process in recommending water fluoridation had been lawful."
Yes, the SHA adhered to the corrupt legislation to rubber stamp an unwanted fluoridation scheme but failed to complete arrangements with Southern Water in time, and forcing medication on us without our consent is both illegal and a violation of all medical ethics.
As for the fluoridated areas having half the rates of tooth decay, this is a myth. Ireland has the worst oral health in Europe and in fluoridated Wolverhampton, far more children have teeth extracted in hospital than in Southampton. Shocking statistics for decay in young children were published in the Birmingham Mail in 2012.
"Critics of fluoridation often say that tooth brushing schemes in nurseries and schools are the answer. Whilst these may be part of the solution, they are resource-intensive, require PARENTAL CONSENT and don't always reach those communities with highest need"
Clearly, it's the issue of consent with targeted schemes that he objects to, since fluoridation can be forced on everyone by denying it is a medicine and making false claims of safety and effectiveness. He is deluded if he believes the most deprived children benefit from fluoridation. For one thing, they don't drink water, and the only viable scheme in Southampton was not even going to serve the most deprived areas that were identified as an excuse to force fluoridation on us in the first place.
The BDA is not scientifically or medically qualified to assess the impact of fluoridation on the body, so is completely our of order in endorsing the practice and pushing for a nationwide roll out. As dental professionals, they should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring the most basic medical ethic of consent.
I've been thinking for quite some time now - this is a battle we need to take direct to the dentists. They are completely convinced of the use of fluoride - because that is what their professional bodies tell them - and that's what makes them professionals! Of course they've never looked anywhere further than their own text books - and have complete contempt for anybody who isn't "one of us".
An advantage is it can be done on a locality basis. It may need some planning, strategy and ingenuity but it seems to me that unless the dentists (and their NHS backers) can be directly challenged it will always be that much more difficult to cut off their professional bodies constant propaganda in favour of fluoride.
I find his statement that "Water fluoridation is safe and is one of the cheapest and most effective measures to reduce unacceptable inequalities of tooth decay", followed by his claim that targeted schemes are too 'resource intensive' very revealing. PHE have wasted over £1 million attempting to force fluoridation on Southampton, and that does not include the cost and maintenance of infrastructure, potential lawsuits, or the cost to families of remedial dental work for fluorosis, which now affects over 40% of young people. He obviously hasn't seen the BBC report from November 2013 on the outstanding achievement of the Scottish Childsmile scheme, which has halved tooth decay and saved the NHS £6 million.
It seems that the BDA and Public Health England prefer to opt for the lazy way out by forcibly medicating everybody and hoping that'll do the job for them and maybe even reach the target population. It's hit and miss and they know it's not safe but of course men in white coats are beyond reproach and, they believe, above the law, so they can always invent glowing statistics to prove it works.
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