Many have complained over the use of fluoride in public water use. It is suppose to prevent tooth decay. Well a new report shows it does not matter.
From Wiki: The goal of water fluoridation is to prevent a chronic disease whose burdens particularly fall on children and on the poor.
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I’m not a fan of fluoridated water. However, the results were more complicated than saying there was no difference:
Hypothesis 2: Controlling for covariates, a greater degree of water fluoridation was related to lower risk of adult tooth loss in metropolitan counties (p<.003). However, when the model was run for non-metropolitan counties greater fluoridation was not statistically associated with dental health scores for adults. For children’s dental health measures, it was found that fluoridation rates were not significantly related to the measures of either caries or overall condition of the teeth for urban or rural areas. Lack of findings probably reflects the crudeness of the fluoride exposure measure or the self-report measures of dental health, or efforts undertaken by adults and parents to provide topical fluoride when drinking water is not adequately fluoridated.
Water Fluoridation and Dental Health Indicators in Rural and Urban Areas of the United States
Policy Brief – January, 2012
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Other findings: In addition to lower fluoridation population coverage, rural areas, compared to urban areas, had a lower supply of dentists, less dental care received for both adults and children, and greater tooth loss for adults. The percentage of children with caries, and parental rating of the condition of the teeth were not significantly different between rural and urban areas. These results are summarized in Table 2.