Dental care not fluoride reduced tooth decay in fluoridated Arlington, Texas:NYSCOF

Depending on patients' ability to pay, the volunteer-based operation provides either free or low-cost dental care to 2,500 residents a year at its clinic at East and Division streets, plus examinations of an additional 7,000 low-income children in 26 schools. When its SMILES school program began, the volunteer dentists and hygienists found that 61 percent of children examined had active decay, 19 percent with decay severe enough to cause pain or infection.

"Thanks to DHA, 60 percent of those kids now have healthy smiles, and tooth decay has been cut to less than half what it was when the program started," Hopper said.