UK - Dental performance

Sep 24 2008 Liverpool Echo
Dental performance
WHILE I agree with the tenor of Joe Riley’s remarks about dentists (ECHO, Sept 18), he also states in his column (amongst other things) that "Liverpool youngsters have some of the worst teeth in the UK".
This is incorrect and is part of the myth-making being propagated by local public health officials who are currently seeking to force water fluoridation on the local populace.
In fact, the current rates for Liverpool children’s DFMT (decayed, filled or missing teeth) according to the latest DoH profile is 1.8 per child as against a national average of 1.5 and the worst in England of 3.2.
Given that this is (still) the poorest city in England, this is actually a very creditable outcome and considerably better than would be expected.
It is also rather better than a number of fluoridated cities with better poverty indices and reflects the fact that the local authority and local health bodies have been working effectively in partnership to tackle this problem since the council rejected fluoridation in 1994.
Cllr Paul Clein