UK - Dental health, fluoride and plaque

From The TimesJune 16, 2009
Dental health, fluoride and plaque
The Department of Health shouldn't be digging its heels in over fluoridation
Sir, It is not within the gift of the Secretary of State for Health to speed up fluoridation (report, June 13). This is up to local residents for whom a new fluoridation scheme is proposed.

It seems strange that while medical evidence is increasing against the practice, the Department of Health is digging its heels in.

Fluorosilicates (either ingested or dermally absorbed) slow the growth of primary teeth so that neglected 5-year-olds at the time of their first dental examination have younger teeth that have had less time to become decayed when compared with the neglected non-fluoridated five-year-old youngster.

At the time of the next dental examination at age 11 or 12, the incidence of decay in both sub-sets is roughly similar, and, in addition, the fluoridated teenager will show signs of dental fluorosis — a permanent disfiguring manifestation of systemic fluoride toxicity.

The British public has to ask itself if fluoridation, which is meant to promote social equality, actually does so. Since reduction in growth of teeth delays speech, chewing and swallowing, the fluoridated youngster experiences a delay in social development.

Moreover, studies from China have demonstrated a lowering of intelligence in naturally fluoridated children. In a fluoridated population, 12 per cent of the children have dental fluorosis of aesthetic concern in their secondary teeth but have to wait until their late teens to undergo private dental treatment to disguise the damage. Treatment is in the form of veneers costing £400+ per tooth and this treatment has to be repeated a few times until the tooth is so abraded that crowns have to be fitted. (This dental treatment is not paid for by the National Health Service even though it was the NHS that was responsible for the disfigurement).

The experience of Irish children should be pointed out to the Department of Health. In Ireland in 2008, the level of artificial fluoride in the water supply was reduced to 0.7 ppm (down from 1 ppm) because dental fluorosis had become a chemically imposed epidemic.

Joy Warren

West Midlands Against Fluoridation

Sir, The other widespread oral health problem, for children as well as adults, is common gum disease, also because of dental plaque.

While some fluoride preparations can help to reduce dental plaque, plaque control (not elimination —we need our natural coating biofilms) needs adequate oral hygiene.

The solution is to put prevention into the hands of those dental professionals whose raison d’être is prevention: the dental hygienists.

Hubert N. Newman

Emeritus Professor of Periodontology and Preventive Dentristy

University College London