USA - Thursday’s Letters to the Editor

EDITOR: In reference to Rita Scardaci’s Close to Home column (“Dental disease: A ‘silent epidemic,’ ” Wednesday), I believe that four of the five strategies of the Sonoma County Dental Health Network to improve dental health and reduce childhood tooth decay and dental disease are great; education and access-to-care being of foremost importance.

The fifth strategy, adding fluoride to community drinking water, is abhorrent to me. Maybe adding fluoride to a community’s water source will help prevent tooth decay in children. Maybe. A cursory browse of different sources says the science doesn’t prove it.

What science does prove is that tooth-topical application of fluoride does work: fluoridated toothpaste, fluoride varnish, etc.

How about, rather than forcing treatment on me in the form of (in my opinion) polluting my drinking water, we start with the first four strategies and reassess in 10 years?

I’d also like to see a study done of how much tap water is actually ingested by those in whom the problems are especially pronounced, according to Scardaci: Latino youth and low-income students. Paying to medicate everyone but missing the target is irresponsible and unfair to all.

MARTHA JOHNSON

Santa Rosa