European Countries See Remarkable Decline in Tooth Decay in Absence of Water Fluoridation

European Countries See “Remarkable” Decline in Tooth Decay in Absence of Water Fluoridation

Crediting U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for opposing the continuation of water fluoridation because of fluoride’s neurotoxicity, two Danish dental researchers have reexamined the past 50 years of dental health in countries such as Denmark, Iceland and Norway, which do not use water fluoridation, and found what they call a “remarkable decline” in tooth decay, associated with the use of fluoridated toothpaste.

While the authors do not consider the neurotoxic effect of ingesting fluoride nor the amount of fluoride children ingest from fluoridated toothpaste, they do not dismiss dental fluorosis as a “cosmetic” concern, instead referring to it as “indicative of a toxicological effect on mineralization.”

The authors refer to a recent Cochrane review, often ignored by fluoridation advocates, that water fluoridation is of little use in the age of fluoridated toothpaste, noting, “It was thus apparent that the benefits on caries progression of having fluoride in the water supplies were smaller than estimated before the common exposure to fluoride in toothpaste and other topical fluoride interventions and possibly even clinically unimportant. Furthermore, the recent studies found no convincing evidence that water fluoridation reduces social inequalities in caries, even though this previously has been a significant argument for establishing water fluoridation programs in many countries.”

In a report published March 26th in the European Journal of Oral Sciences, Bente Nyvad and Ole Fejerskov of Aarhus University, in language rarely used by dental researchers, consider the legal and ethical aspects of water fluoridation, and endorse the idea that it is “mass medication.”

They write, “Legal and ethical aspects of fluoride applications have seldom been addressed in relation to public oral health strategies. This is particularly problematic for community water fluoridation, by which large groups of people may be obliged to drink fluoridated water against their will without being informed about potential adverse health effects, including the increased risk of dental fluorosis. For these reasons, Veneri et al. have referred to community water fluoridation as a form of “mass medication.” Although such an approach might in some countries have been tolerated in the 1960s and 1970s at a time when dental caries prevalence was extremely high, the caries prevalence in most industrialized countries is now so low that violation of individual rights to medical self-determination, ignoring potential adverse effects of fluorides, can no longer be accepted.”

The authors found water fluoridation is not needed to reduce tooth decay, noting, “Collectively, these observations indicate that toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste is a robust population strategy that should be promoted as a valid alternative to community water fluoridation for the control of dental caries.”


Source: https://doi.org/10.1111/eos.70114