The Michigan Department of Community Health Oral Health Program recently awarded the City of Clare and three other Michigan communities with Fluoridation Equipment Grants to initiate and maintain community water fluoridation programs.

This is the fourth year grants were awarded to community water systems. These grants were made possible by a donation of $100,000 from the Delta Dental Foundation.

“Water fluoridation benefits all residents of a community and it has demonstrated its effectiveness in preventing tooth decay throughout one’s lifetime,” said Dr. Matthew Davis, chief medical executive with the MDCH. “We are again grateful to the Delta Dental Foundation for their continuous support of overall health and oral health programs.”

Community water fluoridation is the process of adjusting the natural fluoride concentration of a community’s water supply to a level that is best for the prevention of dental cavities.

In the United States, community water fluoridation has been the basis for the primary prevention of dental cavities for many years and has been recognized as one of the ten great achievements in public health in the 20th century.

The 2014 awardees were granted funding for new fluoridation equipment, with awards ranging from $5,000 to $24,000. This year’s winning communities and amounts are:

• City of Clare, $5,000,

• City of Monroe, $24,000,

• City of Portage, $24,000, and,

• City of South Haven, $11,216.

In Michigan, 90 percent of the population is on community water systems that have access to fluoridated drinking water.

While most of the state’s large community water systems do fluoridate, some systems still do not and some have old equipment that prohibits the continuation of an effective fluoridation program, the MDCH stated.

It said the Fluoridation Equipment Grant program allows communities needing new or updated fluoride equipment to apply for funding based on need, population size, evidence of fluoridation approval from their community, and inclusion of all requested information.