ADA Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention’s National Fluoridation Advisory Committee sponsoring series

In honor of the 75th anniversary of community water fluoridation, the ADA Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention’s National Fluoridation Advisory Committee will offer a series of four Zoom webinars in July that will include continuing education credit for each.Image of 75th Anniversary Community Water Fluoridation Celebration - ADA logo

“I think the four sessions we have developed will have a wide appeal and which covers most of the fundamental elements of promoting community water fluoridation,” said Dr. Leon Stanislav, chair of the committee.

“Perhaps, more important than ever, in this time of a pandemic crisis and the limitations that have been imposed on all of health care, is the basic need for prevention,” Dr. Stanislav said. “What better and more universal method can there be to reach millions of people and help them avoid the preventable oral disease of tooth decay?”

The goals of the series, Dr. Stanislav said, include further education on the safety of water fluoridation and its role in prevention, as well as building and solidifying advocacy on behalf of community water fluoridation in state and local governments.

The series is:

• July 7: The Power of Safe Drinking Water and Caries Prevention, presented by Drs. Stanislav; Raymond Gist, former ADA president; and Rear Adm. Timothy Ricks, assistant surgeon general, chief professional officer of the U.S. Public Health Service Dental Category and deputy director of the Indian Health Service Division of Oral Health.

• July 14: Fluoridation Advocacy: How to Share Evidence-Based Findings to Lay Audiences, presented by Josephine Wolfe, Ph.D., chair of the American Public Health Association; Kip Duchon, former national fluoridation engineer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Oral Health; and Charlotte Lewis, M.D., pediatrician and water fluoridation advocate.

• July 27: Panel: Mom’s Guide to Fluoride, with panelists Drs. Brittany Seymour of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Angeles Martinez Mier of the Indiana School of Dentistry; and Effie Greathouse, Ph.D., environmental scientist.

• July 29: Fluoridation Public Hearings and Grassroots Campaigns, presented by Drs. Howard Pollick of the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry; Jayanth Kumar, California state dental director; and John Fisher, immediate past chair of the Better Oral Health for Massachusetts Coalition.

All are scheduled for noon-1:30 p.m. Central time.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first U.S. city to fluoridate its public water supply in 1945.

*Original Press Release online at https://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2020-archive/may/celebrate-75th-anniversary-of-community-water-fluoridation-in-july-with-webinars