Local dentists and the Montgomery County Health Council recently began working on a campaign to get the word out to residents in the East Montgomery and Cunningham areas on the importance of fluoride, especially for households with growing children.
Since February 2006, the East Montgomery Water Treatment Plant has not fluoridated the water that flows to thousands of homes in the East Montgomery and Cunningham Utility Districts.
The treatment plant, though, never formally informed its customers of the change.
The company listed several reasons to discontinue the process, including possible links to fluorosis and cancer.
Local dentist Leon Stanislav said the company should’ve clearly alerted customers to the lack of fluoride so they would have had the opportunity during the past year to receive supplemental fluoride treatments.
Fluoride can prevent tooth decay by strengthening teeth to block acid from penetrating the enamel, he said.
“To me that’s a little surreptitious,” he said. “Unfortunately it’s impacting the health of a lot of people.”
See Sunday’s Leaf-Chronicle for more on this story [link below].