Fluoride will be added to drinking water in the United Kingdom to address a “major” public health issue.

According to a statement made by the UK Chief Medical Officers, tooth decay is a “significant, yet largely preventable” public health problem in the UK. Fluoride will be added to drinking water to solve a public health issue; what is it and how effective will it be?

Tooth decay is the most common oral ailment in children and affects people of all ages. In the 2019 school year, tooth decay affected 23.4 percent of five-year-olds in England and 26.5 percent of P1 children in Scotland. Tooth decay has a huge impact on people’s overall health and well-being, but the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom are set to implement a UK-wide solution.

After Britain’s chief medical officers agreed that fluoride would reduce tooth decay rates, the mineral is set to be introduced to drinking water across the country.

According to Public Health England estimates, adding more fluoride to water supplies would reduce cavities by 17 percent among the wealthiest children and 28 percent among the poorest, according to Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, and his counterparts in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

They quickly assuaged fears, claiming that there is no proof that the ionized form of fluorine causes cancer and condemning “exaggerated and unevidenced” claims concerning health dangers.

Fluoride levels that are acceptable for adults and children have been shown in observational and interventional studies to lower the occurrence and severity of dental decay in both adults and children.

“As with anything in medicine and public health, there is a balance of risk and benefit,” the medical officers said in an evidence review on Thursday.

“There is undeniably a problem with dental decay in the United Kingdom, as well as an ingrained disparity that must be addressed. Water fluoridation can help to alleviate this condition.

“Overall, there is substantial scientific evidence that water fluoridation is an effective public health intervention for lowering tooth decay and promoting dental health equity across the United Kingdom. It should be viewed as a supplement to, not a replacement for, existing effective fluoride-increase strategies.”

Water fluoridation, according to a report by Public Health England, can significantly reduce hospital admissions for tooth extraction. If all five-year-olds with water containing less than 0.2 mg/l fluoride instead received at least 0.7 mg/l fluoride from a fluoridation scheme, “Brinkwire News in Condensed Form.”


*Original article online at https://en.brinkwire.com/health/fluoride-will-be-added-to-drinking-water-in-the-united-kingdom-to-address-a-major-public-health-issue/