The British Food Journal Volume 63 Issue 7 1961

Abstract

For a number of years there has been persistent agitation for the addition of fluorides to public water supplies with the object of reducing dental caries in children. Where fluorides are absent or below about 0.25 p.p.m. in water supplies, the incidence of dental caries is said to be much higher than where the fluoride content is about 1 p.p.m. and to this extent, dental caries is in inverse proportion to the fluorides present. Reports from areas in the United States, where State legislatures have made artificial fluoridation compulsory, would appear to leave no doubt that stronger and better teeth result. In this country also, Weaver's report comparing the dental condition of children in North and South Shields, where the natural fluoride content of the different water supplies enabled one of these towns to act as a control of the other town on the opposite bank of the Tyne, confirmed the work of the other observers. There is nothing really new in all this; it has been known and discussed for many years, although it is fair to state that it is not universally accepted. Many doubt the ability of fluoridated water to reduce the incidence of dental caries in every community and still more believe that the condition remains a diagnostic index of dietary unbalance.