Tuesday 15/Nov/2022 – 03:11
revealed New studyAdding fluoride to water has limited benefit on dental treatment, which reduces side effects, according to the British Daily Mail.
Adding fluoride to water has limited benefits
The new study found that adding fluoride to the water supply provided only a modest benefit to children’s dental health.
The study, conducted by the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge, found that this mineral strengthens tooth enamel, but due to improvements in toothpastes over the past 50 years, the improvement in oral health from adding it to water has been greatly reduced .
Researchers believe it’s still an affordable way to cut the £1.7 billion annual dental bill.
The study followed nearly 3,000 children in Cumbria over 6 years and studied a younger West Cumbrian cohort born after water fluoridation was reintroduced into the water supply in 2013, ensuring they derived maximum benefit from it.
The second older group, who were around 5 years old when it came into effect, were studied for any benefit to teeth already in the mouth, then the results were compared with children in the rest of Cumbria, where water contains no fluoride.
17.4% of children suffer from caries
They found that 17.4% of younger children in fluoridated areas had cavities, fillings or missing baby teeth, compared to 21.4% of children of the same age in non-fluorinated areas.
Meanwhile, in the older group, 19.1 percent of children in fluoridated areas had cavities, fillings or missing permanent teeth, compared with 21.9 percent of children in non-fluorinated areas.
