Is there a difference between fluoride found naturally in water and fluoride that is added to water?
Is non-fluoridated water more pure than fluoridated water?
How does fluoride help my teeth?
Is tooth decay a serious problem?
Where else can I get fluoride from?
Do fluoride tablets work as well as fluoridated water?
How do we know fluoridation is effective?
Does fluoridation cause health problems?
Can fluoridated water cause toxic effects?
Why do some communities not accept fluoridation?
Why does opposition to community water fluoridation continue?
What is the optimal level of fluoridated water a person should drink on a daily basis?
What if people use a fluoridated toothpaste as well, will that be too much fluoride?
Can a person have too much fluoride in their body?
What is the difference (in any form of measurement) between a safe intake and potentially harmful intake of fluoride?
top of page
Is there a difference between fluoride found naturally in water and fluoride that is added to water?
This is an often-asked question and it is important to know there is no difference. The fluoride ions in water are exactly the same regardless of whether they come naturally from rocks or are added as calcium fluoride or sodium silicofluoride. The dental benefits of fluoridated water occur no matter the source of the fluoride.
top of page
Is non-fluoridated water more pure than fluoridated water?
No. All natural waters contain many different minerals and compounds, including fluoride. The amount of each mineral and compound depends on where the water comes from.
Fluoride occurs naturally in most waters and cannot be considered an impurity. This was confirmed by a Privy Council decision in 1963 that stated ‘the addition of fluoride adds no impurity and the water remains not only water but pure water and becomes greatly improved and still natural water containing no foreign elements’.
top of page
How does fluoride help my teeth?
Fluoride works in three ways.
- Fluoride makes teeth more resistant to decay by strengthening the tooth surface.
- Fluoride interferes with the growth of the bacteria that cause cavities.
- Fluoride helps to repair the early stages of tooth decay.
Fluoride can help strengthen baby teeth before they come through the gums by building fluoride into their structure. The main effect is when teeth erupt through the gums. If fluoride is present in saliva, teeth will continually be exposed to small levels of fluoride, which helps strengthen the tooth surface. Fluoridated water is the best way to achieve this.
top of page
Is tooth decay a serious problem?
Internationally, decay rates have been decreasing over the last 20 years. However, tooth decay is still a significant health problem, particularly in communities with insufficient fluoride in their water.
Tooth decay will result in the life-long repair of teeth or tooth loss. Decay causes pain and loss of self-esteem and it also costs individuals and the community to treat it. Approximately $500 million is spent in New Zealand on dental treatment. The largest proportion of this is treating dental decay.
Dental pain can stop a person from eating, working and sleeping which affects their whole wellbeing. Decayed teeth can affect people’s self-esteem and confidence about the way their teeth look or their bad breath.
Although tooth decay remains a common disease, it is largely preventable. Dental decay does not have to be a fact of life – prevention is possible and fluoridation, along with a healthy diet, is the most cost-effective way to achieve this.
top of page
Where else can I get fluoride from?
Common sources of fluoride for people include food and drink, toothpaste and fluoride supplements such as tablets.
Some countries use fluoridated salt, others fluoridated milk. The World Health Organization says fluoridated water is the most effective and safest way of providing the benefits of fluoride.
Information about sources of fluoride
top of page
Do fluoride tablets work as well as fluoridated water?
No. The benefit of fluoride tablets is limited as they don’t provide constant small doses throughout the day and are more expensive over time than water fluoridation.
The fluoride in the saliva from a tablet lasts only three hours, and would give less than 1 percent of the fluoride available from food and drink in a fluoridated area.
To be effective, fluoride tablets must be taken every day and preferably chewed. Even well-motivated parents can find it difficult to ensure children receive tablets regularly. At a public research level, water fluoridation is more effective because it is taken regularly throughout the day in the water used to drink and cook with irrespective of the consumer's social, economic or physical status.
top of page
How do we know adding fluoride to water is effective?
The effectiveness of adding fluoride to water has been documented in scientific literature for well over 50 years. Data from the 1930s and 1940s shows that even before fluoridation, children drinking naturally fluoridated water had lower decay rates than children consuming water without fluoride.
Studies have also shown that when communities stop adding fluoride to water, there is a reversal of the benefits, an increase in decay rates and a large increase in the number of baby teeth extracted.
It is true that over the years, decay rates have declined in both fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas. This can largely be explained by the use of fluoride toothpaste and the cross-over effects of food and water containing products from fluoridated areas. Most recent studies continue to show that the difference between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas continues to be significant throughout life.
The World Health Organization has reviewed the data available and the Public Health Commission (PHC) in New Zealand published an extensive review of water fluoridation in 1994 and support fluoridation.
In September 2000 the Ministry of Health released a report, written by Environmental Science and Research Ltd (ESR), evaluating recent evidence of the fluoridation of water supplies. This report provides further support for the safety and effectiveness of water fluoridation".
top of page
Does fluoridation cause health problems?
The weight of scientific evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of topping up fluoride levelsfluoridation is overwhelming and it is clear the majority of reputable health, scientific and medical bodies agree with its use.
Many parts of the world have received naturally fluoridated water for thousands of years. Large human populations have now been exposed to community water fluoridation for many decades and no persuasive evidence links optimal fluoridation with any adverse health effects. With hundreds of millions of people continuing to receive the benefits of fluoride in drinking-water, the absence of documented adverse health effects is particularly convincing
Information about water fluoridation and safety
Information about fluoride and health
top of page
Can fluoridated water cause toxic effects?
It is impossible to experience fluoride toxicity from drinking-water optimally fluoridated at levels between 0.7 ppm to 1 ppm. It would require drinking more than 5000 glasses of fluoridated water at one time.
In excessive quantities fluoride too can be toxic, but, at the very low concentrations (0.7 ppm to 1 ppm) used in water fluoridation it is not toxic, even when used over a lifetime.
top of page
Why do some communities not accept adding fluoride to water?
A community may not accept topping up the fluoride in their water for many reasons. Often a referendum is held where low voter turnouts are common and sometimes communities are not provided with accurate information. However, it is important to note that fluoridation has never been discontinued because it was proven harmful in any way. .
top of page
Why does opposition to adding fluoride to community water continue?
A lot of opposition is based on the question of freedom of choice, which can be a very emotional issue. Some people feel very strongly that they should not have to receive fluoridated water if they do not wish to.
Society often makes decisions or rules based on the benefits to the community as a whole (for example, putting iodine in salt or wearing seat-belts). Some people believe that these decisions limit our personal choice. Public health organisations encourage communities to adopt fluoridation because the benefits to everyone with natural teeth are such that the whole community should have access to those benefits.
The option remains for people who are particularly opposed to fluoride in the water to install a filter to remove it if they wish.
A very large body of scientific literature supports fluoridation as a safe means of reducing rates of tooth decay.
top of page
What is the optimal level of fluoridated water a person should drink on a daily basis?
An estimated 75–90 percent of ingested fluoride is absorbed by the alimentary tract (NRC 1993). Fluoride in drinking-water accounts for about half of the total intake in young children and half the total intake in adults (NHMRC 1991).
The rest of the intake is from dietary sources, especially from tea, which contains fluoride in the range of 1 - 3 ppm (Murray et al 1991). Some heavy tea drinkers may even have intakes of 8 - 10 mg/day (refer to Water Fluoridation In New Zealand). Drinking-water with 0.7 - 1.0 ppm, together with a normal diet, provides safe and appropriate levels of fluoride intake.
top of page
What if people use a fluoridated toothpaste as well, will that be too much fluoride?
Studies show that water fluoridation provides benefits above and beyond those from other fluoride vehicles alone (for example, toothpaste or tablets). Conversely, fluoride toothpastes provide additional benefits beyond water fluoridation.
Water fluoridation is not a replacement for tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste, as brushing helps to remove the bacteria (found in plaque) and keeps gums healthy. Rather, the two work hand in hand to help prevent tooth decay, and provide an additional benefit above that of fluoridated water alone.
top of page
Can a person have too much fluoride in their body?
Yes, in the same way that a person can have too many vitamins and other dietary supplements. In other parts of the world, where there are extremely high levels of fluoride, it can cause skeletal fluorosis. This requires the ingestion of much larger amounts of fluoride than anyone in New Zealand would be exposed to.
top of page
What is the difference (in any form of measurement) between a safe intake and potentially harmful intake of fluoride?
The Drinking-Water Standards for New Zealand focus on defining safety standards to prevent adverse health effects. The recommended maximum acceptable value (MAV) for fluoride is proposed as 1.5 mg/l. The guidelines also recommend the adjustment of water fluoride to between 0.7 mg/l and 1.0 mg/l for oral health reasons. Because the dosage is over half the MAV, this automatically makes the water supply a ‘priority 2’ under the standards. This means the supply must be monitored to demonstrate compliance with the standards.
top of page
Vote Fluoride :: Questions, Compared to national statistics some communities within Southland and Otago have very poor oral health. Examples include preschoolers facing baby teeth extractions under anaesthesia, primary school students with multiple fillings and adults living with ongoing, chronic dental pain that may prevent them working. Otago and Southland District Health Boards have asked local councils to hold referenda to add fluoride into the drinking water supplies of these communities. Fluoride is recommended by the World Health Organisation and New Zealand’s Ministry of Health as a means of improving oral health.
Vote, Fluoride, ::, Questions, Vote, fluoride, southland, otago, new zealand, referenda, add, health, oral, teeth, water, dental, elections, campaign, councils, communities, drinking,
