DENTAL DECAY

Opotiki News, Volume VII, Issue 802, 3 November 1944, Page 3

DENTAL DECAY

HOPES OF REDUCTION EFFECT ' OF FLUORIDES Hopes of reducing the incidence of tooth decay; by adding fluoride salts in minutes quantities to drinking water are being widely entertained in th© United States, and it has been suggested that local research on the subject might be undertaken. with advantage in New Zealand, which cannot afford to neglect any means of promoting dental health. It has been known for a. long time that relatively large concentrations of fluorides in drinking water cause mottling and pitting of .tooth enamel, but discourage decay. The discovery was shelved 'for a number of years until quite lately, when there was a .revival o c interest in it and investigations were made to fine! out whether lower concentrations had any effect. -Drinking Water Tests

Reports on carefully-made epidemiological studies were presented to a recent meeting of the American Public Health Association in/ New York by Dr. T. Trendley Dean, of the United States Publie Health Service, and Mr. Raymond J. Faust, assistant-engineer of the Michigan State Department of Health. These studies, Dr Dean stated, showed that school-children using domestic waters containing as little aS' one part in 1,000,000 of fluoride experienced only one-half to one-third as much dental decay as comparable groups using water containing no fluoride. The amount of fluoride needed to lessen/ dental decay was no more, and in some cases less, than the amount naturally present in water supplies now used daily by more than 1,000,000 people in the United States. It was not sufficient to cause mottling of the enamel. Far-reaching mass control of dental decay in large population groups began to loom up as a distinct possibility, Dr. Dean said, but communities should not be hasty about adding fluorides to their water supplies until careful studies had shown, whether this measure was safe in relation to other aspects of public health. Need for Caution

Mr. Faust’s report showed that there was n© engineering difficulty in the way of adding fluorides to a water supply, and that the cost would not bo excessive.

A Now Zealand dental authority who was asked about the matter said that it obviously called lor much further research before measures affecting large groups of people could bo taken with safety and assurance of good results. So far as he knew, no New Zealand water supplies contained appreciable quantities of fluorides. * Even if the procedure did all that was claimed for it, there would still be need to take all the present measures against decay.