(WashingtonsBlog) – Everyone agrees that the number of cavities have plummeted in the U.S. over the last couple of decades, after water fluoridation was introduced (that is why health officials call water fluoridation “one of the ten greatest public health accomplishments of the last century”).

That proves that water fluoridation fights cavities, right?

It would, of course, if the cavity levels have not also plummeted in countries which do not fluoridate their water.

Let’s take a look at the scientific literature to get an unvarnished picture on the trends.

Cavity Levels Have Only Plummeted In the U.S. And Other Countries Which Fluoridate Water, Right?

Science magazine noted in 1982:

The decline in caries [the scientific term for "cavities"] prevalence in communities without fluoridated water in various countries is well documented. The cause or causes are, at this time, a matter of speculation.

The Journal of Public Health Dentistry noted in 1985:

Even the most cursory review of the dental literature since 1978 reveals a wealth of data documenting a secular, or long term, generalized decline in dental caries throughout the Western, industrialized world. Reports indicate that this decline has occurred in both fluoridated and fluoride-deficient areas, and in the presence and absence of organized preventive programs.

The prestigious science journal Nature noted in 1986:

[D]uring the period 1979-81, especially in western Europe where there is little fluoridation, a number of dental examinations were made and compared with surveys carried out a decade or so before. It soon became clear that large reductions in caries had been occurring in unfluoridated areas. The magnitudes of these reductions are generally comparable with those observed in fluoridated areas over similar periods of time

The Journal of the American Dental Association noted in 1988:

The current reported decline in caries tooth decay in the US and other Western industrialized countries has been observed in both fluoridated and nonfluoridated communities, with percentage reductions in each community apparently about the same

The Boston Globe reported in 1989:

The debate over fluoridating public water supplies, a measure long credited with producing a dramatic drop in tooth decay in the United States, is being rekindled by new studies suggesting the decline may have more to do with other causes, including other sources of fluoride.

The most exhaustive study ever conducted on the dental health of American children, conducted in 1986-87, has confirmed the great decline in cavities in the last 10 years, but it found much less difference than expected between areas with and without fluoridated water.

The Journal of Public Health Dentistry noted in 1991:

During the past 40 years dental caries has been declining in the US, as well as in most other developed nations of the world… The decline in dental caries has occurred both in fluoride and in fluoride-deficient communities, lending further credence to the notion that modes other than water fluoridation, especially dentrifices, have made a major contribution.

The Critical Review of Oral Biology and Medicine noted in 2002:

It is remarkable, however, that the dramatic decline in dental caries which we have witnessed in many different parts of the world (for reviews, see Glass, 1982; Fejerskov and Baelum, 1998) has occurred without the dental profession being fully able to explain the relative role of fluoride in this intriguing process. It is a common belief that the wide distribution of fluoride from toothpastes may be a major explanation (Bratthall et al., 1996), but serious attempts to assess the role of fluoridated toothpastes have been able to attribute, at best, about 40-50% of the caries reduction to these fluoride products (Marthaler, 1990; Scheie, 1992). This is not surprising, if one takes into account the fact that dental caries is not the result of fluoride deficiency.

The International Society of Fluoride Research noted in 2005:

Graphs of tooth decay trends for 12 year olds in 24 countries, prepared using the most recent World Health Organization data, show that the decline in dental decay in recent decades has been comparable in 16 nonfluoridated countries and 8 fluoridated countries which met the inclusion criteria of having (i) a mean annual per capita income in the year 2000 of US$10,000 or more, (ii) a population in the year 2000 of greater than 3 million, and (iii) suitable WHO caries data available. The WHO data do not support fluoridation as being a reason for the decline in dental decay in 12 year olds that has been occurring in recent decades.

The British Medical Journal noted in a 2007 paper:

Although the prevalence of caries [i.e. cavities] varies between countries, levels everywhere have fallen greatly in the past three decades, and national rates of caries are now universally low. This trend has occurred regardless of the concentration of fluoride in water or the use of fluoridated salt, and it probably reflects use of fluoridated toothpastes and other factors, including perhaps aspects of nutrition.

Clinical Oral Investigations noted in 2007:

In most European countries, where community water fluoridation has never been adopted, a substantial decline in caries prevalence has been reported in the last decades, with reductions in lifetime caries experience exceeding 75%.

And the Globe and Mail wrote last year:

There has also been a worldwide reduction in cavity rates, regardless of whether countries use the chemical, suggesting factors other than adding it to water supplies are at work.

And data published by the World Health Organization shows this dramatic plunge in cavities in virtually all countries (chart courtesy of Chris Neueth, Fluoride Action Network):

Several prominent leaders of the pro-water fluoridation movement have recently admitted publicly that they were wrong, including:

• John Colquhoun, DDS, Principal Dental Officer for Auckland, New Zealand and chair of that country’s Fluoridation Promotion Committee, reviewed New Zealand’s dental statistics in an effort to convince skeptics that fluoridation was beneficial and found that tooth decay rates were the same in fluoridated and nonfluoridated places, which prompted him to re-examine the classic fluoridation studies. He withdrew his support for it in “Why I Changed my Mind About Water Fluoridation” (Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 1997;41:29—44).

• Richard G. Foulkes, MD, a health care administrator and former assistant professor in the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia also switched from pro to anti-water fluoridation after studying the issue.

• And Dr. Hardy Limeback PhD, DDS – one of the 12 scientists who served on the 2006 National Academy of Sciences review of fluoride, and Head of Preventive Dentistry at University of Toronto – wrote “Why I am Now Officially Opposed to Adding Fluoride to Drinking Water.”

And see this testimony to Congress by PhD chemist William Hirzy, who – at the time of the hearing – was Senior Vice-President of the union representing EPA toxicologists, biologists, chemists, engineer and lawyers:

Source: Washington’s Blog

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