npdc news
| Bottled water has decay on the rise
Over 60 years ago cities in the United States began the process of adding 0 .7 parts per million of fluoride in the municipal water system. In 1999 the Center for Disease Control (cdc.com) proclaimed community water fluoridation as one of the ten great public health achievements of the 20th century. On average tooth decay in children dropped 30 % when fluoride was added to water supplies.
With the recent trend of drinking bottled water, the incidence of tooth decay in children is rising again. Most bottled water undergoes reverse osmosis or distillation which removes all fluoride. In a study from 1999 to 2005, it was found the increase of tooth decay in children between the ages of two to five increased from 24% to 28%. A small jump of 4% may not sound like much but it represents tens of thousands of children.
On average it costs 72 cents per person per year to fluoridate water. A lifetime of preventive treatment is less expensive than one dental filling.
