• In the United States, the District of Columbia (DC) has attained 100 percent water fluoridation. Eleven states have surpassed 90 percent water fluoridation and another eleven have achieved more than 80 percent fluoridation of communities with a public water supply.
  
  
• Water fluoridation protects more than 300 million people in 40 countries worldwide. In the United States, approximately 162 million people in thousands of communities receive the benefits of optimally fluoridated water, or 65.8 percent of the 246 million residents on central water supplies.
  
  
• Forty-four of the 50 largest U.S. cities are fluoridated. Boston, Massachusetts has been fluoridated for 30 years.
  
  
• At least ten States and territories currently mandate water fluoridation through legislation including California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
  
  
• In Massachusetts, 3.7 million people in 135 communities receive fluoridated water. There are still 161 cities/towns in Massachusetts with a central water supply that are not fluoridated. Nationally, Massachusetts ranks 35th in the percentage of population that drinks fluoridated water.
  
  
• Studies show that water fluoridation results in up to 35 percent less tooth decay in adults and 60 percent less tooth decay in children.
  
  
• If fluoridation is discontinued, its benefits can be reversed, and there will be an increase in the number of cavities in a community. Antigo, Wisconsin began fluoridation in 1949 and ceased it in 1960. Five years later, after up to a doubling of tooth decay in some elementary school children, it was reinstituted.
  
  
• Fluoride is a mineral that occurs in almost all food and water supplies and comes from the element fluorine, the 13th most abundant element in the earth's crust. It exists only in combination with other elements as a fluoride compound.
  
  
• Fluoride is all-natural and is found in rocks and water. It acts as nature's cavity-fighter the same way naturally occurring drugs have produced medicines that protect human health.
  
  
• Fluoride prevents tooth decay and helps repair the early stages of dental problems even before decay becomes visible.
  
  
• Fluoride makes the tooth structure stronger so teeth are more resistant to acid attacks formed when the bacteria in plaque break down sugars and carbohydrates in the diet.
  
  
• Fluoride acts to repair or remineralize areas in which acid attacks have already begun, and reduces potential enamel destruction.
  
  
• During tooth development, fluoride is incorporated into the developing tooth's mineralized structure and increases resistance to demineralization when the tooth surface is exposed to organic acids.
  
  
• Fluoride has caused a significant drop in the level of cavities since its use, especially since its wide-reaching use in about 1960 when it was put into toothpaste.
  
  
• Dental fluorosis or "mottled enamel" can only occur during the period when teeth are developing. Once teeth are formed, fluorosis can no longer occur. The mildest form of dental fluorosis may appear in about ten percent of those exposed to optimally fluoridated water - it is aesthetically undetectable and of no clinical significance other than the fact that it provides enhanced resistance to dental decay.
  
  
• For children aged six months to 16 years who do not live in areas with fluoridated water, dietary fluoride supplements including tablets, drops, or lozenges can be used for caries prevention.
  
  
• While fluoride opponents have garnered much publicity in recent years, none of their claims have ever been proved.
  
  
• More than 65 major national and international medical, scientific, dental, and public health organizations have endorsed fluoride, including such world-renowned institutions as the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, the Mayo Clinic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American School Health Association, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the National Health Council, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, Great Britain's Ministry of Health, the Canadian Public Health Association, and the World Health Organization.
  

Flouride Facts (PDF)

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