Written question asked by Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (Crossbench), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Darzi of Denham (Labour) on Monday, 17 November 2008.

Fluoridation

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the purpose of fluoridation schemes in the United Kingdom is to improve dental health; and, if so, what benefits water fluoridation brings to children within the area of a scheme.

Answer: Water fluoridation offers the potential to reduce inequalities in oral health amongst children and adults. A Systematic Review of Public Water Fluoridation, published by the University of York in 2000, concluded that the fluoridation of drinking water achieves a 14.8 per cent reduction in the proportion of children who are free of dental caries and that children in fluoridated areas had, on average, 2.25 fewer teeth affected by decay than children in non-fluoridated areas. This has been estimated as equivalent to an overall 40 per cent reduction in tooth decay. In 2002, the US Task Force on Community Preventive Services published a report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine which concluded that, overall, lifelong residents of fluoridated areas had 34.6 per cent less tooth decay than lifelong residents of non-fluoridated areas.

Secondary information