Dental caries remain a public health problem for many developing countries and for underprivileged populations in developed countries. This paper outlines the historical development of public health approaches to the use of fluoride and comments on their effectiveness. Early research and development was concerned with waterborne fluorides, both naturally occurring and added, and their effects o...

OBJECTIVES One argument made in favour of drinking water fluoridation is that it is equitable in its impact on oral health. We examined the association between exposure to fluoridation and oral health inequities among Canadian children.PARTICIPANTS, SETTING AND INTERVENTION: We analyzed data from 1,017 children aged 6-11 from Cycle 1 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey, a cross-sectional, na...

Despite great improvements in the oral health of populations across the world, problems still persist particularly among poor and disadvantaged groups in both developed and developing countries. According to the World Oral Health Report 2003, dental caries remains a major public health problem in most industrialized countries, affecting 60-90% of schoolchildren and the vast majority of adults. ...

and severity of dental caries among children in the Republic of Ireland has declined dramatically since the 1960s. Much of this decline has been attributed to the availability of fluoride, through water fluoridation and also through the home use of fluoride toothpastes. 1,2 However, in spite of the overall improvement in dental health, caries remains a very common disease among Irish children, ...

BACKGROUND Dental caries is a major public health problem in most industrialised countries, affecting 60% to 90% of school children. Community water fluoridation was initiated in the USA in 1945 and is currently practised in about 25 countries around the world; health authorities consider it to be a key strategy for preventing dental caries. Given the continued interest in this topic from healt...

In this article, we summarise research that identifies best practice for communicating about hazards where the risk is low but public concern is high. We apply Peter Sandman's 'risk = hazard + outrage' formulation to these risks, and review factors associated with the amplification of risk signals. We discuss the structures that determine the success of risk communication strategies, such as th...

The proposed plan consists of three parts: (1) a programme for the promotion of community water fluoridation and other approved methods for the prevention of dental caries; (2) a plan for coordinated study and research into the etiology and prevention of dental caries and related problems; and (3) a plan for an information gathering and dissemination system which is expected to link the prevent...

AIM This study aims to estimate the cost-effectiveness from a societal perspective of seven dental caries prevention programmes among schoolchildren in Chile: three community-based programmes: water-fluoridation, salt-fluoridation and dental sealants; and four school-based programmes: milk-fluoridation; fluoridated mouthrinses (FMR); APF-Gel, and supervised toothbrushing with fluoride toothpast...

appearing to slowly swing away from the value of fluoridating tap water, the United States Department of Health and Human Services has indicated that it will lower the recommended level of fluoride to be added to drinking water. The partial retreat comes on the heels of city of Calgary, Alberta’s decision to discontinue fluoridation of its drinking water in a bid to save $750 000 per year in di...