Fluoride in water is of limited use as improvements in toothpaste have reduced its beneficial effects, research says

A new study suggests that adding fluoride to water supplies has only modest benefits for children’s dental health.

The mineral strengthens tooth enamel, but thanks to improvements in toothpaste over the past 50 years, the improvement in oral health from adding water has greatly diminished, according to a study from the Universities of Manchester and Cambridge.

But the researchers believe it is still a cost-effective way of cutting the NHS’s £1.7bn annual dental bill.

Around 10 per cent of the English population live in areas with water fluoridation. Last year, former health secretary Sajid Javid announced plans to introduce a national water fluoridation plan.

The study followed nearly 3,000 children in Cumbria for six years.

It studied a younger group from West Cumbria, born after water fluoridation was reintroduced to the water supply in 2013, so they could take full advantage of it.

A second older group, approximately five years old at the time of initiation, was studied for benefits for teeth already in the mouth.

The results were then compared with children from the rest of Cumbria, where water does not contain fluoride.

They found that 17.4 percent of younger children in fluoridated areas had decayed, filled or missing baby teeth.

That compares with 21.4 percent for their peers in non-fluoridated areas, according to results published in the journal Public Health Research.

Meanwhile, in the older cohort, 19.1 percent of children in fluoridated areas had decayed, filled or missing permanent teeth, compared to 21.9 percent of children in non-fluoridated areas.

Last year, former health secretary Sajid Javid (pictured) announced plans to introduce a national water fluoridation plan.

Funded by the research arm of the NHS – the National Institute for Health and Care Research – it was the first to consider the impact of a UK water fluoridation scheme since fluoridated toothpaste became widely available in the 1970s.

Dr Michaela Goodwin, from the University of Manchester, said: “While water fluoridation is likely to be cheap and has shown improvement in oral health, it should be considered alongside other options, particularly as the disease is concentrated in certain groups.

“Tooth decay is a non-trivial disease, which is why it is so important to take action to combat it.”

One in four five-year-olds in England suffers from tooth decay, and it is the leading cause of hospitalization for children aged five to nine.

In 2020, approximately 35,190 children were admitted to hospital to have decayed teeth removed.

Research from Public Health England suggests that adding fluoride to water can reduce the number of hospital admissions for tooth decay in young people by around half.

Last year, former health secretary Sajid Javid announced plans to roll out a national water fluoridation plan costing millions.

Professor Mike Kelly, a senior member of the University of Cambridge research team, said: ‘They (officials) can now make that decision based on the most recent information, not data that’s 40 years old and that’s really important .’