The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Aug. 16 issued a series of recommendations for fluoride use, underscoring its safety and benefits in preventing oral disease.
"Recommendations for Using Fluoride to Prevent and Control Dental Caries in the United States," available on the CDC’s Web site at "www.cdc.gov/mmwr/mmwr_rr.html", is intended to provide guidance to dental and health care providers, public health officials and the general public on the best practices in using fluoride to prevent tooth decay, the CDC said in a news release.
The recommendations were published in the Aug. 17 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: Recommendations and Reports.
"The CDC fluoride recommendations reinforce the safety and efficacy of using fluoride to prevent oral disease and underscore the need to provide community water fluoridation to more Americans," ADA President Robert M. Anderton said in a statement. "These recommendations also confirm the Association’s long-held position that community water fluoridation is safe and effective in preventing dental decay in both children and adults."
"With multiple sources of fluoride available to us, we want to ensure that every family member gets fluoride in the right amount, right place, and at the right time," CDC Division of Oral Health director William R. Maas said in the CDC news release. "These new recommendations will provide the framework for effective and efficient fluoride use in today’s environment of multiple sources of fluoride."
In addition to continued and expanded fluoridation of community drinking water, other CDC recommendations include:
- – frequent use of small amounts of fluoride for all ages;
- – judicious use of fluoride supplements;
- – parental monitoring of fluoride intake for children younger than 6 years;
- – fluoride concentration labeling on bottled water products;
- – education for health professionals and the public, as well as further research.
"Our hope is that federal, state and municipal governments will take their cue from the CDC and increase their efforts to bring fluoridated water to as many communities as possible," the ADA’s Dr. Anderton said.
Selected by the CDC as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century, community water fluoridation was cited in last year’s Report of the Surgeon General on Oral Health in America as "the cornerstone of caries prevention in the United States."
More information on fluorides and water fluoridation is available online in the ADA.org Topical Index at "www.ada.org/prof/prac/issues/topics/fluoride.html".
