Why add fluoride to the water?
Although all water contains some natural level of fluoride, only a few places (Hartlepool, in the North East of England, parts of Derbyshire, Uttoxeter in Staffordshire and a small part of Hampshire and Berkshire) have enough natural fluoride at a level considered to benefit dental health. Children living in poorer areas where the water supplies are not fluoridated can have up to five times more decay than children living in more affluent or fluoridated areas. Reviews of the scientific evidence suggest that adding fluoride to the water is the best way of reducing these ‘dental inequalities’.
