![]() McKay and Kempf published a report on their findings that reached the desk of the chief chemist, H. Second, they found that teeth afflicted by Colorado Brown Stain were surprisingly and inexplicably resistant to decay. This finding meant that city residents whose permanent teeth had calcified without developing the stains did not risk having their teeth turn brown young children waiting for their secondary set of teeth to erupt, however, were at high risk. First, they showed that mottled enamel (as Black referred to the condition) resulted from developmental imperfections in children's teeth. During that period, he and McKay made two crucial discoveries. Black investigated fluorosis for 6 years, until his death in 1915. ![]() Black conducted a study showing that almost 90% of the city's locally born children had signs of the brown stains. Although dental caries remains a public health worry, it is no longer the unbridled problem it once was, thanks to fluoride.įluoride research had its beginnings in 1901, when Frederick McKay was astounded to find scores of Colorado Springs natives with grotesque brown stains on their teeth known as Colorado Brown Stain. This is the story of how dental science discovered – and ultimately proved to the world – that fluoride, a mineral found in rocks and soil, prevents tooth decay. It ended, five decades later, as a scientific revolution that shot dentistry into the forefront of preventive medicine. It started as an observation and soon took the shape of an idea. Those opposed argue that water fluoridation has no or little cariostatic benefits, may cause serious health problems, is not effective enough to justify the costs, and is pharmacologically obsolete. Authorities' views on the most effective fluoride therapy for community prevention of tooth decay are mixed some state water fluoridation is most effective, whereas others see no special advantage and prefer topical application strategies. Public health authorities throughout the world find a medical consensus that water fluoridation at appropriate levels is a safe and effective means to prevent dental caries. The water fluoridation controversy arises from political, moral, ethical, economic, and safety concerns regarding the fluoridation of public water supplies. It forms the foundation for sound community caries-prevention programs. According to the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention, fluoridation of community drinking water is a safe, cost-effective, and efficient strategy of reducing dental decay among Americans of all ages and from all social strata. There are similar belts in the Americas and Japan. Known fluoride belts on land include one that stretches from Syria through Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, and Kenya and another that stretches from Turkey through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, northern Thailand, and China. ![]() Fluoride is a mineral that occurs naturally in most water supplies and is of geological origin. However, on an average, the optimum fluoride level in drinking water is calibrated at 1.0 ppm worldwide (0.7–1.2 ppm). Fluoride levels of 0.5 ppm are recommended in warm climates because more water is consumed and levels as high as 1.5 ppm are regarded as optimum in cold climate where less water is consumed. An optimum level of fluoride according to the climate varies and is universally calculated by applying the equation of Galagan and Vermillion. Fluoridation can be defined as the upward or downward adjustment of the level of fluoride content in drinking water to an optimal level just enough to prevent caries but not to cause fluorosis. This historical review highlights the distribution of fluoride worldwide and in India and also discusses about the various claims of the antifluoride lobby.įluoridation of drinking water supply is an established top 10 public health achievements of the 20 th century. This problem is more prevalent in countries with presence of natural fluoride belts that extend from Turkey to China and Japan through Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan increasing the chances of both dental and skeletal fluorosis and hence increasing the focus toward defluoridation. Although topical fluoride is still being widely used as a preventive measure for dental caries, systemic administration of the same has gained major criticism worldwide due to the low margin of safety of fluoride and no control over the amount of individual intake when administered on a community level. Since then, there has been a lot of research on both topical and systemic fluoridation in an overzealous attempt to control the most debilitating dental problem of caries. The discovery of fluoride in dentistry has revolutionized treatment modalities with a new aspect of prevention and conservation of tooth structure coming into foreplay.
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