Dental care professionals welcome plans to expand water fluoridation schemes

Dental surgeons also support the 9pm watershed being introduced, which will prevent adverts for foods that are high in fat, sugar and salt being broadcast on television before young children go to bed. The plans were given Royal Assent today as the Health and Care Bill became law.

Dr Charlotte Eckhardt, vice dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgeons at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said, “We fully support the new legislation to allow the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to expand water fluoridation across the UK. Fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure to reduce dental decay and health inequalities. Nearly a quarter of five-year-olds experience tooth decay and around 38,000 children and young people have teeth removed in hospital every year. Yet only 10 per cent of the population in England live in areas with fluoridation schemes. If all five-year-olds in England drank fluoridated water, we would see much less tooth decay – 17 per cent less in wealthy areas and 28 per cent less in the most deprived areas.