Premium
The Results of Water Fluoridation in Ireland
Author(s) -
O'Mullane Denis,
Whelton Helen P.,
Costelloe Pat,
McDermott Stephen,
McLoughlin Jacinta
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of public health dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1752-7325
pISSN - 0022-4006
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-7325.1996.tb02449.x
Subject(s) - water fluoridation , journal of public health , public health , environmental health , oral health , medicine , geography , dentistry , socioeconomics , environmental protection , health policy , public health policy , nursing , sociology , inorganic chemistry , chemistry , fluoride
The visit of Dr. Trendley Dean to Dublin in the mid‐1950s helped accelerate the decision to introduce water fluoridation as a public health measure in the prevention of caries in the Republic of Ireland. A challenge to the constitutional validity of the Health (Fluoridation of Water Supplies) Act 1960 failed and in 1964 the water supplies of Dublin city were fluoridated. Over the next seven to eight years all the major urban communities in the Republic of Ireland were fluoridated. Currently, 67 percent of the 3.5 million people in the country reside in fluoridated communities. Studies conducted over the last 20 years show that residents of fluoridated communities have better dental health than those in nonfluoridated communities—the mean dmft is lower in children and the number of natural teeth present in adults is higher.