Oral Health America


National Center for Fluoridation

The National Center for Fluoridation (NCF) was developed in 1996, with the Center's Internet web site being established in 1998 to serve as a central repository for information regarding all aspects of community water fluoridation. The Center became a major program of Oral Health America in 2004. Currently, the Center's web site provides a means to link site visitors to a fairly substantial number of fluoridation, consumer protection, public health, & public health dentistry websites. Archival information, which includes consumer information, scientific documents, databases, multimedia productions, legal transcripts, educational materials, & other documents related to fluoridation research, litigation, legislation, & policy development, is being added to the web site's NCF Reference Library.

NCF was created to help fill the current void that exists within that network of scientists, educators, public officials, organizational representatives, & media concerned about the availability of reliable, timely, & scientifically-based information about community water fluoridation.

Affiliate Organizations:
Assoc. of State & Territorial Dental Directors
http://www.astdd.org

British Fluoridation Society
http://www.bfsweb.org

California Dental Association
http://www.cda.org

Hawai'i State Department of Health
http://www.hawaii.gov/health/family-child-health/dental/index.html



National Fluoridation Training Institute
http://nfti.org

Flags of Countries with NCF Collaborative Partners

FLUORIDATION - THE FOUNDATION FOR BETTER ORAL HEALTH

GOT TEETH ? GET FLUORIDE !
EVERY CHILD & ALL ADULTS DESERVE TO BE CAVITY FREE - FLUORIDATION HELPS MAKE THAT HAPPEN !

FLUORIDATION: IT'S SAFE, IT WORKS, IT'S FAIR !
--- Citizens for Healthy Teeth; Arcata, California

"Access to fluoride for dental health is a part of the basic human right to health."
--- World Health Assembly (World Health Organization, FDI World Dental Federation, and International Association for Dental Research, Nov. 2006)

Read What Leaders from the State of Texas Have to Say About Community Water Fluoridation !

Texas Department of State Health Services

"The wide implementation of community water fluoridation in Texas has resulted in substantial savings in publicly financed dental care under the Texas Health Steps (EPSDT-Medicaid) Program. Further savings may be made by implementing community water fluoridation in areas where it is lacking and feasible. Failure to implement this public dental preventive measure will continue to result in substantially greater costs of dental care in some Texas communities, including the costs of publicly financed dental care borne by all taxpayers." Excerpted from a Report of the Texas Department of Health, May 2000, in fulfillment of House Concurrent Resolution 145, Texas 75th Legislature, that required the Texas Department of Health to conduct a study of the cost of publicly financed dental care in relation to community water fluoridation.

Read What the World Health Organization Has to Say About Community Water Fluoridation !

"Water fluoridation in low fluoride-containing water supplies helps to maintain optimal dental tissue development & dental enamel resistance against caries attack during the entire life span. Fluoride in drinking water acts mainly through its retention in dental plaque & saliva. Frequent consumption of drinking water & products made with fluoridated water maintain intra-oral fluoride levels. People of all ages, including the elderly, benefit from community water fluoridation."

FLUORIDATION: NATURE THOUGHT OF IT FIRST !

Read What Recognized National Leaders Say About Community Water Fluoridation !

"Policy makers, community leaders, private industry, health professionals, the media, & the public should affirm that oral health is essential to general health & well being & take action to make ourselves, our families, & our communities healthier. I join previous Surgeons General in acknowledging the continuing public health role for community water fluoridation in enhancing the oral health of all Americans."

Vice Admiral Richard H. Carmona, MD, MPH, FACS, Surgeon General of the United States, 2002-2006

"Community water fluoridation remains one of the
great achievements of public health in the Twentieth
Century - an inexpensive means of improving oral health
that benefits all residents of a community, young & old,
rich & poor alike."

Dr. David Satcher
Surgeon General of the United States, 1998-2002

"Fluoridation is the single most important
commitment a community can make to the oral
health of its children & to future generations."

Dr. C. Everett Koop,
Surgeon General of the United States, 1981-1989

"We're the healthiest state in the country, except
for our teeth. Our children have the poorest teeth
in the country, & we're going to propose that
our water be fluoridated."

The Honorable Benjamin Cayetano, Governor of Hawai'i, 1995-2003
State of the State Address, December 22, 1999

"More than 70% of Texans drink community fluoridated water,
but tooth decay is twice as high in San Antonio as in any other
Texas city. Fluoride should be put in the drinking water because
it will prevent tooth decay & save money in medical costs."

The Honorable Ed Garza, Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, 2001-2005

"As one of the nation's largest dental benefits systems, we fully believe fluoridation significantly helps offset dental benefits utilization, which in turn drives down the premiums we charge to companies & businesses offering our programs to their employees in fluoridated areas."

Jeff Album, Director of Public Affairs, Delta Dental Plan of California and chief spokesperson for the parent holding company of the system that includes Delta Dental Plan of California, Delta Dental of Pennsylvania, & affiliates in 16 states & the District of Columbia, with 17.6 million enrollees.

Read What a Recognized International Leader Said about the Moral Necessity for State & Local Governments to Promote Social & Public Health Programs (Like Community Water Fluoridation) that, While Protecting All Citizens, Especially Benefit Certain Groups !

"The moral test of government & all of society is
how we treat those who are at the dawn of life, the children;
those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; &
those who are in the shadow of life, the needy
& handicapped or disabled"

The Honorable Hubert H. Humphrey, U. S. Senator, 1962

Addressing the Ethics of Fluoridation !

"In considering the ethics of fluoridation, one might question & ask if fellow citizens are entitled to impose not only a disadvantage on the community at large, but impose actual deaths and the risk of death on children for the sake of a minor diminution in the range of choices available?"

"We should ask not are we entitled to impose fluoridation on unwilling people, but are the unwilling people entitled to impose the risks, damage & costs of the failure to fluoridate on the community at large? When we compare the freedoms at stake, the most crucial is surely the one which involves liberation from pain & disease."

Professor John Harris; Centre for Social Ethics & Policy; University of Manchester, England

Flags of States with NCF Collaborative Partners





Flags from Canada where NCF has Collaborative Partners




Flags from the United Kingdom where NCF has Collaborative Partners

Notable Quotes:

"The simple truth is that there's no 'scientific controversy' over the safety of fluoridation. The practice is safe, economical, and beneficial. The survival of this fake controversy represents, in CU's opinion, one of the major triumphs of quackery over science in our generation."

- - - - - Consumer Reports: A Two Part Report on Fluoridation. July 1978 & August 1978; Consumers Union; Mount Vernon, New York 10550.

"........fluorine is an essential element to mammals, including humans."

- - - - - National Research Council Canada; March 18, 2003

"Fluoridation is scientifically supported, it is legal, and it is our policy, but only two or three areas currently have it, and we need to go much further in areas where dental health needs to be improved."

- - - - - Alan Johnson, Health Secretary, United Kingdom; April 7, 2008

"Fluoride is not a mysterious substance. It's not an experiment. You're not being asked to approve something that's been built on uncertain findings. Does everyone agree with me? Not by a long shot. But I have to tell you, they're wrong. I never lied to you as the surgeon general. And the people who oppose the fluoridation of water don't know what they're talking about."

- - - - - Dr C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General, as reported by Allison Steele; The Concord Monitor; Concord, New Hampshire; Sep 12, 2004.

"We've arranged a global civilization in which most critical elements depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster."

- - - - - Dr. Carl Sagan

".........and thus explains the folly of those opposed to community water fluoridation! While small, the smoldering antifluoridationism movement serves as an excellent example of the price America has paid for the decades it neglected science education."

- - - - - Dr. Michael W. Easley

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."

- - - - - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Strength to Love Speech, 1963.

"Michael Phelps might be the best thing to happen to water since fluoridation."

- - - - - Tim Sullivan, The San Diego Union-Tribune, August 17, 2008.

Oral Health America's National Center for Fluoridation

Michael W. Easley, D.D.S., M.P.H.; Director
Elizabeth Rogers; Webmaster

For technical information about the website, contact our Webmaster at: liz@oralhealthamerica.org

For further information regarding website content, contact Dr. Easley at: fluoride@earthlink.net

Oral Health America is the only national, independent 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to improving oral health for all Americans.

ORAL HEALTH AMERICA
410 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 352
Chicago, IL 60611
Tel. (312) 836-9900
FAX (312) 836-9986
http://www.oralhealthamerica.org

Latest Revision: August 17, 2008