Thursday, June 18, 2015

Fluoridation Fails North Carolina

87.5% of North Carolina is fluoridated. Yet,  “Forty percent of children in North Carolina start school with dental disease,”




Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Fluoridation fails San Francisco, California

San Francisco is fluoridated, yet  nearly 40 percent of San Francisco children turn up with tooth decay by the time they reach kindergarten, public health experts have seen enough. They want to make the city a cavity-free zone.



 "San Francisco’s children have a higher percent of cavities than the
national average at 33 percent, according to federal government
statistics"



"Between 2000 and 2012, the difference between white children and
those who are Chinese, Latino and African American as measured by the
percentage of cavities has increased by 7 percent in San Francisco, the
statistics show.


This is all while the overall oral health of San Francisco’s children has improved over the past decade."







Health leaders try to cut kids’ cavities, improve access to care - SFGate:

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Fluoridation Fails San Francisco, California

High levels of tooth decay reported among Mission's Latino youth | Neighborhoods | San Francisco | San Francisco Examiner:



For example, 32 percent of kindergartners living in the 94110 ZIP code of the Mission experienced tooth decay in the 2013-14 school year compared to 53 percent in ZIP code 94108, which includes the southern portion of Chinatown, and 45 percent in ZIP code 94133 in the northern part of Chinatown.

However, 436 predominantly Latino kindergartners had tooth decay in the Mission ZIP code, while 60 were affected in the 94108 ZIP code in southern Chinatown and 96 in the 94133 ZIP code in northern Chinatown, according to data from the San Francisco Unified School District’s Kindergarten Oral Health Screening Program, analyzed by the Department of Public Health.

Health officials suspect cultural issues play into the high rates of tooth decay among Latinos and other minorities.

“Hispanic Americans traditionally don’t drink water here because in their countries, the tap water is not safe,” said Margaret Fisher, an oral health consultant with the Department of Public Health. “Bottled water doesn’t have fluoride, which is a mineral that protects the teeth, and is in San Francisco tap water.”

In addition, Latino families often gift sweet foods to children and “it’s not interpreted as giving them dental decay,” Fisher said. Meanwhile, Chinatown has a large immigrant population that holds on to their home country’s belief that baby teeth aren’t important and will be replaced by permanent teeth anyway.

A major problem is the limited number of dentists that take DentiCal. At the community meeting at the Mission Neighborhood Centers Head Start/Early Head Start, Irene Hilton, a dentist at the department’s Silver Avenue Family Health Center, mentioned that Western Dental — one of The City’s largest dental providers — recently announced they will no longer accept DentiCal.

The collaborative, led by the SF Department of Public Health and UC San Francisco, includes dental health providers, school officials and advocates with a strategic plan toward making The City cavity-free. As part of its effort to increase access, the collaborative is pushing a couple of initiatives.

Monday, June 01, 2015

Fluoridation Fails Rhode Island

Rhode Island is 84% fluoridated, Yet, hundreds lined up — some even camped out — for the fourth annual Mission of Mercy free dental clinic, now in its fourth year.



This weekend, close to 1000 patients were seen for a variety of dental needs: infected or broken teeth, cavities; some to have their wisdom teeth removed.



"There's just such a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots," said Dr. Ken Rudman, a volunteer who has a practice in Warwick.



Free dental clinic attracts nearly 1,000 - News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England