Sir, – Declan Waugh (July 31st), suggests very strongly that we should cease to have fluoridated water supplies. He quotes theoretical evidence that fluoride causes cancer, hip fractures, neurological diseases and even tooth damage. What nonsense! I doubt if any oncologist, neurologist or orthopaedic specialist would agree with him.
Having returned from England I started to practise dentistry in Dublin in 1954, I was horrified at the appalling dental condition of my patients. Each day I was confronted with mouths of rotting teeth. Many were beyond conservation and multiple extractions under general anaesthetic and dentures were the only treatment.
In the 1960s it became mandatory for local authorities to fluoridate their drinking water, one part per million. I lived and practised during the ensuing years and the change was bewildering. I started to see young teenagers with no decayed, filled or missing teeth. I have often told my friends and colleagues that I now practised during the golden days of conservative dentistry.
I have no doubt that if this minimal amount of fluoride were to be removed from our drinking water we should soon revert to an inevitable increase in tooth decay. – Yours, etc,