Flouride in water supply

November 15, 2010

If you have a private well that supplies water to your home, please talk to us at your next office visit.  We will want to test your water’s fluoride content.  Well water along the coast used to have adequate concentrations of fluoride to promote your child’s oral health.  That situation is no longer true.  Currently, 70% of our area’s wells have deficient concentrations of fluoride and will cause your child to have increased dental problems.  We will be happy to provide you with a well water test kit.  Simply run your cold water for 3 minutes and then fill our test bottle with your water.  Return the specimen to our office and we will have it tested and tell you what action is needed.  Also, we want to caution you that bottled (distilled) water does not contain fluoride and is not recommended for children between the ages of 6 months and 16 years.  “Nursery” water does have fluoride added.  Talk to us about when it is appropriate to use this product. 

We suggest that all of our patients know the flouride content of their municipal water supply.  You may get this information from the CDC web site @ http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/MWF/index.asp

The ideal concentration currently is 0.7-1.2 ppm.  If your water source has a concentration outside of this range, please discuss this with us at your next visit.  Please be aware we have information that this ideal range may be modified in 2011.  We will let you know if this happens.

As anticipated, the CDC has made long awaited revisions to the fluoride dosing guidelines.  They are now recommending use of the lower limits of the previous dose suggestions.  As noted below, a level of 0.7 to 1.2 ppm of fluoride was considered optimal for all drinking water sources.  The CDC now suggests that 0.7 ppm be the target dose.  We would be happy to discuss the impact that this CDC policy will have on your family.  The optimal dose for each child may well be different and is dictated by a number of factors:  age, health problems, risk factors, toothpaste use, diet, milk source (breast? formula? powder? ready to feed? concentrate? volume? feeding schedule? etc.)  The January 8, 2011 Charleston Post and Courier has a very readable article by David Slade on this topic.  Dr. Hletko is quoted in this article; the text is available on line.