Major studies show almost no benefit

It’s yet another nail in the coffin for water fluoridation: A major, extensive review, and the largest study on the effectiveness of fluoridation for adults ever conducted, have both confirmed there is almost NO BENEFIT from adding fluoridation chemicals to our drinking water. And with the US Federal Court ruling that fluoride damages the health of our children, not to mention all the other harms, it’s time to stop this ineffective, costly and health-damaging intervention.

After a thorough search and review of available studies on the effectiveness of water fluoridation for the prevention of tooth decay, the Cochrane Collaboration – highly respected globally for its independent reviews of health interventions – has just released its updated assessment.

The Cochrane team concluded that contemporary evidence shows a possible reduction in cavities of less than four percent, and there may be no benefit at all. The report said the average benefit was only about “one quarter of a tooth,” which is one cavity in every four children.

While studies conducted in the 1970s showed young children in fluoridated areas may have saved as many as four cavities in their baby teeth, the most recent study from 2022 found a reduction of only 0.16 decayed teeth.

This represents a 25-fold decline in fluoridation effectiveness to an amount so small as to be of questionable clinical or public health value, and likely a net economic loss rather than benefit.

The Cochrane report’s main conclusions were:

“Adding fluoride to water may slightly increase the number of children who have no tooth decay in either their baby teeth or permanent teeth. However, these results also included the possibility of little or no difference in tooth decay.”

“We could not be sure whether adding fluoride to water reduced tooth decay in children’s permanent teeth.”

“We were unsure whether there were any effects on tooth decay when fluoride is removed from a water supply.”

“We were unsure if fluoride reduces differences in tooth decay between richer and poorer people.”

The Cochrane report could only include 22 studies of acceptable quality for children, and none for adults, highlighting the glaring lack of quality studies of fluoridation’s effectiveness despite regular claims by fluoridation proponents that thousands of studies prove effectiveness.

The Cochrane review’s search cutoff was in 2023, so it did not include the LOTUS study of more than six million adults in England. Published in January 2024, the LOTUS study was the largest, strongest study of fluoridation effectiveness in adults ever conducted and found virtually no benefit: a lifetime reduction in decay of only two per cent. The LOTUS study authors concluded:

“This study suggests that exposure to optimal water fluoridation between 2010 and 2020 resulted in ‘exceedingly small’ health effects, ‘very small’ reductions in NHS dental service utilization, and no meaningful reduction in social inequalities.” [Moore 2024, p. 7]

“Fluoridation is a house of cards and it’s going to fall,” said Rick North, Director of Fluoride Action Network. “It’s only a matter of when”.

On 24 September the US Federal Court ruled to order the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take regulatory action to eliminate the “unreasonable risk” to the health of children posed by the practice of water fluoridation. Since then, multiple cities and counties across America have suddenly ceased adding fluoridation chemicals to their water supplies. More details about this 7-year court trial here.

And that US court ruling was based on a maximum fluoridation rate in the US of 0.7mg per litre, while Queensland normally uses a fluoridation rate of 0.8mg per litre. Even worse, the maximum rate in Australia is 1.1mg per litre – a massive 57 percent more fluoridation chemicals than America.