Fluoridation

In 2000, the U.S. Surgeon General released the first-ever report on oral health in America. In it, the Surgeon General reported that water fluoridation was one of the most cost-effective strategies for improving America’s oral health, specifically in the reduction of dental caries (cavities). More recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named water fluoridation one of the 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century.

The CDA Foundation strongly supports the fluoridation of community drinking water. In 1999, the CDA Foundation (at the time the CDA Research Fund) joined a statewide fluoridation coalition called the California Fluoridation Workgroup. The goal of the coalition was to develop a statewide fluoridation program, using funds provided from a California Endowment project grant, to increase the number of Californians receiving water fluoridation. That workgroup was a partnership of the CDA Foundation, California Dental Association, California Department of Health Services, and the Dental Health Foundation, as well as local and regional water officials, engineers and public awareness experts. These partners continue their work today, as the California Fluoridation Advisory Council, well after the California Endowment projects have been completed, to assist communities to initiate and preserve water fluoridation for the benefit of the oral health of their residents.

CDA Foundation advances fluoridation

Thanks to the CDA Foundation’s commitment to water fluoridation, California now has the largest number of residents receiving fluoridated water — an estimated 23.2 million residents (62.5 percent of the state population). The remarkable increase, a jump from 17 percent in the 1990s, earned California the State Fluoridation Initiative Award, in addition to special recognition for the CDA Foundation from the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors.

Additional Resources

• information on the benefits of water fluoridation
• patient fact sheet

Contact Associate Executive Director Jennifer Stolo for current and future CDA Foundation fluoridation efforts.

Contribute to the Fluoridation Program.

As part of the Fluoridation Advisory Council, the CDA Foundation is hoping to have 75% of all Californians drinking fluoridated water by the year 2010.