Mackay dentist calls for fluoride to be mandated after seeing horror tooth problems for kids
A dentist who had to remove every single tooth out of the mouths of five children in 12 months has made a plea for fluoride to be added to the water.
Regional News
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A Mackay dentist has told how she had to remove every single tooth from the mouths of multiple children as Queensland councils are being urged to rethink their moved to remove fluoride from the water.
Dr Carly Featherstone has spent the past year practicing at the Mackay Base Hospital and in that time performed full mouth clearances on four or five children around the age of five, a process which removes every tooth.
Being toothless can lead to psychological problems for the kids, she said.
Without baby teeth holding them in place, adult teeth can erupt at “all sorts of time”, meaning braces are usually needed later in life.
Dental experts have labelled Queensland as severely behind Victoria, NSW, WA and Tasmania for fluoride coverage.
The tasteless, colourless chemical strengthens teeth, and is particularly effective for young people, reducing tooth decay by 24 per cent to 44 per cent in children and adolescents.
The Australian Medical Association Queensland branch has campaigned heavily for fluoride to be universal, writing to local councils and pleading to consider the health of kids.
Mackay Regional Council voted 6-5 to remove fluoride in 2016 after a public debate, less than a generation after it was mandated by the Bligh government in 2009.
Mackay mayor Greg Williamson along with then-deputy mayor and now Whitsunday LNP MP Amanda Camm voted to remove it.
Mr Williamson said the decision “followed extensive community consultation, including a telephone survey, a community forum and online consultation”.
After the vote, the mayor conceded the medical community would be unhappy with the decision.
Dr Featherstone — who coincidentally practices at a dental clinic owned by the mayor’s son — said kids’ teeth problems would have “absolutely” gotten worse since fluoride was removed.
“Water fluoridation is such an easy thing to do, you’re constantly drinking the water so you don’t think about it whereas brushing kids teeth is a lot more difficult,” Dr Featherstone said.
Clarity Dental founder and dentist Dr Peter Loveday believed mandatory fluoridation was more “complicated” without a simple yes or no answer.
He said comparisons in Mackay are made harder by the short amount of time the water was fluoridated before being turned off.
“Conversely I do come from England and when I practised in the UK I definitely did see benefits in kids teeth from fluoride which in comparison I did think the kids teeth were slightly better than kids over here,“ Dr Loveday said.
“I’m still a strong believer that diet is more important than medication in the water.”
Dr Loveday said research showed adding “as little one part per millionth” fluoride to the water supply reduced dental decay in kids.
He said he was concerned about forcing people who don’t need fluoride to have it, but added “at the end of the day the people most in need are the people least likely to seek attention.”
“Fluoride is not 100 per cent the answer, but it’s part of the answer,” Dr Loveday said.
Whitsunday spends money to add, remove fluoride facilities
The Whitsunday Regional Council currently does not add fluoride to the region’s water supply, despite Bowen and Proserpine water having built treatment plants housing fluoride facilities since 2013.
The fluoride facilities were originally added to ensure compliance with fluoride mandates, but when the decision was put back in the hands of local council it was decided to be too costly.
In a 10 April 2013 ordinary council meeting councillors Andrew Willcox, Jan Clifford, Kevin Collins, John Collins and Peter Ramage acknowledged the medical value but with yearly costs upwards of $350,000 claimed it was simply ‘not feasible’.
Cr Kevin Collins stressed this was not a bowing down to “rat-bags” in the debate, but made on cost.
Medical professionals stress each dollar spent on fluoride delivers $7 to $8 in return on savings in dental problems down the line.
The decision was made to finalise the construction phase of the Bowen and Proserpine water treatment plant fluoride facilities to ensure compliance with funding agreements before immediately decommissioning those facilities along with withdrawing submissions for three additional fluoridation facilities.
This masthead reached out to Whitsunday Regional Council to ask exactly what was spent on building, then decommissioning the sites.
We were given a redacted document which does not include this information.
Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor Ry Collins said there was no intention for Council to revisit the fluoride debate unless the state government introduced new legislation making it mandatory.
“Health is a state government issue so if they decide to make it mandatory then funding should be provided,” he said.
“I do not believe this cost should be incurred by council or our ratepayers.
“If council received a strong message from our community that they wanted fluoride added to the water, then we would discuss the issue in the chambers.
“That hasn’t happened to date, but we’re always open to feedback from our community.”
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Originally published as Mackay dentist calls for fluoride to be mandated after seeing horror tooth problems for kids
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