In the past Japan had community water fluoridation. The first programme was in Kyoto prefecture from 1952 – lasting 13 years, the second was established by US military authorities in Okinawa prefecture from 1957 – lasting 15 years, and the last experience was in Mie Prefecture from 1967 – lasting 4 years. Unfortunately water fluoridation has not been practised in Japan since 1972.

So why hasn’t water fluoridation returned? One source says that the public are not informed about the benefits or don’t have the correct information on fluoridation. Citizens, parliament, dental, medical professional societies, universities, and all of these relevant departments would require a high degree of cooperation to achieve community water fluoridation. But there are organisations who are trying to raise awareness, like the 8020 Promotion Foundation.

In 1989, a committee for studying dental health for adults took form and they proposed an 8020 movement aimed at encouraging to keep 20 or more of their own teeth until at the age of 80. 1992 saw the launching of programmes to promote the 8020 movement, with projects to support promotion of the movement initiated the following year. The 8020 Promotion Foundation wanted to protect not just the young but the old; something that other countries should follow.

While there is no city-wide water fluoridation programmes in Japan, there are school-based fluoride mouth rinsing programme (S-FMR). This started in a single prefecture in 1970, and spread to all of 47 prefectures by 2005. In 1978 in order to prevent the dental caries of 1st permanent molars erupting in preschool age, the S-FMR was also practiced in nursery schools. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan released the guidelines in 2003, recommending that the S-FMR be introduced from preschool age children. S-FMR have been practiced since the age of 4-5 years when the permanent teeth would begin to erupt and continued until graduating from junior high school when the permanent dentition would be completed.

Fluoride mouth rinsing has been recommended by:
Japan Dental Association
Japanese Association for Dental Science
Japanese Association of School Dentists
Japanese Society for Dental Health
Japanese Society for Disability and Oral Health
Japanese Society for Oral Health
Japanese Society of Pediatric Dentistry
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

As of March 2010, a total of 7,479 schools and 777,596 children were participating in S-FMR in Japan, with an estimate of 2,000,000 children participating in 2020. So when someone says there is no water fluoridation in Japan, you can inform them of the S-FMR programme.

Sources:
http://www.8020zaidan.or.jp/newtest3/english/dhj.html
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/idj.12068/pdf
http://jos.dent.nihon-u.ac.jp/journal/53/3/313.pdf

The post Why doesn’t Japan use community water fluoridation? appeared first on Making Sense of Fluoride.

Making Sense of Fluoride spokesperson, Dr. Ken Perrott said “Connett is substituting wishes for reality and using unsubstantiated studies to fuel his argument.”

Dr Connett is ignoring the results of recent referenda showing a large groundswell of support for fluoridation of community water supplies as a social health measure.

This one-sided approach is typical of Dr. Connett, who often cherry-picks studies to fit his bias and ignores, or downplays those who contradict his opinions said Dr. Perrott.

In a recent online debate between the two, Dr. Connett claimed that fluoridation lowers IQ, causes cancer and many other illnesses. It also considered his claim that fluoridation is ineffective in reducing tooth decay.

“Dr Connett’s activist organisation FAN searches intensively for any scientific reports that can be interpreted as critical of fluoride. Consequently he relies on research that is often poorly done and reported in unknown foreign language newsletters or journals well out of the mainstream scientific literature.”

The claims of effect on IQ are based mainly on poorly executed Chinese research that ignored confounding influences of parental education, breast feeding and heavy metal contamination – all known to influence IQ.

Dr Connett uses a single study based on poor evidence of fluoride intake for his cancer claim while ignoring more recent, larger studies showing no effect of fluoride on cancer incidence.

Connett takes a similar selective approach in his claim of fluoride causing hip fractures – ignoring recent studies showing no effect at normal concentrations used in drinking water fluoridation.

“The scientific research on fluoridation is extensive and complex,” said Dr Perrott.

“It must be approached critically and intelligently and unfortunately Dr Connett’s approach is selective. His anti-fluoridation bias leads him to overlook important factors like the fluoride concentration used in animal studies, the importance of confounding factors and the quality of the research itself.”

The Making Sense of Fluoride group was formed recently to help counter misinformation on fluoride being promoted by activist groups such Dr Connett’s FAN in an attempt to encourage the public to think critically about scientific claims being made by radical groups.

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