‘Alarming’ TV advice leads to boycott
The Irish Dentists Opposing Fluoridation association made the move following what it described as “alarming comments” on television by Dr Gerard Gavin, Chief Dental Officer of Decare, the VHI’s new dental insurance scheme.
During the programme, Dr Gavin referred to the use of fluoride toothpaste in 2-7 year-olds and advised for children, particularly in the older age group, not to rinse their mouths out after brushing.
“If you rinse out you wash all the fluoride out and the whole idea is to try and keep the level of fluoride in the saliva as high as possible for as long as possible,” he said on the programme.
A meeting of the dentists’ group held at the weekend reviewed the transcript of TVs’ Ireland AM programme broadcast last Tuesday. It concluded Dr Gavin’s recommendations relating to fluoride toothpaste were “misleading and likely to cause harm to Irish children.” The company has written to dentists around the country asking them to sign up to the plan.
At the meeting, VHI/Decare was condemned for using “half-baked public health information to peddle new insurance products.”
“Fluoride tooth damage is on the increase within our practices and dental fluorosis now affects nearly 50% of all children and teenagers,” said Dr Don Mac Auley, a spokesperson for IDOF said: “The VHI/Decare is failing to highlight the health hazards of swallowing fluoride toothpaste, especially by young children.”
The IDOF spokesperson said holding fluoride in the mouth as Dr Gavin prescribes would pose a huge risk of dental fluorosis as it encourages swallowing fluoride toothpaste, particularly as two to seven year-olds had poor control over their swallowing reflex.
Dr Mac Auley said there has been an alarming increase among Irish children in cases of fluorosis, a condition that permanently damaged tooth enamel. “Most cases I have encountered are mild but severe fluorosis causes the loss of enamel and you are left with disfiguring brown stumps. A four year old kid with a mouthful of toothpaste is likely to swallow some of it, particularly if it happens to be the fruit flavoured kind.”
He said: “In 1996, Colgate paid out stg£1000 in the UK to a child with fluoride damaged teeth and the Forum on Fluoridation recently confirmed that “swallowing one-quarter of a (toothpaste) tube could be life-threatening for a one-year old child.”
On the programme, Dr Gavin recommended that parents not use toothpaste on children up to two years of age.
However, Dr Mac Auley said fluoride toothpaste was also damaging for older children and recommended it not be used for those under seven.
“Unfortunately in Ireland we also have fluoride in the water so our kids are already getting too much fluoride,” he said.
The VHI could not be contacted for comment.
