NEW YORK CITY (Fluoridated since the 1960’s)

--  “Bleeding gums, impacted teeth and rotting teeth are routine matters for children..... Children live for months with pain that grown-ups would find unendurable. …I have seen children with teeth that look like brownish, broken sticks. I have seen teenagers who were missing half their teeth....,” writes Jonathan Kozol about life in the South Bronx (a NYC borough) in his 1991 book, Savage Inequalities.

-- NYC children of Chinese descent suffer a much higher prevalence and severity of tooth decay than the national average (63% vs 38%). (1)

-- More NYC children required cavity-related hospitalizations, proportionately, than two of New York State's largest non-fluoridated counties, Suffolk and Nassau (Long island) whether payment was made by Medicaid or privately. (2)

-- One New York City hospital charged from $900 to $12,000 to treat 96 children with severely decayed teeth, excluding the dentist and anesthesiologist fees. Children needed extensive work including stainless steel crowns, extractions, root canal therapy, fillings, other restorations, periodontal procedures, surgeries and/or more. (2)

-- According to New York University’s School of Dentistry, "The need for dental care is especially acute among impoverished (NYC) children, who have 60 percent more untreated cavities than their peers at higher socioeconomic levels." (3)

-- Lack of oral health care for adults in Harlem is a hidden crisis, write researchers in the American Journal of Public Health. (4)

-- "Adolescents in northern Manhattan have higher caries prevalence than their national counterparts,” The Journal of Public Health Dentistry, reports." (5)

-- Latinos and African American seniors suffer high rates of tooth decay and tooth loss in Northern Manhattan,  according to the Journal of Community Health. (6)

-- A higher prevalence of dental decay is found in New York City African Americans, aged 18 - 64, than found nationally, reports Dental Clinics of North America. (7)

-- Dental caries, among disadvantaged 3 to 4-year-old children in northern Manhattan, are higher than the national average, according to Pediatric Dentistry. (8)

-- "Poor oral health was identified as the number one complaint in a population-based survey of Central Harlem conducted in 1992-1994." (9)

-- In Harlem, NY., forty-six percent of African-American seniors were missing teeth, compared with twenty-two percent of Latinos. (10)

-- 16.9% of New York State Seniors are edentulous (11); but only 11.5% of Long Islanders are (12) It’s 13% for Manhattan. (13)

 
KINGSTON – NEWBURGH

  After over fifty years of water fluoridation, many children in Newburgh, New York have more cavities and more fluoride--caused discolored teeth (dental fluorosis) than children in never-fluoridated Kingston, New York, according to a New York State Department of Health study published in the 1998 New York State Dental Journal (14).

LONG ISLAND

 

-- Second-graders from non-fluoridated Long Island, New York, are more cavity-free than second graders nationally (15) where two thirds of Americans drink fluoridated public water supplies.

 

-- Third Graders With Tooth Decay (16)

      a) New York State 54.1.%.  (73% fluoridated)

     b)  Nassau County  50%   (0% fluoridated)

     c) Suffolk County 54.5%  (0% fluoridated)

 

UPSTATE

-- About half of 7 to14-year-old children from fluoridated Rochester,
NY, have cavities. Latino children had significantly higher caries
experience than African-American and Caucasian children, thus
indicating that disparities exist among different ethnic groups even
when the water is fluoridated.(17)

--  Also in Rochester, “In the first nine months of 2005, we screened 123 children.  The results of our initial teledental screenings of children aged 12-48 months attending inner-city child-care centres revealed that almost 40% had active dental caries, mainly early childhood caries (ECC).” (17a)

-- Despite a tremendous effort to improve oral health in fluoridated Rochester and Monroe County, lack of dental care has created a tooth decay crisis.(18)

-- In fluoridated Syracuse and Massena, many children are raised in homes where they feel it's their destiny to have tooth decay and tooth pain.(19)


-- "The state also has increased dental payment rates by 250 percent over the past few years, with little success in improving access to dental care." in fluoridated Syracuse, New York.(20)

-- Cavities are rising in fluoridated Rochester’s 10-year-old population. (21)

-- Binghamton, NY, is fluoridated: 6/15/06 Letter to the Editor “I have been working with children and families for a number of years. I have worked with children and adolescents who have never been to the dentist because they cannot afford the cost. The children I have worked with suffer unbelievable pain each day. They do not have parents or insurance companies who will pay for dental work nor orthodontics. There are so many people in our country suffering each day for the lack of dental treatment. Why is it so expensive? Why are so many people suffering" (22)

 -- In fluoridated Buffalo, NY –  448 children  with early childhood caries. (23)

END

References:

 (1) AADR 35th Annual Meeting in Orlando:
Abstract # 0l50 - Caries Experience among Chinese-American Children and
Adolescents in Lower Manhattan, CH Chinn  http://snipurl.com/n8k9

 (2)  "Early Childhood Caries-related Visits to Hospitals for Ambulatory Surgery in New York State," Wadhawan, Kumar, Badner, Green, Journal of Public Health Dentistry Vol 63 No.1, Winter 2003

(3) New York University, School of Dentistry, “Speaker Miller and City Council Expand Dental Services for Needy Children” http://www.nyu.edu/nyutoday/archives/17/01/Stories/dental-van.html

(4) “Lack of Oral Health Care for Adults in Harlem: A Hidden Crisis,” Zabos, et al, American Journal of Public Health, January 2002, Vol 92, No.l
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11772760

(5) Journal of Public Health Dentistry, Summer; 63(3): 189-94
"Dental caries experience in northern Manhattan adolescents"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12962473

(6) Journal of Community Health, August 2003, " Oral disease burden and dental services utilization by Latino and African-American seniors in Northern Manhattan."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12856796

(7) Dental Clinics of North America, January 2003 "Dental caries prevalence among a sample of African American adults in New York City,"
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12519005&dopt=Abstract


(8) Pediatric Dentistry, May-June 2002, "Dental caries among disadvantaged 3- to 4-year-old children in northern Manhattan"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=12064497

(9)  Abstract presented at meeting of American Public Health Association
“Community DentCare Network: Community-academic partnerships as a model in identifying, addressing, and reducing oral health disparities”

http://apha.confex.com/apha/132am/techprogram/paper_85424.htm

(10) U.S. News and World Reports 11/9/04
Open wide
A report looks at the dental health of African-American males,
By Elizabeth Querna

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/briefs/oral/hb041109b.htm?track=rss

(11) New York State Tooth Loss Statistics: http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/display.asp?cat=OH&yr=2004&qkey=6606&state=NY

(12) SMART: Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends

Long Island

http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss-smart/MMSARiskChart.asp?yr=2004&MMSA=147&cat=OH&qkey=6606&grp=0

 

(13) Manhattan:  http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss-smart/MMSACtyRiskChart.asp?MMSA=61&yr2=2004&qkey=6606&CtyCode=10211&cat=OH#OH 

(14) NYS Dental Journal, "Recommendations for Fluoride Use in children," February 1998 by dentists Kumar and Green. Figure 1, Page 41, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=9542393

(15) Page four of ERIE COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT COMMUNITY HEALTH ASSESSMENT - FAMILY HEALTH
http://wings.buffalo.edu/wny/health/den.pdf

(16 a – c)

a) New York State Oral Health Plan August 2005

http://www.health.state.ny.us/prevention/dental/docs/oral_health_plan.pdf

b) Nassau

http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/chac/pdf/nassau.pdf

 

c) Suffolk http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/chac/chai/docs/ora_suffolk.htm

 

(17) AADR 35th Annual Meeting in Orlando:
Abstract # 0478 - Dental Caries in Latino Elementary School Children, S
Gajendra     http://snipurl.com/n8lz

 

17a)  Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Volume 12, Number 4, June 2006, pp. 176-181(6) "Teledentistry in inner-city child-care centres,” by Kopycka-Kedzierawski, Dorota T.; Billings, Ronald J. http://jtt.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/rsm/jtt/2006/00000012/00000004/art00003

 (18) Democrat and Chronicle, "Dental care is luxury for many locals," October 2004
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041002/NEWS01/410020317/1002/NEWS

 (19) Small Smiles gives kids a reason to grin
Updated: 12/1/2004 by Al Nall, News 10 Now Web Staff
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=32340&SecID=83

(20) “Cost Concerns Grow Despite New Health Plan Competition in Syracuse”
Community Report No. 7
Summer 2003
http://www.hschange.org/CONTENT/572/

(21) University of Rochester News Release
“Dental cavities on the rise again; back to 'drill and fill' “
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2000-04/UoR-Dcot-0704100.php

(22) http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?s_site=pressconnects&p_multi=BPSB|&p_product=BPSB&p_theme=gannett&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_text_search-0=Lack%20AND%20of%20AND%20dental%20AND%20care

 

(23) “Recurrence of early childhood caries after comprehensive treatment with general anesthesia and follow-up,” by Foster et al., J Dent Child (Chic)  Jan-Apr 2006

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16734310&query_hl=2&itool=pubmed_docsum