How Have Tooth Decay Rates in Japan Fallen Without Water Fluoridation?

Propaganda about water fluoridation in Japan is being laundered across the social media accounts and websites of many anti-vaccine influencers.

It’s true, tooth decay rates in Japan have fallen over the years despite the fact that they don’t add fluoride to their tap water.

Propaganda about water fluoridation in Japan is being laundered across the social media accounts and websites of many anti-vaccine influencers.

But it is quite easy to explain why…

How Have Tooth Decay Rates in Japan Fallen Without Water Fluoridation?

While it is true that they don’t add fluoride to their water in Japan, it is easy to see that tooth decay rates have fallen because of all the other interventions that they do.

For example, instead of adding fluoride to drinking water, in Japan, they:

• have universal health coverage into the dental care system, with subsidies for younger children

• have free, legally mandated dental checkups at 18-months and 3-years for all children

• have school dental checkups for school aged children

• deliver preventative fluoride to younger school age children at school, with school-based fluoride mouth-rinse programs

Things you don’t see in communities that are taking fluoride out of their drinking water…

More on Fluoride in Japan

• CDC, Experts Say Fluoridated Water Is Safe, Contrary to RFK Jr.’s Warnings

• Let’s Put Water Fluoridation Myths To Rest

• Fluoride: a safe and effective way to protect teeth from tooth decay

• Oral Health in Japan: State-of-the-Art and Perspectives

• Associations between school-based fluoride mouth-rinse program, medical-dental expense subsidy policy, and children’s oral health in Japan: an ecological study

• Japan’s Four-Decade Natural Experiment in Early Childhood Caries: A Perspective on Prevention Pathways Beyond Fluoride