Peer-Reviewed Research
(journal articles): Evidence-based scientific articles on fluoride and community water fluoridation
These resources can help you share science-based fluoride facts and boost advocacy efforts.
Resources
The general aim of this research was to determine whether cessation of community water fluoridation (CWF) increased oral health disparities, as measured by dental caries procedures and restoration costs for children and adolescents
Health Policy Institute 2025 research brief of state-level costs of removing fluoride from community water systems.
In 2014, the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics published Fluoride and Dental Caries Prevention in Children, an easy to understand, comprehensive resource on the benefits and proper use of fluoride for caries prevention in children.
A new decades-long study has found no evidence that exposure to recommended levels of fluoride lowers children’s cognitive skills. The study found that children exposed to recommended levels of fluoride in drinking water exhibit modestly better cognition in secondary school.
The April 2015 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association features an innovative study utilizing system dynamics modeling to measure the disease reduction and costs savings of community water fluoridation in the New York State Medicaid program.
A study, published June 2018 in the Journal of Dental Research, reaffirms the benefit of community water fluoridation (CWF). The study found that where 75% or more of the population in a community has access to CWF, there was “a substantial caries-preventive benefit . . . for U.S. children and that the benefit is most pronounced in primary teeth.”