Dental leaders in Wigan today backed calls for water supplies to be fluoridated.
Health secretary Alan Johnson has urged the NHS to consider fluoridating tap water for those areas with poor dental health to help prevent tooth decay and reduce health inequalities.
Extra government funding of £14m a year will be made available ove
r the next three years to Strategic Health Authorities which, following consultations, find the local community is in favour of fluoridation.
And Ashton Leigh and Wigan Primary Care Trust is joining the calls for fluoridation in a bid to get the borough's teeth sorted.
In several parts of Wigan such as Norley, Ince, Abram and Atherton, some 60 to 69% of five-year-olds suffer from tooth decay.
As a whole, almost half of five-year-olds in the borough have experienced problems.
A PCT spokesman said: "All 24 primary care trusts in the North West are assessing the feasibility of fluoridating the water supply and looking at options for potential schemes.
"The PCTs have also commissioned an independent health economic assessment to compare the benefits, risks and costs of a variety of options, including water fluoridation, to improve dental health.
"North West PCTs will then need to consider the options and collectively decide if fluoridation is possible and appropriate.
"If so, they will ask NHS North West to consult, on their behalf, with everyone who would be affected."
Academic studies show oral health is better in areas where tap water is already fluoridated and the number of children with tooth decay decreases.
Mr Johnson said: "Fluoridation is scientifically supported, it is legal, and it is our policy, but only two or three areas currently have it.
"We need to go much further in areas where dental health needs to be
improved.
"It's an effective and relatively easy way to help address health inequalities – giving children from poor backgrounds a dental health boost that can last a lifetime, reducing tooth decay and cutting down on the amount of dental work they need.
"But there are people who hold strong views on this, so it is important any proposed schemes are fully and widely consulted on."
The full article contains 365 words and appears in Wigan Evening Post newspaper.
