New research has found that water fluoridation in Queensland reduced the rate of tooth decay in children to less than four out of every 10 children, down from nearly half of all children.
The findings come as more councils in Queensland vote to remove fluoride from their water supply. Of 77 local government areas in Queensland, only 16 add fluoride to water, most of them in south-east Queensland. Five more have naturally occurring fluoride. Two councils – Gympie and Cook – have voted to cease fluoridation in the last year.
The Child Oral Health Study collected data from 7,718 school students from across the state between 2021 and 2024 at randomly selected state, independent and Catholic schools.
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University of Queensland school of dentistry’s Prof Loc Do, who led the study, said the research showed that fluoridation slashed the rates of tooth decay among children aged between five and 10 from 49.5% to 38.8%.
The biggest improvement occurred in newly fluoridated areas. There was little change in tooth decay in areas without water fluoridation.
Do said previous 2010-12 research showed that Queensland children had among the worst teeth in the country.
He said researchers would now undertake an economic analysis to understand how much fluoridation saved the taxpayer in reduced dental healthcare and other costs.
“Water fluoridation is very important for the oral health of the children and adults in the councils, and that’s important for the society,” Do said.
“Good dental health can help children [keep] good school attendance [and] better focus in studying. And that’s very important for their lifelong development.”
He said the findings did not come as a surprise.
“The scientific evidence has been available to show that water fluoridation is effective. The issue is that the previous studies [were done] long ago, mostly before the 1970s, and we need contemporary evidence to show that water fluoridation is still important and effective in the current environment, when the living standards are higher,” he said.
Queensland has long been the only state that gives authority over water fluoridation to councils, and has the lowest rates of fluoridation in the country.
In 2008, the Labor government under premier Anna Bligh required councils to fluoridate, but this was reversed in 2012 by the LNP government of Campbell Newman.
Queensland’s chief dental officer, Ben Stute, said the study “adds up-to-date, high-quality and local evidence supporting the effectiveness of water fluoridation, which I hope will provide reassurance to local councils regarding the important impact of this initiative”.
The health minister, Tim Nicholls, said that decisions about fluoridation of drinking water supplies were the responsibility of the water providers, not the state government.
“Local councils are, as they should be, responsible for their water supplies. They should make decisions reflective of the communities they represent,” he said.
