Water fluoridation

Analysis by the researchers of hospital statistics over a three-year period suggests that on average 6,900 young people (aged up to 19 years) were admitted annually for dental extractions in the largely non-fluoridated North West. In the same period (the financial years 2006–7, 2007–8, 2008–9), the largely-fluoridated West Midlands saw on average just 1,100 admissions of young people per year for the same procedure.

Although the North West has a larger population it is only one-third greater than the West Midlands, which cannot account for such a large and unexpected difference seen for the each of the three years analysed, the research points out.

When the two regions were broken down into 41 areas, the researchers suggest that the difference in hospital admissions rates between the North West and the West Midlands could not be accounted for by deprivation either. Using the old primary care trust (PCT) boundaries, 19 out of the 20 areas with the highest rates of hospital admissions were found in the North West. Compared to the Heart of Birmingham, the most deprived PCT area in England, Liverpool PCT, the second most deprived area, had 27 times more hospital admissions. Liverpool was closely followed by Blackpool, which witnessed 25 times more operations, and Manchester 22 times more.