Media advertising has created an impression that bottled and filtered water is a must for many healthy minded people. But some studies and dentists believe what they lack, could lead to tooth decay.
Dr. Tegwyn Brickhouse, DDS, a dentist with VCU’s department of Pediatric Dentistry, says that the healthiest water you can drink comes out of your tap. Again, due to media advertising, there’s an impression that tap water is not safe and fit for drinking. However, in many cases, tap water is much more safer than packaged water because of the stringent quality parameters for tap water, which are not the same for packaged water. “The bottled water, the refrigerators with the filtration systems on them, all remove for the most part, fluoride from the water. So fluoride in the water is good,” says Dr. Brickhouse.
Adding fluoride to municipal drinking water is considered by many to be the best way to provide the necessary level of protection for healthy teeth. But addition of fluoride can cause dental fluorosis or white spots on the teeth of the children. Fluorosis is a health condition caused in children receiving too much fluoride during tooth development. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recommended changes to lower the recommended amount of fluoride that is allowed in drinking water.
Because of that, dentists recommend you also get fluoride from another source if you’re not used to drinking tap water. “As an adult, you constantly need to be using either fluoridated toothpaste, in moderation, in addition to just brushing and drinking regular water out of the tap,” says Dr. Brickhouse.
In addition, Dentists also say that people who drink bottled water aren’t the only ones who may not be getting enough fluoride. They say that if you drink well water you need to make sure to get your water tested and find out if it has the proper fluoride levels in it.
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