The State of Community Water Fluoridation Across Canada

The State of Community Water Fluoridation across Canada 2017 Report Prepared by the Public Health Capacity and Knowledge Management Unit, Quebec Region for the Office of the Chief Dental Officer of Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada The State of Community Water Fluoridation across Canada Introduction. [...] Community water fluoridation (CWF) is the process of monitoring and adjusting the fluoride level in drinking water to the optimal level for caries prevention. [...] In spite of its robust policy and scientific endorsement, a number of municipalities have discontinued CWF since 2012 (see Table 4), which has an impact on the percentage of the population which currently has access to fluoridated water (even though the total for the country has increased, Table 5 shows a decline in the majority of the Provinces and Territories). [...] To document the situation from a national perspective, the PHAC Office of the Chief Dental Officer (OCDO), working closely with the Federal Provincial Territorial Dental Directors Working Group (FPTDDWG), has taken a leadership role to update the data on the state of CWF across Canada every five years. [...] The additional element in this 2017 report is the provision of estimates of access to fluoridated drinking water in Indigenous communities.