New Mexico Dental Journal Winter 2015-2016

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14 New Mexico Dental Journal, Winter 2016
Fluoride in New Mexico Wells: Health Cost or Benefit?
By Miriam Wamsley, MWR——Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau, NM Department of Health
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
recognizes water f luoridation
to be one of the top 10 greatest public
health achievements of the 20th century.
Fluorides are naturally occur ring
minerals that are known to be effective at
battling dental caries and therefore vitally
important to oral health. Oral health is
directly related to general health through
people’s ability to eat, the quality of
their speech and their general or overall
health (Sheiham, 2005). Two examples
of chronic diseases associated with peri-
odontal disease are diabetes and cardio-
vascular disease (Petersen, 2003).
Low fluoride concentrations in drinking
water (e.g., up to 2 mg/L) can help
prevent dental cavities. However, too
much fluoride can cause fluoride to go
from a health benefit to a health cost.
Chronic exposure to elevated concentra-
tions of fluoride in drinking water, over
2 milligrams per liter (mg/L), can be asso-
ciated with dental fluorosis, a mottled
looking or brown pitting and staining of
teeth. Chronic exposure to fluoride in
drinking water at even higher concentra-
tions, above 4 mg/L, can be associated
with skeletal fluorosis (osteosclerosis), a
painful bone disease which causes the
bones to be more brittle and increases the
risk of fractures. Furthermore, the results
of a study (Choi et al., 2012) suggest that
high fluoride exposure may adversely
affect a child’s neurodevelopment.
The New Mexico Department of Health
(NMDOH) would like private well owners
to know their drinking water fluoride
concentration. According to the CDC,
fluoride concentrations in drinking water
should, ideally, be between 0.7 and 1.2
mg/L. The current allowable concentra-
tions of fluoride in public water supplies
is under 4.0 mg/L, as established by the
United States Environmental Protection
Agency. For those on a domestic well,
the well water needs to be tested. The
New Mexico Environment Department
(NMED) has been offering free domestic
well testing, including fluoride testing
since 1982. To find out more about well
water testing visit
.
Around the State
All of the domestic well fluoride data that
are available to the NMDOH have been
mapped. The distribution of fluoride
concentrations in domestic wells in state,
can be found at
Due
to the variability in groundwater quality,
temporally and spatially, no map should
ever be used to determine the concentra-
tion of fluoride in a given well. Each well
should be tested individually, especially if
the water is to be used for consumption
by children.