Visitor writer Johnny Johnson, Jr., DMD, MS is a Pediatric Dentist in Pinellas County, Florida. He’s a Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry and present President of the American Fluoridation Society.
On the night of Monday June 10, 2024, nestled subsequent to different cozy communities in Central Florida, the Metropolis of Leesburg, inhabitants 50,000, voted to provoke fluoridation of their neighborhood.
After a bit of apparatus had gone dangerous twenty years in the past, the choice was made in 2004 to discontinue fluoridation. As in lots of different communities, this horse rode off into the sundown with out the neighborhood being conscious of it.
Dr. Chris Wollenschlaeger, a second-generation orthodontist, instructed the story of how his father started noticing that he was seeing increasingly cavities across the brackets. Chris’s dad sniffed out the issue. He went to the water system’s Client Confidence Experiences and found that fluoridation had ceased. This set off an effort by native dentists to reinstate fluoridation.
On June 10, the Leesburg Metropolis Fee voted 5-0 to maneuver ahead with ordering and putting in the required gear. This was the final step in a course of that spanned two metropolis councils. (Beneath the make-up of a kind of councils, the pause button had been hit.) Now, nevertheless, via the efforts of Drs. Wollenschlaeger , Wade Winker, Summer time Younger, Don Ilka, and Alan Hays, this feat was achieved. The professional preparation and execution of their testimony sealed the unsure deal. What gave the impression to be a attainable vote of 3-2 was a unanimous victory. (A commissioner who was initially opposed modified their vote because of this.)
The water division anticipates that it’ll take about six months to get it up and working. Present and future residents of Leesburg can sit up for benefiting from prevention of dental illness simply by filling their glasses from the faucet. Hip hip hooray for the higher good.
