New Zealand dentists' views on community water fluoridation.

Objective: To determine whether New Zealand general dental practitioners support community water fluoridation (CWF), and to gauge their opinions on its possible systemic side-effects.

Methods: An online survey was conducted in 2010, involving the 1174 general dental practitioners who had email addresses on the Dental Register and were contactable in New Zealand. A total of 465 dentists (39.6%) participated.

Results: Most practitioners (93.5%) reported supporting community water fluoridation; the other 6.5% either were unsure or did not support it. Higher proportions of more recent graduates supported CWF. Some 85.6% of practitioners thought that drinking fluoridated water was a harmless way to prevent dental caries, but 6.2% felt that fluoridated water may cause other health problems. There were no systematic differences by sociodemographic and practice characteristics, except that a higher proportion of males and more experienced practitioners reported being confident in discussing CWF-related issues.

Conclusions: Most New Zealand dental practitioners support community water fluoridation, although a very small proportion believe that it is harmful and/or does not prevent caries.