Mayor to ADA: Evanston 'Changed the Course' of American Dentistry

Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl spoke at the 70th anniversary Fluoridation Celebration of the American Dental Association (ADA) last week in Chicago.

In 1946, Evanston was one of the first communities in the nation to begin a controlled study to determine the effects of water fluoridation. Results from the groundbreaking 15-year Evanston Dental Caries Study were published in the Journal of the American Dental Association in 1967, which concluded, “The extensive reduction in the prevalence of tooth decay resulting directly from water fluoridation is a significant factor in changing the practice of dentistry from purely a reparative procedure to a preventative practice.”

Tisdahl informed the ADA that it was Evanston’s Health Commissioner, Dr. Winston Tucker, who in 1944 “recognized that oral disease, and especially dental decay, was a significant public health problem and that prevention was important to public health.”

The data collected in Evanston’s study had implications for the study of dentistry, including the effect of breast feeding, the consumption of sweets, the genetics of tooth decay, and the relationship between oral hygiene and other health conditions.

“And we in Evanston like to think that we changed the course of American dentistry,” Tisdahl said.