[U.S. Public Health Service, 1798]
[Federal Security Agency. Public Health Service, Division of Dental Public Health presents]
[A Drop in the Bucket]
[Script by Oeveste Granducci, Directed by Joseph Henabery, Photographed by Andrew L. Gold]
[Music]
[Narrator:] This is Hillendale, USA.
Just one American town.
Of course, it looks like a lot of other American towns.
Your town. And like your town, it has its businesses, its homes, its cars, and its people, and children.
Children just like youngsters in your town and dentists like Doc Jenkins.
[Music]
[Dr. Jenkins:] How are you, Ms. Carter?
[Joe:] Hi, doc. How you doing? [Dr. Jenkins:] Hello, Joe. Pretty well, thank you.
[Jimmy:] Hi, Dr. Jenkins. [Dr. Jenkins:] Hiya, Jimmy.
[Narrator:] But there is something different about this town, something vitally different.
A vital difference that at present affects mainly the children, and will affect them as long as they live.
You can't see the difference in their clothes or in the way they walk or play.
You may not even notice it in their smiles, and yet that is where the difference is, in their smiles,
in their mouths.
Inside their mouths.
You may not see, but the trained eyes of Miss Jones, the dental hygienist can see...
can see that something has happened to the teeth of the young children.
Something that today is almost a dental miracle.
For today, Miss Jones finds only one cavity for every three she found seven years ago.
[Music]
Seven years ago something happened in this town.
Something very simple happened.
Seven years ago something was added to this water.
Added to this town's drinking water.
It did something to the teeth or for them, and the children's teeth
just don't have as many cavities anymore.
And here's how it happened.
[Dr. Jenkins:] Here's something interesting Miss [?],
about fluoride in drinking water.
Listen to this.
A considerable amount of scientific evidence shows that children born and reared in areas
having fluoride in their drinking water have fewer cavities than have children
using fluoride-free water.
This scientific evidence meant simply that this chemical would save teeth.
Now, Doc Jenkins is in the business of saving teeth, and he knew what a job it is to cope
with all the cavities in children's teeth.
Doc knew that dental decay is the most widespread of all diseases.
That there are literally millions of neglected tooth cavities.
He knew that the average man or woman can look forward, without pleasure,
to losing half their teeth before reaching 40.
He knew that tooth decay begins early in life, in childhood, and that the time to start doing
something about it is early, when children are less than eight years old, six, four,
two years, even earlier.
Before tooth decay has a chance to affect their health.
And while he knew, of course, that youngsters themselves could do some things, he recognized
that he and the other grownups of his town would have to do a great deal more.
So Doc got all the information he could about the then-new idea of fluoridation to save teeth.
The facts were exciting, and Doc determined to do something about it.
At dental conventions, he began bending the ears of his fellow dentists.
Soon, full of enthusiasm, he got, at a most propitious moment, the ear of the mayor.
[Mayor:] Fluoridation, eh?
And so the mayor asked interested civic-minded groups to meet with the town council
to hear the opinion of experts: dentists, physicians,
the dental director of the state health department, and local health department people.
[Mayor:] Now I'm going to ask Mr. Evans, chairman of the fluoridation committee,
to take over the meeting. Mr. Evans.
[Mr. Evans:] Thank you, mayor. First of all, I'd like to call on Dr. Foster.
[Dr. Foster:] Well, speaking for myself as well as other dentists in this area, we are for fluoridation.
We dentists are in business to save teeth, not just to fill them.
[Mr. Evans:] Thank you, Dr. Foster. And now we're going to hear from Dr. Harris
of our local health department.
[Dr. Harris:] Our health department has received some studies on fluoridation
from the state health department.
[Narrator:] The local health department learned that children who drink water containing one part
of naturally-occurring fluoride per million parts of water have two-thirds less tooth decay.
Two-thirds less decay than children drinking ordinary water.
[Dr. Harris:] That's why we at your health department feel that fluoridation
merits your approval.
[Man in bowtie:] I'd like to say something.
I've heard that fluoride will make your teeth look ugly.
Now, we don't want our children's teeth to look bad with black and yellow stains. Let's give up the idea.
[Man with mustache:] He's right. And it makes the bones brittle, too. Does all sorts of things to your health.
[Chairman:] Let's hear what our state dental director has to say about this matter.
[State Dental Director:] Those statements are not right.
Facts in our possession indicate that there is absolutely no danger.
[Narrator:] The state dental director's office had proof that only excessive amounts of fluoride
can cause mottling of teeth, and that hundreds of thousands of people have used natural fluoride
in the right amounts all their lives without harmful effects.
[State Dental Director:] I'm sure the physician on this committee will agree that these people are just as healthy
as people who drink ordinary water.
[Physician:] That's exactly right.
A great deal of sound medical evidence suggests that these chemical compounds will not harm the
human system in any way when used in the recommended proportions, and further,
will save teeth, and therefore make it easier for us doctors to preserve the health of the people of Hillendale.
[Older woman in glasses and hat:] I like this fluoridation idea.
[Narrator:] At meetings of women's groups, PTAs, and so on, the idea of better teeth for children,
with less strain on the pocketbook, had a strong appeal.
[Water department supervisor:] Well, we people in the water department are ready to do the job.
[Man in back wearing glasses:] Have you got the facts in regards to the cost of this?
[Mr. Evans:] Yes, sir, we have gone into the matter quite fully.
[Narrator:] The low cost of installation and maintenance was fully explained,
and then recommendations were presented to the people of Hillendale.
Community-wide discussion started, and a hot discussion it was on both sides of the question.
[Man outdoors wearing hat:] What do you mean, fluoride?
I like my water clean and pure, not doped up with a lot of chemicals.
[Man on the street smoking cigar:] Anything that will give my kids good teeth and save me dough, boy, I'm for that.
[Gas station worker:] Fluoridation. Stupid.
[Shirtless man working outside:] Well, I tell you this. If it's going to help the kid, it's a very good.
Me, I oughta know. I got eight.
[Narrator:] Yes, sir. When town meeting time rolled around again,
the folks in Hillendale were pretty excited.
[Man wearing tie and glasses:] I'd like to ask a question. Won't the water taste funny?
[Water department supervisor:] Fluoride will add neither taste nor odor to the water.
[Woman wearing pearls:] What will it do to my clothes when I wash them?
[Water department supervisor:] Madam, fluoride will not color the water nor will it harden it or soften it.
[Man wearing polka-dot tie:] Well, now, tell me this. How's it going to affect my liver?
[Audience laughs.]
[Physician:] Medically speaking, it will have no effect.
[Jim:] Some towns, they put fluoride in the water. Others, they take it out. How come?
[Mr. Evans:] Well, Jim, let me explain that.
Towns that have too much natural fluoride in the water must take it out,
but towns that have no fluoride, they must add enough to do the job.
[Jim:] But why add the stuff?
I like my water the way it is, not medicated.
Fluoridation is just another name for mass medication.
[Physician:] Why, you don't add fluoride to cure a disease.
You add fluoride to prevent disease, tooth decay.
Why, we've been adding chlorine to our water for a long time now to prevent disease.
No one calls that mass medication.
[Woman with young daughter:] Will it hurt our goldfish or guppies?
[Audience laughs]
[Physician:] The amount we propose will harm no living creature.
[Man holding baby:] What I want to know is, how much is it going to cost me?
[Mayor:] It'll cost you about ten cents a year per person.
That's just a drop in the bucket.
Because the fact is, every one of you citizens of Hillendale can pay your share of thirty years
of fluoridation for the price of filling one tooth.
[Narrator:] And that was about it, for the people of Hillendale had the courage of their convictions.
Decided to pioneer on the strength of the available evidence even before fluoridation was endorsed,
as it is today, not only by the United States Public Health Service,
but also by the American Dental Association, the American Public Health Association,
and other national health organizations.
After the town council acted, well, everybody sort of waited.
Went about their business as usual, but the day the equipment was installed at the waterworks,
now that was the day.
Some wanted to see the feeder.
Some wanted to see what the fluoride looked like, how it was weighed and put into the water.
And the feeder pump that was designed to add just one part of fluoride to each million parts of water.
It was a big day for Doc Jenkins and all those who had fought to put over the idea.
Some wanted to see the fluoride in the water.
But, of course, they couldn't see it, or smell it, and they couldn't taste it.
They couldn't see or taste the fluoride then, any more than the youngsters can see or taste it
back here in the schoolhouse today, where they've been drinking this fluoridated water for seven years.
But as a matter of fact, you can see the fluoride now, where Doc sees it,
in the dental records of the town.
For the records show that already, two out of every three cavities have been prevented in the teeth
of the little people of Hillendale.
[Music]
And you can see it in the smiles of these children and all the children that come after them.
The happy, shining smiles of their own healthy teeth.
[Music]
[The End]
[This film was made with the cooperation of the people of Newark, Delaware]