A hard-hitting postcard campaign featuring the rotting teeth of a five-year-old child in a bid to build up support for adding fluoride to water supplies has been launched.
 The British Dental Association (BDA) is calling on the public to send the Spot The Difference? card to their local MP ahead of a crucial vote on fluoridation in the House of Commons. The card compares the teeth of a five-year-old from Manchester, where fluoride is not put in water, with a child from Birmingham, where it is added. While the youngster from Birmingham has a healthy mouth, the Manchester child's picture shows rotting and missing teeth. The BDA hopes the shocking photos will encourage people to send the card to their MP to encourage them to vote yes to clause 61 of the Water Bill. The new clause would allow strategic health authorities to force water companies to add fluoride to supplies in areas where it was supported. Dr John Renshaw, chairman of the BDA's executive board, said: "The picture of the child in Manchester doesn't make easy viewing, but he is exactly the sort of child that water fluoridation could help. "We live in the 21st century, but there are still far too many people who do not have access to good diet and nutrition, or even a toothbrush and toothpaste. "By adding fluoride to water supplies in areas where the local community supports it, we could help prevent dental decay like this and stop the pain and distress caused by it." Professor Liz Kay, the BDA's scientific adviser and chairwoman of the health and science committee, said: "We are talking about a disease which could be significantly reduced by one simple measure. "If it were any other type of disease, people would be up in arms that action wasn't being taken. By voting in support of water fluoridation, MPs have a chance to make a real difference to people's lives, maybe to the lives of people in their own constituencies." Earlier this month the BDA published a child tooth decay "list of shame" showing that the areas where five-year-olds had the worst dental problems were also places where fluoride was not added to water. MPs will have a free vote on the fluoridation clause when it enters report stage, likely to be at the end of October or beginning of November. The postcard campaign was launched at a BDA fringe meeting at the Labour Party annual conference in Bournemouth. It has the support of the Royal College of Nursing, the UK Public Health Association and the Faculty of Public Health at the Royal College of Physicians. | 
