title: Attitudes concerning water fluoridation among Swedish dentists in 1975.
abstract: The purpose of the investigation was to assess the attitudes concerning water fluoridation among dentists actively engaged in the practice of dentistry in Sweden. A 25% random sample was selected from the aforementioned population of 6,669 dentists. A questionnaire was sent out by mail in 1974/75. The rate of return was 93%. A 99% confidence estimate indicated that 60-66% of Swedish dentists approved a water fluoridation; 58% would welcome fluoridation of their own community water supplies; 56% expressed a willingness to sign a petition to the Parliament requesting that water fluoridation again be permitted. Approximately 11% were not certain about the effectiveness of water fluoridation in preventing dental decay. One-third of the respondents were uncertain about the safety of the technical procedures; 20% were undecided concerning the possibility of combining procedures for topical application of fluorides with water fluoridation, and 15% stated that topical application of fluorides could not be combined with water fluoridation. More than 19% were not able to report the F-content of their own community water supplies.
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D005457:Fluoridation; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden