World Cavity-Free Future Day (WCFFDay) this year is encouraging Australians to prioritise their oral health by making water their drink of choice. The now-worldwide event is an initiative of the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future (ACFF), who believe that every child born after 2026 should not experience tooth decay within their lifetime.
It's a pressing issue with Australia's Oral Health Tracker (the Tracker) highlighting the fact that tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in Australia, contributing, along with gum disease and oral cancer to illness and disability in Australia.
The good news is that the disease is almost entirely preventable through drinking water and brushing twice daily with fluoridated toothpaste and can be stopped and reversed with early detection.
The critical role of water in the prevention of water highlights the importance of this year's WCFFDay theme in Australia and its promotion of water as a drink of choice, particularly tap water due to the added fluoride it contains.
It's a timely message with the Tracker revealing that, like so many other countries around the world where sugar-saturated diets are in the ascendancy, far too many children (just over 70% in Australia's case) from nine through to eighteen are consuming excess amounts of sugar, both in their food and drinks.
In support of WCFFDay, the Alliance for a Cavity-Free Future (ACFF) have partnered with the ADA and Colgate to mark this major push for oral health awareness and remind people how a seemingly simple decision like switching out sugary drinks for water can have a profound effect on the dental health of people of all ages.
