While I agree that fluoridation is only part of increasing resistance to tooth decay, the fact that over 80% of cavities occur inside deep pits and fissures in chewing surfaces of back teeth where the brush cannot reach, suggests chewing carbohydrate like sugar confection is more likely to cause acid demineralisation than drinking soft drink or fruit juice, which like the brush, saliva and toothpaste have no access inside pits and fissures.

Yes sugary drinks do cause tooth decay but only where saliva and fluoride toothpaste are excluded from easy access to neutralise acid and remineralise demineralised tooth by the constant or frequent wash of sugary drinks.

Improving saliva and fluoride access inside pits and fissures may decrease tooth decay more than fluoridation certainly better oral hygiene will help communities that don't have fluoridated water as recommended by Supertooth.org .

Fluoride increases tooth resistance to acid demineralisation from plaque bacteria and sugar.

Few cavities occur on smooth surfaces where most plaque can be seen with food dye and where saliva and fluoride have easy access to neutralise acid and remineralise demineralised tooth except when frequent consumption of sugary drinks or fruit juice cause more demineralisation than remineralisation.

While most food is trapped between teeth, over 80% of cavities occur inside deep pits and fissures where saliva and fluoride toothpaste have no access.

The Supertooth.org suggests the best way to reduce decay is to improve oral hygiene is to improve saliva and fluoride toothpaste access inside pits and fissures.

Chewing celery after eating helps saliva neutralise acid and remineralise tooth. How can we chew toothpaste?

I was born in 1944 in England and for the first 5 years drank non-fluoridated water. My mouth ended up a mass of cavities. My sister was born in Arizona in 1950 which had naturally fluoridated water and had a few cavities. Both my daughters now aged 30 & 31 drank fluoridated water and have no cavities. Get real this has been one of the best public health advances known. What was amazing in that the dentists acting against their self-interest promoted it.

Almost all major health and dental organizations support water fluoridation, or have found no association between fluoridation and adverse effects.[6][23] These organizations include the World Health Organization,[24] the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,[1] the U.S. Surgeon General,[25] and the American Dental Association.[26]
quote from wikipedia

Regarding the American Dental Association, please help me out. Wasn’t it the Food and Drug Administration that originally come out with the warnings on fluoride and our babies? The ADA jumped on board after FDA announced it. This reminds me about the dental crown and bridge outsourcing supported by the American Dental Association and then after the NADL National Association of Dental Laboratories report to the FDA regarding lead and other poisonous metals in our dental crown and bridge coming back from overseas, the American Dental Association takes credit for reporting it to the Food and Drug Administration. ADA should have credited NADL for taking a stand not ADA. ADA continues to give us the ADA corporate greed stamp of approval like they did and continue to do with fluoride. Here in the United States, the American Dental Association continues to fight, the denturist, dental health aide therapist, and independent dental hygienist practices while dental care cost continues to skyrocket leaving those in need without. Thank you for your consideration---gary

I think the author is overlooking the golden era of dental health, when our water was fluoridated but before the booming consumption of juices and sweetened drinks. You know - way back in the 60s and 70s, and a bit into the 80s. I was the only child in our family to develop all my permanent teeth drinking fluoridated water, and have the best teeth in the family. I'd have to agree that putting fluoride into bottled water is pretty feeble - but perhaps better than nothing if people are going to shun perfectly good, exquisitely cheap fluoridated tap water. And don't forget that many people can't afford to pay for proper dental care and dentists are in short supply!

EQ describes water fluoridation as "one of the best public health advances known". Professor Albert Scahtz, the Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist and co-discoverer of Streptomycin described it as "the greatest fraud that has ever been perpetrated..." He has the weight of evidence on his side.
The trend to better dental health throughout the developed world began before fluoridation, and occurred simultaneously in both fluoridated and non-fluoridated countries, often to a greater degree in the latter. That rules out fluoridation as the causative factor.
The most recent Child Dental Health Surveys for Australia show that the ACT (100 percent fluoridated) has the highest rates of decay in the nation in the permanent teeth of 12-year-old children. Tasmania (83 percent fluoridated, and the first Australian state to fluoridate its water) has the worst permanent teeth overall (5-12 years).
Fluoridationism is like an extreme religious sect. Its followers believe because they have been told to believe. They cannot, or dare not, think of anything other than the consumption of fluoride which might influence the health of a person's teeth, even to the absurd extreme of completely ignoring fluoride toothpaste, which contains fluoride at concentrations around 1000 times higher than used in the drinking water. If you brush your teeth regularly with such extreme concentrations of fluoride (as most people do in unfluoridated areas), and your teeth still rot, that is compelling evidence that fluoride does not prevent decay, not that it should be added to the water. But flouridation advocates don't talk about fluoride toothpase. To honestly face this very embarrassing topic would bring their house of cards down. It is the elephant in the room they just can't talk about.