Philip

1.  The mind is a wonderful thing.  It can convince the body to have all kinds of reactions in order to further its agenda.  In all likelihood, all that had to be done was to tell your "many people" that fluoride was being added to the water, and they would have reported the reactions, even if the fluoride had not been added.

The actuality is that there is no valid, peer-reviewed scientific evidence of any "dermatitis, itching, people becoming ill" or any other adverse effect of optimal level fluoride.  If you disagree, then please produce such evidence, properly cited.

2.  In regard to your unsubstantiated claim that "the evidence [of effectiveness of fluoridation] just isn't there"......it's there.  It always has been.  The fact that you deny such evidence is a problem with your own science denial, not with the evidence of effectiveness of fluoridation.  The following are but a few of the volume of peer-reviewed studies clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of fluoridation.  I will gladly provide more if you so desire.

1)  Results 
Children from every age group had greater caries prevalence and more caries experience in areas with negligible fluoride concentrations in the water (<0.3 parts per million [ppm]) than in optimally fluoridated areas (≥0.7 ppm). Controlling for child age, residential location, and SES, deciduous and permanent caries experience was 28.7% and 31.6% higher, respectively, in low-fluoride areas compared with optimally fluoridated areas. The odds ratios for higher caries prevalence in areas with negligible fluoride compared with optimal fluoride were 1.34 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.29, 1.39) and 1.24 (95% CI 1.21, 1.28) in the deciduous and permanent dentitions, respectively. 

------Community Effectiveness of Public Water Fluoridation in Reducing Children's Dental Disease
Jason Mathew Armfield, PhD

2) CONCLUSIONS: 
Children with severe dental caries had statistically significantly lower numbers of lesions if they lived in a fluoridated area. The lower treatment need in such high-risk children has important implications for publicly-funded dental care. 

------Community Dent Health. 2013 Mar;30(1):15-8.
Fluoridation and dental caries severity in young children treated under general anaesthesia: an analysis of treatment records in a 10-year case series.
Kamel MS, Thomson WM, Drummond BK.
Department of Oral Sciences, Sir John Walsh Research Institute, School of Dentistry, The University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.


3).  CONCLUSIONS: 
The survey provides further evidence of the effectiveness in reducing dental caries experience up to 16 years of age. The extra intricacies involved in using the Percentage Lifetime Exposure method did not provide much more information when compared to the simpler Estimated Fluoridation Status method. 

-----Community Dent Health. 2012 Dec;29(4):293-6.
Caries status in 16 year-olds with varying exposure to water fluoridation in Ireland.
Mullen J, McGaffin J, Farvardin N, Brightman S, Haire C, Freeman R.
Health Service Executive, Sligo, Republic of Ireland. 

4) Abstract 
The effectiveness of fluoridation has been documented by observational and interventional studies for over 50 years. Data are available from 113 studies in 23 countries. The modal reduction in DMFT values for primary teeth was 40-49% and 50-59% for permanent teeth. The pattern of caries now occurring in fluoride and low-fluoride areas in 15- to 16-year-old children illustrates the impact of water fluoridation on first and second molars. 

----Caries Res. 1993;27 Suppl 1:2-8.
Efficacy of preventive agents for dental caries. Systemic fluorides: water fluoridation.
Murray JJ.
Department of Child Dental Health, Dental School, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.


5). CONCLUSIONS: 
Data showed a significant decrease in dental caries across the entire country, with an average reduction of 25% occurring every 5 years. General trends indicated that a reduction in DMFT index values occurred over time, that a further reduction in DMFT index values occurred when a municipality fluoridated its water supply, and mean DMFT index values were lower in larger than in smaller municipalities. 

----Int Dent J. 2012 Dec;62(6):308-14. doi: 10.1111/j.1875-595x.2012.00124.x.
Decline in dental caries among 12-year-old children in Brazil, 1980-2005.
Lauris JR, da Silva Bastos R, de Magalhaes Bastos JR.q
Department of Paediatric Dentistry, University of São Paulo, Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil. 


Steven D.Slott, DDS