Community Dental Health

cover art

Cover Date:
March 2013
Print ISSN:
0265 539X
Vol:
30
Issue:
1

Fluoridation and dental caries severity in young children treated under general anaesthesia: an analysis of treatment records in a 10-year case series

doi:10.1922/CDH_2894Thomson04

Objective: To compare the severity of dental caries in the primary dentitions of children under 7 years (who received comprehensive restorative treatment under general anaesthesia, GA) from an optimally fluoridated area (0.85ppmF) and a low-fluoride area (~0.1ppmF). Research design: Consecutive clinical case series: clinical details (diagnoses and the treatments provided) were recorded for children who had received comprehensive dental care under GA between 2000 and 2009. Age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and fluoridation status (determined from the residential address) were also recorded. Results: Of the 1396 treated children, 55.7% came from fluoridated areas and 52.5% were male. On average, children from low-fluoride areas were 2.4 months younger and presented with more decayed deciduous teeth than those from fluoridated areas (4.9 and 3.9 teeth respectively; p<0.0001). For each tooth type, the mean number of carious teeth at presentation was greater among the children from low-fluoride areas. In the multivariate model, the number of deciduous teeth affected by caries was lower among older children, those residing in a fluoridated area and among those seen after 2001. It was higher among those not living in high-SES areas. 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.

Key words: Dental caries; Children; Fluoridation; Residence characteristics

Article Price
£15.00
Institution Article Price
£
Page Start
15
Page End
18
Authors
M.S. Kamel, W.M. Thomson, B.K. Drummond

Articles from this issue

  • Title
  • Pg. Start
  • Pg. End

  1. Editorial - The British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry at forty: our professional project
  2. 2
  3. 4

  1. Acknowledgement of Referees
  2. 5
  3. 5

  1. Dental Public Health in Action - Challenges encountered when conducting a dental health needs assessment of older people resident in care homes: experience from England
  2. 6
  3. 9

  1. Rare diseases with oral components: care course and quality of life
  2. 10
  3. 14

  1. Fluoridation and dental caries severity in young children treated under general anaesthesia: an analysis of treatment records in a 10-year case series
  2. 15
  3. 18

  1. Measuring determinants of oral health behaviour in parents of preschool children
  2. 19
  3. 25

  1. The self-reported oral health status and dental attendance of smokers and non-smokers
  2. 26
  3. 29

  1. Attitudes towards the use of fluorides for oral health among Islamic clerics in Kelantan Province, Malaysia
  2. 30
  3. 33

  1. The views of examiners on the use of intra-oral photographs to detect dental caries in epidemiological studies
  2. 34
  3. 38

  1. Caries experience and treatment need in adults with intellectual disabilities in two German regions
  2. 39
  3. 44

  1. Attitudes towards establishing a daily supervised school-based toothbrushing programme - determined by Q-sort methodology
  2. 45
  3. 51

  1. Oral health literacy comparisons between Indigenous Australians and American Indians
  2. 52
  3. 57

  1. Oral health literacy comparisons between Indigenous Australians and American Indians
  2. 52
  3. 57