Research Information System
FLUORIDE, vol.37, no.4, pp.278-290, 2004 (SCI-Expanded)
Children in nursery schools from each neighbourhood of Isparta city, a high fluoride area of Turkey which has drinking water fluoride ranging from 0.14 to 3.40 mg/L, were randomly selected and screened for this study. Out of 566 children between 2.5 and 6 years of age who were screened, 520 (91.9%) met the inclusion criteria (240 girls and 280 boys). An inverse correlation was found between dental fluorosis and nursing caries at a significance level of P<0.001. Subjects with fluorosis experienced less caries than those with no fluorosis. Although the difference between fluorosis and caries experience was not statistically significant (P>0.05), there was an inverse correlation between fluorosis and the number of carious teeth (P<0.001). Caries prevalence and mean dmft were 70% and 2.90 +/- 2.14 for the former group with fluorosis and 77% and 4.53 +/- 3.27 for the latter group with no fluorosis. This study shows that dental caries and nursing caries experience among children exposed to fluoride was lower than for those living in localities with less fluoride in the drinking water.