Does the interruption of water fluoridation supply increase dental caries prevalence?

• Autor(a) principal: Peres, Sílvia H. C. S.
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Peres, Arsenio S., Bastos, José R. M., Ramires, Irene, Forti, Rodrigo M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian journal of oral sciences (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/bjos/article/view/8641676
• topic: Water fluoridation. Dental caries. Fluoride. Epidemiology; Odontologia

The aim of this study was to compare the dental caries prevalence, in the year 1998, in two cities of big population, one of them fluoridated, since 1975, the city of Bauru, and other, named Jaú, where the fluoridation was interrupted (1992). The two cities are located in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The sample was composed by 189 children of 5 years old and 163 of 12 years old, both gender, distributed between Bauru and Jaú. The statistical analysis was made with use of the Student’s “t” test. The dental caries was registered with the use of the DMFT index and observed the percentage of children caries-free. No statistical differences were observed, considering the age and the cities. The outcomes showed that dmft of the 5 years old children in Bauru and Jaú were 1.06 1.32, respectively; and the DMFT of the 12 years old children were 2.92 and 3.45 respectively. The percentages of 5 years old caries free children in Bauru and Jaú were 54.84% and 55.21%, respectively. Considering the age of 12, the caries-free children were 21.34% in Bauru and 22.73% in Jaú. In the parameter evaluated the children living in Bauru, which has fluoridated water for more than 20 years, did not differ from the children from Jaú, which suffered interruption in the water fluoridation supply. Our results are differ from analysis performed during the decades of 70 and 80, when studies showed that the interruption in the fluoridation of drinking water was followed by an increase in the prevalence of dental decay. In conclusion, our data suggest that the interruption in water fluoridation at Jaú did not bring about a tendency towards caries increase. These results can be possibly explained by the use of fluoridated toothpaste, associated with the ingestion of other sources of fluoride and the presence of the “halo effect”. Our results indicate that the availability of other sources of fluoride must also be considered and taken into account in the planning of programs in public health dentistry.