While 6-year-old children who had not ingested fluoridated water showed higher dft in the WF-ceased area than in the non-WF area, 11-year-old children in the WF-ceased area who had ingested fluoridated water for approximately 4 years after birth showed significantly lower DMFT than those in the non-WF area. This suggests that the systemic effect of fluoride intake through water fluoridation could be important for the prevention of dental caries.

BackgroundA recent study in Canada reported that vitamin D deficiency is associated with dental caries. Because Koreans have been reported to be deficient in vitamin D, we investigated the relationship between dental caries and reduced serum vitamin D levels in Korean children. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships between blood vitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations and dental caries in the permanent dentition of Korean children.MethodsData were collected from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey performed in 2008–2013. A total of 1688 children (10–12 years of age) were enrolled. Vitamin D intake was measured through analysis of 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] levels. Caries experience in permanent dentition was assessed using the decay-missing-filled teeth (DMFT) index and decayed-missing-filled (DMF) rate. Statistical analyses included complex samples Chi-square tests, complex samples logistic regression analyses, and Pearson’s correlations.ResultsThe group with 25(OH) D levels lower than 50 nmol/L had a higher proportion of children with caries in the permanent dentition and permanent first molar than the group with 25(OH)D levels of 50 nmol/L or more. When external factors, such as sex, were controlled, 25(OH)D levels were not significantly correlated with caries, but were significantly correlated with first molar caries. Children with 25(OH)D levels lower than 50 nmol/L were 1.295 times more likely to have first molar caries than those with 25(OH)D levels of 50 nmol/L or more. Additionally, 25(OH)D levels and DMFT were negatively correlated; however, the degree of correlation was not strong.ConclusionsThe association between 25(OH)D and dental caries is still not clear. However, our findings suggested that vitamin D insufficiency may be a risk factor for dental caries.

This study supported that water fluoridation could not only lead to a lower prevalence of dental caries, but also help to reduce the effect of SES inequalities on oral health.

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the work loss caused by oral diseases of workers and their subjective self-perceived oral health status. The study focused on the relationship between work loss due to oral diseases and self-perceived oral health status. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted. The sample consisted of 550 workers who resided in Ansan City and Gwacheon City. The data were collected from a self-reported questionnaire survey. Results: The percentage of workers that were absent from the workplace due to oral diseases in the past year was 4.8%, and the average of days of absence from the workplace per worker was 0.1 day. Most of the workers (41.1%) answered "average" for the self-perceived oral health status. However, there were more workers that answered "not healthy" than workers that answered "healthy" for the self-perceived oral health status. The percentage of workers that felt the need for dental treatment because of the presence of oral diseases was 59.5%. There was a statistically significant relationship between the work loss due to oral diseases and the subjective self-perceived oral health status. Conclusions: Work loss due to oral diseases and subjective self-perceived oral health status should be periodically assessed for use as basic data for the development of oral health-promotion policies for workers.