Dental caries experience and defects of dental enamel among 12‐year‐old children in north London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin

Abstract

Abstract— A multi‐center study of canes experience and defects of dental enamel was conducted among 12‐yr‐old children in north London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin. None of the cities had water fluoridation except Dublin, which was included in the national program introduced in the Republic of Ireland in 1964. A random sample of children was drawn from state schools in each location and identical methods of clinical examination were used throughout under the same stadardized conditions. All examiners were trained and calibrated with a reference examiner and achieved high levels of inter‐ and intra‐examiner consistency. Mean DMFT values for the 4 cities were 1.27 (London), 1.39 (Edinburgh), 2.70 (Glasgow) and 1.48 (Dublin) (P<0.001). Proportions of subjects free from caries in the same order were, 50, 47, 24 and 43% (P<0.001), and child prevalence of diffuse opacities, 28, 29, 7 and 17% (P<0.001), respectively. The relatively low caries levels recorded in London and Edinburgh (lower than Dublin) were considered to be related most probably to fluoride effects other than water fluoridation.

Prevalence of caries and developmental defects of enamel in 9-10 year old children living in areas in Brazil with differing water fluoride histories

“…The prevalence of diffuse opacities has been shown to have a direct relationship to the proportions of children free from caries 1, 11,25 and results in the present study concur with these previous findings. Children from the optimally fluoridated area who had diffuse defects had twice the chance of being free from caries than those who had no defects or who had only demarcated or hypoplastic opacities.…”

“…7 This has been increasingly adopted over the past decade, facilitating comparisons between studies. 1, 3,5,[8][9][10][11][12] Several studies have been particularly focused on maxillary central incisors. These are believed to be the most commonly affected teeth and also those in which defects have the greatest cosmetic impact.…”

“…Results of these studies have so far been consistent in showing an inverse relationship between caries and diffuse enamel opacities. 1,11,25 However the majority of studies of developmental defects of enamel have been confined to North America, Australia and European countries. To date there has been little study of these defects or of their relationship to caries in children in less developed countries such as Brazil.…”

Developmental enamel defects and their impact on child oral health-related quality of life

“…In other investigations, the prevalence of hypoplasia ranged between 0.8 and 82.8%. 5,[16][17][18][19] Possible explanations for this discrepancy are attributed to the differences in geographical region, mainly in relation to the amount of fluoride in the drinking water of each target group. 15 Demarcated opacities were the most prevalent enamel defects in several studies, 2,5,20 and diffuse opacities were the most prevalent in others.…”

Prevalência de defeitos de esmalte e sua relação com cárie dentária nas dentições decídua e permanente, Indaiatuba, São Paulo, Brasil

“…Para a dentição permanente, a literatura também descreve grande variação na prevalência para os três tipos de defeitos de esmalte, tal como ocorre na dentição decídua 4,22,23,24 .…”