The Appearance of Tooth in Children Ingesting Water a High Fluoride Content for a Limited Period during Early Tooth Development

Abstract

Sixteen Japanese children, inadvertently exposed to drinking water containing 7.8 ppm fluoride (F) from birth, were tiged 11 to 42 months when a low-F water supply was substituted. The appearance of the enamel of their permanent teeth was assessed 11 years later (children aged 12-15 years) and recorded using Dean's and the FDI indices. All grades of Dean's classification were seen. The enamel lesions were more severe in the older than in the younger children, in the incisal compared with the gingival halves of the teeth, and in the early- compared with the late-forming teeth. Small, localized, chalky-white areas of enamel were found at or close to the incisal margins of the anterior teeth of six children. The characteristics and the distribution, of the lesions in this study add to our knowledge of the mechanism by which fluoride produces dental fluorosis.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Angmar-Mansson, B. ; Lindh, U. ; and Whitford, G.M. (1985): Enamel F Levels and Fluorosis Following Single F Doses, IADR Abst 64:No. 113, p. 675.

Dean, H.T. (1934): Classification of Mottled Enamel Diagnosis, J Am Dent Assoc 21:1421-1426.

Dean, H.T. ; McKay, F.S. ; and Elvove, E. (1938): Mottled Enamel Survey of Bauxite, Ark., Ten Years after a Change in the Common Water Supply , Pub Health Rep 53:1736-1748.

Driscoll, W.S. ; Horowitz, H.S. ; Meyers, R.J. ; Heifetz, S.B. ; Kingman, A. ; and Zimmerman, E.R. (1983): Prevalence of Dental Caries and Dental Fluorosis in Areas with Optimal and Above-optimal Water Fluoride Concentrations, J Am Dent Assoc 107:42-47.

Fass, E.N. (1969): A Chronology of Growth of the Human Dentition , J Dent Child 36:391-401.

FDI Technical Report No. 15(1982): An Epidemiological Index of Developmental Defects of Dental Enamel, Int Dent J 32:159-167.

Gedalia, I. (1958): Urinary Fluorine Levels of Children and Adults , J Dent Res 37:601-604.

Haavikko, K. (1970): The Formation and the Alveolar and Clinical Eruption of the Permanent Teeth, Finn Dent J 66:103-170.

Ishii, T. and Sakakibara, Y. (1983): Studies on Children Receiving Short-term Exposure to Fluoride-rich Water, IADR Prog & Abst 61:No. 13.

10.

Ishii, T. and Nakagaki, H. (1984): Study of the Correlation Between the Degree of Dental Fluorosis and the Duration of Fluoride Present in Drinking Water. In: Tooth Enamel IV, R.W. Feamhead and S. Suga , Eds. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers, pp. 338-341.

11.

Moller, I.J. (1965): Dental Fluorose og Caries. En Undersogelse over Litteraturen Samt Nogle Epidemiologiske Undersogelser af Danske Born, Rhodos, Copenhagen.

12.

Nielsen, H.G. and Ravn, J.J. (1976): A Radiographic Study of Mineralization of Permanent Teeth in a Group of Children aged 3-7 Years, Scand J Dent Res 84:109-118.