RESEARCH ARTICLE
The Relationships between Two Different Drinking Water Fluoride Levels, Dental Fluorosis and Bone Mineral Density of Children
S.R Grobler*, A.J Louw, U.M.E Chikte, R.J Rossouw, T.J. van W Kotze
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 3
First Page: 48
Last Page: 54
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-3-48
DOI: 10.2174/1874210600903010048
Article History:
Received Date: 5/11/2008Revision Received Date: 23/12/2008
Acceptance Date: 3/3/2009
Electronic publication date: 3/4/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http: //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
This field study included the whole population of children aged 10–15 years (77 from a 0.19 mg/L F area; 89 from a 3.00 mg/L F area), with similar nutritional, dietary habits and similar ethnic and socioeconomic status. The fluoride concentration in the drinking water, the bone mineral content, the bone density and the degree of dental fluorosis were determined. The left radius was measured for bone width, bone mineral content, and bone mineral density. The mean fluorosis score was 1.3 in the low fluoride area and 3,6 in the high fluoride area. More than half the children in the low fluoride area had no fluorosis (scores 0 and 1) while only 5% in the high fluoride area had none. Severe fluorosis (30%) was only observed in the high fluoride area. The Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test indicated that fluorosis levels differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the two areas. No relationships were found between dental fluorosis and bone width or between fluorosis and bone mineral density in the two areas (Spearment Rank correlations). A significant increase in bone width was found with age but no differences amongst and boys and girls. A significant positive correlation was found in the high fluoride area between bone mineral density over age. In the 12-13 and 13-14 year age groups in the high fluoride area, girls had higher bone mineral densities. However, a significant negative correlation (p<0.02) was found for the low fluoride area (0.19 mg/L F) over age.
