Correlation of dental fluorosis with dental caries among adult population attending a private dental college in Chennai

Abstract

Fluoride is known as a double edged sword, for both its anticariogenic activity and dental fluorosis in excessive exposure. Results on whether dental caries and dental fluorosis are positively correlated or negatively correlated vary among different researches, thus making it an unsolved area. Hence this study aims to correlate dental fluorosis to dental caries among the adult population attending a private dental college in Chennai.The study includes 258 participants aged 18 years and above, with dental fluorosis. Recorded data was retrieved from patient records in Saveetha Dental College. Record details related to the number of carious lesions present was analysed and Dean’s Fluorosis Index (1942) was used to assess the severity of fluorosis among the study population. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation were used to analyze the data. Among the participants, 36.4% had carious lesions ranging between 2-3, followed by 27% having more than 4 carious lesions. Mild form of fluorosis was seen among 34.8% of the study population, 9.3% experienced a severe form of fluorosis. Weak correlation between dental caries and dental fluorosis was found at r = 0.03. For the study population, weak correlation between dental fluorosis and dental caries were found, though prevalence of fluorosis was high among the participants. Given the prevalence of fluorosis, defluoridation of water should be considered as a priority.