Prevalence of Dental Fluorosis Amongst School Children in West Bengal, India

Abstract

Dental fluorosis, a disease, results from excessive fluoride consumption mainly through drinking water during early childhood, which damages tooth-forming cells in children. This study examines the prevalence of dental fluorosis amongst school children in the Puruliya district, located in West Bengal, India. This is because the Puruliya district is one of the worst-affected fluoride areas in India. When compared to the World Health Organization’s 1.5 mg/l permitted limit for fluoride in drinking water, the highest fluoride levels were found to be 8.28 mg/l in the Kashipur block of the district. Therefore, to perform a study to ascertain the prevalence of dental fluorosis among school-going children between the ages of 6 and 14 based on the Dean’s Index, the Kashipur block of the Puruliya District was selected. The fluoride levels of drinking water sources are tested in the public health and Engineering department in the Puruliya district. The average level of fluoride discovered in drinking water ranges from 0.42 mg/l to 5.23 mg/l. The data were analysed with SPSS-20 statistical software, and mapping was done with Arc-GIS 10.5. Linear regression is applied to test the correlation. The findings demonstrate a very strong positive correlation (r = 0.92) between fluoride concentration and the frequency of childhood dental fluorosis. Dental fluorosis was observed to afflict 45.20% of the children in the research area, and it was more common in female children (46%) than in male children (44.40%). There were 226 students with dental fluorosis between the ages of 6 and 15, of whom 16.4% were in Grade I, 13.2% in Grade II, 10.0% in Grade III, and 5.6% in Grade IV.