Dental fluorosis in early childhood: state of the art

Abstract

Dental fluorosis is characterized by a hypomineralization of the tooth structure caused by excessive intake of systemic fluoride. In the deciduous dentition, its early diagnosis is important since it will be a predictor for the appearance of lesions in the permanent dentition. The objective of this review was to describe the scientific evidence on dental fluorosis in deciduous dentition, reporting its etiology and related factors, prevalence, diagnosis and treatment. Electronic searches were conducted PubMed / Medline, EbscoHost and Scien-ceDirect (November / 2020) databases, using the keywords “dental fluorosis”, “deciduous teeth”, “primary tooth”, “primary teeth”. The development of Dental fluorosis in deciduous dentition was related to the intake of multiple sources of fluoride mainly; drinking water, diet foods, infant formulas, supplements and the use of fluoridated toothpastes in inade-quate doses. Some prenatal factors such as living in mountainous or high altitude terrain and living in places near coal-burning mines were also associated. The prevalence of dental fluorosis in early childhood reported in the studies varied between 6.2% and 96.6%, depen-ding mainly on the concentration of fluoride in drinking water. For the diagnosis of dental fluorosis in the deciduous dentition, characteristics such as the location, appearance, ex-tension and color of the lesion must be considered, making a differential diagnosis with other types of enamel and dentin defects. Evenly, the treatment of lesions will depend on the severity defects and individual patient conditions.