Occurrence of dental caries and gingivitis in low, medium and high fluoride areas in Finland

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The study was performed on 365 Finnish schoolchildren aged 13-15 yr. One-third of the children were from Jyvaskyla with 0.2 ppm fluoride in the drinking water, 1/3 from Kuopio with an artificially corrected 1.0 ppm fluoride content since 1959, and 1/3 from Hamina where the natural fluoride content of the drinking water varies between 2.5-5.0 ppm. All the children were scored for the Visible Plaque Index (VPI), the Gingival Bleeding Index (GBI) and for past caries experience (DFS). With increasing fluoride content of the drinking water the DFS scores decreased significantly. No such difference was observed with regard to the VPI scores. The prevalence of gingival bleeding was highest in Hamina (2.5 ppm). A highly significant positive correlation was found between individual VPI and GBI scores in all 3 towns. No corresponding correlations were found between the individual VPI and DFS scores. The latter finding is in disagreement with the generally accepted view that oral hygiene is an efficient caries-preventive measure.