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Updated: Aug 8, 2026
Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
A comparison of four home-care fluoride programs on the caries incidence in the elderly
S Fure1, L Gahnberg, D Birkhed
1Department of Cariology, Institute of Odontology, Göteborg University, Sweden. fure@odontologi.gu.se
Objective:
To estimate the caries preventive effect of 4 fluoride programs over 2 years in the elderly.
Setting:
The Public Dental Clinics of Bålsta and Knivsta and the Faculty of Odontology in Göteborg, Sweden.
Subjects:
One hundred and sixty-four individuals, aged 60 years and older (mean age 71.5 years) who were considered to be at risk from caries.
Design:
The participants were randomly assigned either to: 1) rinse twice a day with a 0.05% NaF solution (n = 49; rinsing group), 2) suck twice a day on a 1.66 mg NaF tablet (n = 51; tablet group), 3) brush their teeth three times a day using a toothpaste slurry rinsing technique (n = 32; slurry group), or 4) brush their teeth in their usual manner (n = 32; control group). The participants in all 4 groups used a fluoride toothpaste (containing 0.32% NaF) at least twice daily.
Results:
No new carious lesions were found in 67% of the participants in the rinsing, 43% in the tablet, 25% in the slurry and 16% in the control group over the 2 years. The mean (+/- SD) 2-year caries increment was 0.8 +/- 1.4, 1.4 +/- 1.7, 1.9 +/- 1.9 and 2.3 +/- 2.1 DFS in the rinsing, tablet, slurry and control groups, respectively; it was significantly lower in the rinsing than in the control group (p < 0.01). A lower incidence of DFS was also found in the tablet group than in the slurry group, but only for the lingual surfaces (p < 0.05).
Conclusion:
The type of fluoride program may be of importance in the reduction of new caries lesions in an older population.
