[Dental caries in a Belgian school population of 5-to-21-year-olds]

During the last 20 years, existing data show that caries activity has decreased in some industrialized countries, while marked increases have occurred, often rapidly, in developing countries. Changes in the prevalence of a multifactorial disease like dental caries are difficult to explain but seem to coincide either with increased intake of refined sugar-containing feeding or with the widespread availability of fluorides from many sources, more particularly in the tooth-pastes. The combination of fluorides with different other factors must be considered to explain the reduction in caries prevalence in the 1970's, but only the cariostatic effect of fluorides can be measured significantly. In spite of few studies in Belgium, a trend to a reduction of caries prevalence has been observed in temporary and permanent dentition. The aims of this study are to assess: 1. the oral health in a population of 5 to 21 old schoolchildren 2. and the effect of water naturally fluoridation on the dental caries prevalence. The dental caries prevalence is determined in each age group using the dft, dfs, D (2-4) MFT and D (2-4) MFS indices. The situation in this population is not satisfactory and there is a marked need for better oral health. The D (2-4) MFT increases from 1.67 to 11.29 between 6 and 20 years of age. In each age group, the numbers of carious and untreated surfaces in temporary and permanent dentition are more important than the number of filled surfaces. The percentage of children with caries-free teeth decreases from 27.0 to 0% between 5 and 20 years of age. A relation is recorded between the caries indices and the socio-economic category of the father, with the lowest indices among the higher educational group. The results show that the prevalence of dental caries is significantly lower in lifetime residents of the fluoridated community (Mouscron). Fluoridation reduces but does not eliminate social inequalities. The benefits of water fluoridation have been demonstrated in most countries but fluoridation alone is not sufficient to achieve total prevention.