[Study on the dental fluorosis in a Southern city of Brazil]

The objective of this article is to determine the frequency and severity of dental fluorosis, as well as to verify possible associations with dental caries, gender, age, ethnicity and geographic location of schools in schoolchildren of 12 years old and from 15 to 19 years in the city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. A total of 633 schoolchildren of both genders at the cited ages, enrolled in 26 public schools of fundamental teaching were involved in the epidemiological study. The inspection was performed by three examiners previously trained to apply Dean's Index. The prevalence of dental fluorosis in the studied group was of 32.8%. Predominant degree was the very light (78.4%), followed by light (11.1%), questionable (8.7%) and moderate (1.9%). The prevalence of dental fluorosis was expressive in this population, however, with a low degree of severity. Factors such as age and dental caries index showed to be related to the variable response.