Prevalence and age at development of enamel hypoplasias in Mexican children

Enamel hypoplasias, deficiencies in enamel thickness resulting from disturbances during the secretory phase of enamel development, are generally believed to result from nonspecific metabolic and nutritional disruptions. However, data are scare on the prevalence and chronological distributions. of hypoplasias in populations experiencing mild to moderate malnutrition. The purpose of this article is to present baseline data on the prevalences and chronological distributions of enamel hypoplasias, by sex and for all deciduous and permanent anterior teeth, in 300 5 to 15-year-old rural Mexican children. Identification of hypoplasias was aided by comparison to a published standard (Federation Dentaire Internationale: Int. Dent. J. 32(2):159-167, 1982). The location of defects, by transverse sixths of tooth crowns, was used to construct distributions of defects by age at development. One or more hypoplasias were detected in 46.7% (95% CI = 40.9-52.5%) of children. Among the unworn and completely erupted teeth, the highest prevalence of defects was found on the permanent maxillary central incisors (44.4% with one or more hypoplasias), followed by the permanent maxillary canine (28.0%) and the remaining permanent teeth (26.2 to 22.2%) Only 6.1% of the completely erupted and unworn deciduous teeth were hypoplastic. The prevalence of enamel defects on the permanent teeth was up to tenfold greater than that found in studies of less marginal populations that used the FDI method. The prevalence of defects in transverse zones suggests a peak frequency of hypoplasias during the second and third years for the permanent teeth, corresponding to the age at weaning in this group. In the deciduous teeth, a smaller peak occurs between 30 and 40 weeks post gestation. The frequency of defects after three years of age is slightly higher in females than males, suggesting a sex difference in access to critical resources.