Dental status and fluoride consumption among five-year-old schoolchildren in Strasbourg, France

An epidemiological survey of the caries prevalence in 1743 five-year-old children was conducted in Strasbourg in 1991 and compared with a similar study performed in 1973 (Jung et al, 1975). In 1991, 44.2 percent of the children were caries-free and 3 percent of the sample had experienced extractions of carious primary molars. The average values of the dfs and dft indices were 2.93 and 6.10, respectively, with a caries reduction of 35 percent when compared to the 1973 data. The majority of children (87.96 percent) used fluoridated dentifrices and 49.5 percent of them benefited from at least another combined fluoride supplementation. The latter showed lower caries indices than the unsupplemented ones. The average plaque index and gingival index values were 0.62 and 0.1, respectively: 46.4 percent of the children had a plaque index of 0.