Resumo

MOURA, Marcoeli Silva de et al. Dental fluorosis in 12-year-old adolescents. RGO, Rev. gaúch. odontol. (Online) [online]. 2010, vol.58, n.4, pp. 463-468. ISSN 1981-8637.

OBJECTIVE: Assessed the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis in 12-year-olds attending public schools in Teresina, capital of Piaui, Brazil. METHODS: A sample of 374 adolescents was randomly selected from municipal schools. Clinical examinations were performed under natural light at school by a duly trained dental surgeon (Kappa = 0.79) with the children sitting at school desks. All teeth were cleaned and dried with gauze and scored according to the Thylstrup-Fejerskov (TF) fluorosis index. The students were asked how many times they brushed their teeth daily, the date of their last visit to the dentist and their degree of satisfaction with the appearance of their smile. RESULTS: The prevalence of fluorosis was 61.5%, with no difference between the genders (p> 0.05). The TF score of most children (70.9%) was 1 and the most severe cases (1.7%) had a TF score of 4. The least affected teeth were the first molars and the most affected were the premolars, second molars and upper incisors. Only 5% of the students had never seen a dentist; 63% had seen one in the last year. Almost one-third (30.3%) of the children reported brushing their teeth twice a day and 57.5% three times a day. The degrees of dental fluorosis found in this population had no impact on their satisfaction with the appearance of their smiles. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of fluorosis was high among schoolchildren attending municipal schools but its severity was low. This suggests that dental fluorosis is not a public health problem in this population.

Palavras-chave : Adolescents; Epidemiology; Fluorosis dental.