Caries Preventive Effectiveness From Community Water Fluoridation at Suburban Area

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of community water fluoridation program (CWFP) on the prevention of dental caries at suburban area, Hapcheon, Korea, with reference to the results of the Sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (Sixth KNHANES, 2013-5). The CWFP at Hapcheon has been implemented since 2000. The coverage of CWFP among total Korean population was only 4.8% in 2015.
Methods: 498 subjects including 8-, 10-, 12- and 15-year-old children with CWFP were examined in 2015. 952 subjects aged same years from Sixth KNHANES were used as control. A dentist who received training with an inter-examiner-agreement in KNHANES, examined oral health status of all subjects with CWFP. The effectiveness of caries prevention was estimated by assessing the differences of DMFT scores adjusted for the number of fissure-sealed teeth.between subjects with CWFP and the Sixth KNHANES.
Results: DMFT of 8-, 10-, 12- and 15-year-olds adjusted for the number of fissure-sealed teeth were 0.49, 0.50, 0.87 and 2.10, respectively in CWFP and 0.44, 0.88, 1.38 and 2.81, respectively in the Sixth KNHANES. The significant effectiveness of caries prevention from CWFP among 10-, 12- and 15-year olds compared to subjects in the Sixth KNHANES was estimated 43.2%, 37.0% and 25.3%, respectively.
Conclusions: Within the limitation of the study, the current findings show that the Community Water Fluoridation Program at suburban area, Hapcheon in Korea reduced the prevalence of dental caries and is therefore worth being promoted as a public oral health program.