Predictable Model to Dental Fluorosis after Three Years. Campeche, Mexico 2001

In Campeche City, Mexico in 1997 a base line for dental fluorosis was made in 6-9 years old schoolchildren. The objective was to identify the associated factors to prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis. The variables included were age, gender, mother's attitude to oral health, fluoride sources, early use of toothpaste and mother's school level. Dean's modified Index was used (Kappa 0.85). Three years later a second exam was made. In the first exam the multivariate analysis showed that the most important factors were: number of fluoride sources and mother's attitude to oral health. In the second exam the children were 9-11 years old and new teeth have eruptioned. The prevalence and severity of fluorosis increased importantly from 58.7% to 69.7%, the community fluorosis index increased from .7 to .9. An unexpected result was that the more associated factors changed, multivariate analysis showed that more important that the number of fluoride sources for prevalence and severity of fluorosis, was the early use of toothpaste and this association increased when mother's school level was very low. Associated values obtained through a model of logistic regression were: early use of toothpaste OR=5.88 p=(0.000), mother's school level OR=.91 p=(0.000). The sensitivity of the model were 94.0 and the specificity 59.8. The percentage of subjects correctly classified was 83.6. The early use of toothpaste and low school level of children's mother were the most associated factors with prevalence and severity of fluorosis. The age of exposure to fluoride may affect teeth that erupt later, if they are not considered in the analysis a mistaken identification could be made of associated factors to dental fluorosis.