Caries reduction effect of permanent teeth from community water fluoridation program for 17 years in Jinju city / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: The community water fluoridation program was implemented in 1998 in Jinju city. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of this 17-year community water fluoridation program on caries reduction in permanent teeth. METHODS: Evaluation surveys were conducted in 2015 on subjects aged 8, 10, 12, and 15 years in Jinju city. The examined dental data were compared with that of subjects of the same age groups living in the medium-sized cities from the 6th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) (2013–2015). The total number of subjects was 1,026 in Jinju city and 453 in the control group. The odds ratio of caries experience rate and untreated tooth rate on permanent teeth in Jinju city compared to control group was estimated based on the differences in DMF and untreated teeth rates after adjusting for gender, age, and mean number of fissure-sealed teeth. The effect of community water fluoridation program on caries reduction in permanent teeth was estimated by the differences in adjusted DMFT scores between the program and control groups. RESULTS: The odds ratio of caries experience rate and untreated tooth rate on permanent teeth in Jinju city compared to control group was estimated as 0.501 and 0.178, respectively. The effect of community water fluoridation program on caries reduction in permanent teeth was estimated as 40.0%. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that the effect of community water fluoridation program on caries reduction in permanent teeth in Jinju city was so high that similar programs should be developed in other regions in Korea.

The caries preventive effect on permanent teeth adjusted for number of fissure-sealed teeth and surfaces from 6-year community water fluoridation program in Geoje City / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: The water fluoridation program has been implemented since 2008, in a region of Geoje City. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the water fluoridation program on caries prevention in the permanent dentition. METHODS: Evaluation surveys were conducted on 8-, 10- and 12-year-old children in the fluoridated and non-fluoridated regions of Geoje City, in 2015. The survey included 834 children from the fluoridated regions and 703 from the non-fluoridated regions. The data obtained from the survey were analyzed using the IBM SPSS statistical package version 23.0. The effectiveness of community water fluoridation in caries prevention was estimated by the differences in the decayed, missing, filled teeth (DMFT) and decayed, missing, filled surfaces (DMFS) scores, between the program and control groups. The mean numbers of fissure-sealed teeth and surfaces were adjusted to reduce their confounding effect. RESULTS: The mean DMFT and DMFS scores (0.69 and 0.91, respectively) of 10-year-olds from the fluoridated regions, after adjusting for the numbers of fissure-sealed teeth and surfaces, were significantly lower than those of the 10 year olds (DMFT: 0.95, DMFS: 1.32) from the non-fluoridated regions. The effectiveness of water fluoridation on caries prevention in the permanent dentition, estimated based on the differences in the mean DMFT and DMFS scores, adjusted for the number of fissure-sealed teeth and surfaces, between the program and control groups of 10-year-old children, was 27.4% and 31.1%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that the effectiveness of water fluoridation on caries prevention in the permanent dentition, in Geoje City was so high that this program should be implemented in other regions in Korea as well.

Factors related to the consumption of illegal dental treatments in Korean adults / 대한구강보건학회지

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to analyze the factors that are related to the illegal dental treatment experience (IDTX), among the Korean adults. METHODS: The raw data for the analysis of IDTX, among the Korean adults, which were aged 17 years and over, were obtained from the dataset of the Korean National Oral Health Survey (KNOHS), which was conducted in 2006. Stratified weighted total 11,808 samples were selected by region and clustered sampling methods. The data of weighted total 11,808 samples were analyzed, using a chi-square test and a logistic regression analysis, by demographic socioeconomic variables of age, gender, area, educational level, occupation, national health insurance, and monthly income. RESULTS: IDTX rate was under 10%, among the adults aged 35~44 years or below the age group. However, it increased to 18.9%, among the adults aged 45~54 years and overtook over 30% among the adults 55 years and over. The age group of high IDTX rate was coincided to the age group of high number of lost teeth. Most of IDTX were presumed to prosthetic treatments. In IDTX rate of samples, aged 45 years and over, odds ratio of females' was 1.3, compared to that of the males'; odds ratio of metropolitan area, 1.2 compared to rural area. IDTX rate was higher among the middle school or below educational level group compared to that of college or over educational level group. IDTX rate of medicaid or not joined to national health insurance group was 31.3%, higher than that of national health insurance group. IDTX rates of low monthly income group, less than 4 million KRW were higher than monthly income group of 4 million KRW or more. CONCLUSIONS: To supply the prosthetic treatments for the population of medicaid and national health insurance is needed to remove illegal dental treatments in Korea.