ABSTRACT
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.