Estudo sobre a fluorose dentária num município do sul do Brasil Study on the dental fluorosis in a Southern city of Brazil

O objetivo deste estudo foi determinar a frequência e a severidade da fluorose dentária, bem como verificar possíveis associações com cárie dentária, sexo, idade, etnia e localização geográfica das escolas, nos escolares de doze e de quinze a dezenove anos de idade do município de Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul. A população estudada foi constituída por 633 escolares, de ambos os sexos, matriculados em vinte e seis escolas municipais de ensino fundamental, nas idades índices citadas. Os exames foram realizados por três examinadores previamente calibrados para a aplicação do Índice de Dean. A prevalência de fluorose dentária no grupo estudado foi de 32,8%. O grau predominante foi o muito leve (78,4%), seguido pelos graus leve (11,1%), questionável (8,7%) e moderado (1,9%). A prevalência de fluorose dentária na população estudada foi expressiva, embora com um baixo grau de severidade. Os fatores idade e índice de cárie dentária mostraram-se relacionados à variável resposta.<br>The objective of this article is to determine the frequency and severity of dental fluorosis, as well as to verify possible associations with dental caries, gender, age, ethnicity and geographic location of schools in schoolchildren of 12 years old and from 15 to 19 years in the city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. A total of 633 schoolchildren of both genders at the cited ages, enrolled in 26 public schools of fundamental teaching were involved in the epidemiological study. The inspection was performed by three examiners previously trained to apply Dean's Index. The prevalence of dental fluorosis in the studied group was of 32.8%. Predominant degree was the very light (78.4%), followed by light (11.1%), questionable (8.7%) and moderate (1.9%). The prevalence of dental fluorosis was expressive in this population, however, with a low degree of severity. Factors such as age and dental caries index showed to be related to the variable response

Obesity and dental caries: systematic review

OBJECTIVE Identifying, through a systematic literature review, evidence of a possible association between obesity and dental caries. METHODS A search of articles published between 2005 and January 2012 was performed in the Medline/PubMed, LILACS and Web of Science databases. The quality of scientific evidence of the selected articles was assessed by the items proposed for observational studies in the Downs & Black instrument. RESULTS Initially, 537 references were found; after checking the titles and abstracts by two independent researchers, twenty-eight articles were selected for complete reading. Ten of them that assessed the primary and/or permanent dentition observed a positive association between obesity and dental caries and one study found an inverse association. According to the Downs & Black classification, thirteen articles with good scientific evidence were found. CONCLUSIONS The present review did not find sufficient evidence regarding the association between obesity and dental caries, and it did not clarify the possible role of diet and other possible effect modifiers on this association.Alexandre Emidio Ribeiro Silva, Ana Maria Baptista Menezes, Flávio Fernando Demarco, Fabiana Vargas-Ferreira, Marco Aurélio Pere