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Perception of dental fluorosis and other oral health disorders by 12-year-old Brazilian children.

Meneghim MC, Kozlowski FC, Pereira AC, Assaf AV, Tagliaferro EP

School of Dentistry of Piracicaba, State University of Campinas, Department of Community Dentistry, Piracicaba, Brazil. meneghim@fop.unicamp.br

AIM: The aim of this study was to verify the perception of dental fluorosis as an oral health problem by 12-year-old Brazilian children and to evaluate if they were able to detect other oral disorders. METHODOLOGY: The sample consisted of 401 schoolchildren. Firstly, clinical examinations were performed using a visual method under natural light. After that, children answered a questionnaire with the purpose of assessing the self-perception of their oral health problems. Next, the volunteers were shown a photo album containing 24 photographs, and had to match each photo with a severity scale. RESULTS: The prevalence of fluorosis was 18.2%; 81.8% of this total in fluorosis scale T-F 1. Of the 401 children, 48.9% (n = 196) answered oral health problems related to concerns, such as aesthetic appearance or pain. Among them, only two children, both with fluorosis T-F 2, correlated their problems with the presence of stained teeth. As regards the photo album analysis, the children considered photos showing fluorosis T-F 7-9 as the most severe, whereas the photo of an orally healthy patient was considered the least severe. CONCLUSION: Children did not show negative perception of dental fluorosis, except for dental fluorosis at severe levels (T-F 7-9), and were mainly able to detect aesthetic or pain-related problems.

Published 2 April 2007 in Int J Paediatr Dent, 17(3): 205-10.
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