Abstract

A survey was done of the prevalence of dental fluorosis among children aged 7-16 years and the occurrence of skeletal fluorosis among adults aged 40-60 years living in regions in Senegal where fluoride concentrations in the drinking water ranged from less than 0.1 to 7.4 mg/l. In the area where the fluoride concentration in the drinking water was 1.1 mg/l milder forms of dental fluorosis were found, the prevalence being 68.5%. In areas where fluoride concentrations exceeded 4 mg/l the prevalence of dental fluorosis reached 100%. Kyphosis was very prevalent among a community whose drinking water contained 7.4 mg/l fluoride. Radiographs of the vertebral column, hand, and wrist of 3 adults with kyphosis confirmed the diagnosis of skeletal fluorosis. High sweat loss and a high intake of water because of the hot weather may account for the finding. The present World Health Organisation guideline for the upper limit of fluoride concentration in drinking water may be unsuitable for countries with a hot, dry climate.

• Related Studies :

  • Association of dental and skeletal fluorosis with calcium intake and vitamin D concentrations in adolescents from a region endemic for fluorosis

    Objective: Patan, is a semi urban area in Gujarat, India where fluorosis is endemic (Fluoride concentration in ground water 1.96–10.85 ppm, Patel et al., 2008). Exposure to fluoride is likely to be higher in lower socio-economic class (SEC) due to lack of access to bottled water. Calcium intake and vitamin

  • Epidemiological, clinical, and biochemical study of endemic dental and skeletal fluorosis in Punjab

    The incidence of dental fluorosis in 46,000 children in the Punjab was assessed and compared with the fluoride content of their water supplies. Ten villages were selected for more detailed studies of skeletal as well as dental fluorosis. Factors other than the fluoride content of the drinking water which were found to influence

  • Effects of smoking, use of aluminum utensils, and tamarind consumption on fluorosis in a fluorotic village of Andhra Pradesh, India

    A field study was undertaken to determine effects of tamarind, the use of aluminium (Al) cooking utensils, and smoking on dental and skeletal fluorosis in the randomly selected fluoride (F) endemic village of Buttlapally in the Nalgonda District, Andhra Pradesh, India, where the F level in the drinking water is

  • Fluoride in Drinking Water: A Scientific Review of EPA’s Standards.

    Excerpts: Summary Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required to establish exposure standards for contaminants in public drinking-water systems that might cause any adverse effects on human health. These standards include the maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG), the maximum contaminant level (MCL), and the secondary

  • A comparative study of dental fluorosis and non-skeletal manifestations of fluorosis in areas with different water fluoride concentrations in rural Kolar.

    Background: Fluorosis is an endemic disease which results due to excess exposure to high fluoride from different sources. The climatic factors and dependency on ground water add to the risk of fluorosis in Kolar. In addition to it, the epidemiological studies conducted on fluorosis in Kolar are very few. Aims: (1) To

• Related FAN Content :

  • Skeletal Fluorosis: The Misdiagnosis Problem

    It is a virtual certainty that there are individuals in the general population unknowingly suffering from some form of skeletal fluorosis as a result of a doctor's failure to consider fluoride as a cause of their symptoms. Proof that this is the case can be found in the following case reports of skeletal fluorosis written by doctors in the U.S. and other western countries. As can be seen, a consistent feature of these reports is that fluorosis patients--even those with crippling skeletal fluorosis--are misdiagnosed for years by multiple teams of doctors who routinely fail to consider fluoride as a possible cause of their disease.

  • Factors which increase the risk for skeletal fluorosis

    The risk for developing skeletal fluorosis, and the course the disease will take, is not solely dependent on the dose of fluoride ingested. Indeed, people exposed to similar doses of fluoride may experience markedly different effects. While the wide range in individual response to fluoride is not yet fully understood, the following are some of the factors that are believed to play a role.

  • Fluoride & Osteoarthritis

    While the osteoarthritic effects that occurred from fluoride exposure were once considered to be limited to those with skeletal fluorosis, recent research shows that fluoride can cause osteoarthritis in the absence of traditionally defined fluorosis. Conventional methods used for detecting skeletal fluorosis, therefore, will fail to detect the full range of people suffering from fluoride-induced osteoarthritis.

  • "Pre-Skeletal" Fluorosis

    As demonstrated by the studies below, skeletal fluorosis may produce adverse symptoms, including arthritic pains, clinical osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and bone fragility, before the classic bone change of fluorosis (i.e., osteosclerosis in the spine and pelvis) is detectable by x-ray. Relying on x-rays, therefore, to diagnosis skeletal fluorosis will invariably fail to protect those individuals who are suffering from the pre-skeletal phase of the disease. Moreover, some individuals with clinical skeletal fluorosis will not develop an increase in bone density, let alone osteosclerosis, of the spine. Thus, relying on unusual increases in spinal bone density will under-detect the rate of skeletal fluoride poisoning in a population.

  • Skeletal Fluorosis & Individual Variability

    One of the common fallacies in the research on skeletal fluorosis is the notion that there is a uniform level of fluoride that is safe for everyone in the population. These "safety thresholds" have been expressed in terms of (a) bone fluoride content, (b) daily dose, (c) water fluoride level, (d) urinary fluoride level, and (e) blood fluoride level. The central fallacy with each of these alleged safety thresholds, however, is that they ignore the wide range of individual susceptibility in how people respond to toxic substances, including fluoride.