Abstract

Fluoride contents of water and food, collected from the subjects of five selected areas of Tamil Nadu in South India, were determined. Surveys were conducted to ascertain dental fluorosis prevalences among children of the areas, and dental and skeletal fluorosis prevalences in the adult populations. Dean’s “Community Fluorosis Index” (CFI) for dental fluorosis was calculated, from the children’s survey, and was found to be correlated with the prevalence and severity of fluorosis in the areas. A direct correlation was also confirmed between the mean fluoride level in drinking water and the percentage incidence of dental fluorosis. The dominant role of fluoride from drinking water, when compared with that from food, was established.

• Related Studies :

  • Skeletal fluorosis: histomorphometric analysis of bone changes and bone fluoride content in 29 patients

    Bone fluoride content (BFC) was measured and histomorphometric analysis of undecalcified sections was performed in transiliac biopsy cores from 29 patients (16 men, 13 women, aged 51 +/- 17 years) suffering from skeletal fluorosis due to chronic exposure to fluoride. The origin of the exposure, known in 20 patients, was either hydric

  • Fluorosis in some tribal villages of Dungarpur district of Rajasthan, India

    The prevalences of dental and skeletal fluorosis were observed in fifteen tribal villages of the Dungapur district of Rajasthan where the fluoride (F) concentration in drinking waters varies from 0.3 to 10.8 ppm. At 1.40 and 6.04 ppm mean F concentrations, 25.64% and 84.43% of school children (<16 years), and

  • 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

  • The effects of excessive fluoride intake

    A survey undertaken in areas of Tanzania where the water has a very high fluoride content showed mottling of the teeth. Some skeletal fluorotic changes were found in some older people. The problem of reducing the fluoride content of the water to acceptable levels is discussed.

  • Studies on skeletal muscle biopsies in endemic skeletal fluorosis

    Neurological manifestations of skeletal fluorosis have been attributed to compressive radiculomyelopathy. Experimental fluorosis has shown evidence of myopathic changes. Data on human muscle pathology is very scanty. This study included 22 patients with established osteofluorosis. 16 of them showed only EMG changes of neurogenic muscle disease. Histochemistry and histopathology of muscle biopsies showed

• 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.

  • "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.

  • 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.

  • Exposure Pathways Linked to Skeletal Fluorosis

    Excessive fluoride exposure from any source -- and from all sources combined -- can cause skeletal fluorosis. Some exposure pathways , however, have been specifically identified as placing individuals at risk of skeletal fluorosis. These exposure pathways include: Fluoridated Water for Kidney Patients Excessive Tea Consumption High-Fluoride Well Water Industrial Fluoride Exposure Fluorinated Pharmaceuticals (Voriconazole

  • Fluoridation, Dialysis & Osteomalacia

    In the 1960s and 1970s, doctors discovered that patients receiving kidney dialysis were accumulating very high levels of fluoride in their bones and blood, and that this exposure was associated with severe forms of osteomalacia, a bone-softening disease that leads to weak bones and often excruciating bone pain. Based on