Abstract
Eighty two children, aged 8 – 13 years old, from Wamiao village (severe endemic fluorosis area), from Xinhuai village (nonendemic fluorosis area) were 88 (as a control group), were recruited in this study. The prevalence of dental fluorosis (DF) were 85.37% (Wamiao) and 6.82% (Xinhuai) in two village’s children respectively; drinking water fluoride (F-) in children’s household shallow well from 0.62 – 4.00 mg/L in Wamiao and 0.23 – 0.76 mg/L in Xinhuai; serum total triiodothyronine (TT3), total thyronine (TT4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) were 1.47 ± 0.28 and 1.47 ± 0.33 ng/mL, 9.67 ± 1.76 and 9.22 ± 2.54 mg/dL, 3.88 ± 2.15 and 2.54 ± 2.07 mIU/mL in two villages children respectively. The prevalence of DF, drinking water F-, serum TSH in Wamiao village was significantly higher than that in Xinhuai village. As the children in Wamiao village were divided into different subgroups according to their severity of DF, serum TT3 and TSH showed significant difference in different groups. The results in this study confirmed that the high F- exposure can caused functional abnormalities of thyroid, and the different severity degree of DF may be relation to significant deviation in the serum levels of thyroid hormone.