Dental fluorosis, caries experience and snack intake of 13-15 year olds in Kenya

Objectives: To determine the dental caries experience in relation to the severity of dental ŕluorosis and; to evaluate the dietary snacking habits of adolescents. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: A peri-urban primary school in Nairobi, Kenya. Subjects: Two hundred and seventy five adolescents aged 13-15 years among whom 128 were males and 149 were females. Results: Two hundred and seventy five adolescents were examined for varying degrees of dental fluorosis according to the Thylystrup Fejerskov Index (TFI) scores and the dental caries was determined in the four first permanent molars. One hundred and five individuals were found to have had a TFI score of zero with a corresponding decayed missing and filled teeth (DMFT) for dental caries of 1.30±1.03 and 88(52%) individuals had mild to moderate severity of dental fluorosis (TF scores 1-4) and had a corresponding mean DMFT of 1.53±1.005 for dental caries. Furthermore, 82(48.2%) adolescents had severe degrees of dental fluorosis of TFI scores 5-9 and had a corresponding DMTF value of 1.85+1.24 for dental caries. When the prevalence of dental caries was compared among individuals with TFI scores zero (non-fluorosed teeth) with those who had fluorosed first permanent molars the Chi square test showed that there was a high statistical significance with a p-value of 0.001 (P=0.005). Amongst the 175 adolescents with varying degrees of severity of dental fluorosis it was noted that 44(26%) did not like taking snacks and had a DMFT of 1.54±l:1.17while 126(74%) adolescents who enjoyed taking snacks had a DMFT of 1.64+1.08. However, there was no statistical significance. Conclusion: While there was a statistically significant association between the severity of dental fluorosis and caries experience among the participants in the present study, there was no co-relation between the caries experience and snacking habits among those who had varying degrees of dental fluorosis..