Topical Fluoride Use and Oral Health for Children in China

Objective: Compared with the 2nd National Survey of Oral Health, the 3^rd National Survey of Oral Health was carried out to investigate the trend of oral health and the topical fluoride using for school children in China.

Introduction: Fluoride toothpaste is the major carrier for public to obtain fluoride application routinely. Many studies were conducted to evaluate the caries preventive effect of tropical professionally applied fluoride for school children, such as fluoride gel, fluoride foam, and fluoride varnishes since 1980’s. Professionally applied fluoride would thus have minimal public health impact in the population’s public health status.

Method: Multistage, stratified and equal-quantity random sampling method was used in the national epidemiology survey which was carried out in 2005 in China. Dental caries of 23508 12-year-old children were examined by trained examiners and were scored according to WHO criteria.  And 12,392 students of the participants were recruited to complete questionnaires by themselves.

Result: Based on the 2^nd National Survey of Oral Health in 1995 in China, the DMFT for 12-year-old children was 1.03 and 45.8% children with caries, whereas the results from the 3^rd National Survey of Oral Health in 2005, the caries status was decreased with DMFT 0.50 and 28.9% 12-year-old children with caries. The percentage of 12-year-old children used fluoride toothpaste was increased from 18.5% in 1995 to 46% in 2005 according to the surveys. In 2005, the percentage of fluoride toothpaste usage was higher in Eastern regions than that in the less developed Central and the Western regions in China. The percentge of fluoride toothpaste use was also higher in urban areas than in rural areas.  

Conclusion: The increased use of fluoride toothpaste was considered to have made major contribution to the dental caries decline for 12-year-old children over a decade period.