Perception of dental fluorosis and other oral health disorders by 12-year-old Brazilian children.

AIM: The aim of this study was to verify the perception of dental fluorosis as an oral health problem by 12-year-old Brazilian children and to evaluate if they were able to detect other oral disorders.

METHODOLOGY: The sample consisted of 401 schoolchildren. Firstly, clinical examinations were performed using a visual method under natural light. After that, children answered a questionnaire with the purpose of assessing the self-perception of their oral health problems. Next, the volunteers were shown a photo album containing 24 photographs, and had to match each photo with a severity scale.

RESULTS

The prevalence of fluorosis was 18.2%; 81.8% of this total in fluorosis scale T-F 1. Of the 401 children, 48.9% (n = 196) answered oral health problems related to concerns, such as aesthetic appearance or pain. Among them, only two children, both with fluorosis T-F 2, correlated their problems with the presence of stained teeth. As regards the photo album analysis, the children considered photos showing fluorosis T-F 7-9 as the most severe, whereas the photo of an orally healthy patient was considered the least severe.

CONCLUSION

Children did not show negative perception of dental fluorosis, except for dental fluorosis at severe levels (T-F 7-9), and were mainly able to detect aesthetic or pain-related problems.