[Comparson of occlusal conditions in juveniles from residential areas with different drinking water fluoride contents (author's transl)].

The investigations reported in this paper were conducted in Karl-Marx-Stadt after 16 years from the introduction of drinking water fluoridation (1.0 ppm F), with a total of 792 randomly selected juveniles (whose average age was 14.9 years) being examined. Serving as a control group were 780 juveniles of the same age (15.4 years). The control persons were from Leipzig (0.2 ppm F). Included in the comparison with metric occlusal traits, use being made in this connection of the method for measuring occlusal traits, which was recommended in 1973 by an F.D.I. commission (COCSTOC-MOT). Despite the considerable reduction of caries in the deciduous dentition and the change in the eruptive behavior of permanent teeth, which is of great importance of the development, of dentition, no systematic differences could be observed between the two groups of subjects. An improvement in the occlusal conditions could not, after consumption of drinking water with an optimum fluoride content, be convincingly demonstrated by means of the epidemiological method used in these investigations.