Environmental risk factors associated with tooth decay in children: a review of four studies in Indonesia

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Author(s)
Farihatini, Tintin
Dale, Patricia
Davey, Peter
Johnson, Newell
Wulandari, Ririn
Winanto, Sri
Musaddad, Anwar
Satrio, Rinawati
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
There is growing concern over studying the environmental impacts on human health. Among the world's population, children are particularly vulnerable to environmental threats. Currently, in certain areas of Indonesia, there are significant problems with water quality, especially as many consume surface water for drinking. There is evidence that this contributes to tooth decay - the process of dental caries. Furthermore, teeth provide an excellent chronological record of nutritional status and trace metal exposure during human development. This paper provides an overview of risk factors for dental caries and reviews four ...
View more >There is growing concern over studying the environmental impacts on human health. Among the world's population, children are particularly vulnerable to environmental threats. Currently, in certain areas of Indonesia, there are significant problems with water quality, especially as many consume surface water for drinking. There is evidence that this contributes to tooth decay - the process of dental caries. Furthermore, teeth provide an excellent chronological record of nutritional status and trace metal exposure during human development. This paper provides an overview of risk factors for dental caries and reviews four epidemiological and laboratory studies that have addressed these issues in Indonesia. First, Winanto in 1993 showed that acidity and high tin (Sn) concentrations in drinking water are associated with the erosion of permanent teeth in children living close to a tin mining area. Second, Wulandari in 2009, using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS), showed that deciduous teeth containing high concentration of lead (Pb) have 3 times higher risks of contracting caries. Third, Satrio in 2010 compared the dental status of children who consumed rain water with those using other sources of drinking water: this revealed that low concentration of Fluoride in drinking water contributes 19 times higher risk of dental caries and low pH 22 times the risk compared to water of neutral pH. Fourth, Musadad in 2009 undertook an ecological study on the effect of drinking water quality in relation to dental caries and revealed significant associations with acidity, total water consumption, household expenditure and the distance from a subject's residence to the nearest dental health provider. Thus, in Indonesia, tooth decay is not only associated with poor diet and poor oral hygiene; it also reflects poor environment.
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View more >There is growing concern over studying the environmental impacts on human health. Among the world's population, children are particularly vulnerable to environmental threats. Currently, in certain areas of Indonesia, there are significant problems with water quality, especially as many consume surface water for drinking. There is evidence that this contributes to tooth decay - the process of dental caries. Furthermore, teeth provide an excellent chronological record of nutritional status and trace metal exposure during human development. This paper provides an overview of risk factors for dental caries and reviews four epidemiological and laboratory studies that have addressed these issues in Indonesia. First, Winanto in 1993 showed that acidity and high tin (Sn) concentrations in drinking water are associated with the erosion of permanent teeth in children living close to a tin mining area. Second, Wulandari in 2009, using Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS), showed that deciduous teeth containing high concentration of lead (Pb) have 3 times higher risks of contracting caries. Third, Satrio in 2010 compared the dental status of children who consumed rain water with those using other sources of drinking water: this revealed that low concentration of Fluoride in drinking water contributes 19 times higher risk of dental caries and low pH 22 times the risk compared to water of neutral pH. Fourth, Musadad in 2009 undertook an ecological study on the effect of drinking water quality in relation to dental caries and revealed significant associations with acidity, total water consumption, household expenditure and the distance from a subject's residence to the nearest dental health provider. Thus, in Indonesia, tooth decay is not only associated with poor diet and poor oral hygiene; it also reflects poor environment.
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Journal Title
Revista de Salud Ambiental
Volume
13
Issue
1
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2013. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Subject
Oral Medicine and Pathology