The major safeguard for fluorosis using age-appropriate toothpaste

Abstract

Until now it is well established that fluoride is an important ingredient to combat dental caries, working both systemically and topically. As the action of fluoride is dose-related and it has a cumulative action, it’s over dosage can cause serious toxic effect. Fluorosis is one of the chronic toxic effects of fluoride that appears as a developmental disorder of dental enamel. Fluorosis develops due to multiple and continuous exposures to high concentration of fluoride in low dosage. Therefore, the development of fluorosis is not only dependent on the dose but also greatly reliant on length and timing of fluoride exposure. This paper presented a case of dental fluorosis of a 9 years old girl who had a history of swallowing of toothpaste during tooth brushing when she was younger than 3 years. Clinically fluorosis appears as subsurface hypo mineralization or porosity (mottling enamel) of teeth where usually fine white to chalky opaque to brown discoloration of enamel occur which was typically seen in all of my patient’s permanent teeth (all permanent incisors and all permanent first molars) present at that time in her mouth while all of her deciduous teeth (all deciduous canines and molars) present at that time in her mouth were absolutely sound. Micro-abrasion is one of the procedures to treat the fluorosis teeth. In this case micro-abrasion was performed successfully.