Caries prevention by domestic salt fluoridation (dedikált példány) [antikvár]

PREFACE The epidemiology of dental caries and the development of methodology for the use of fluorides in preventing disease together provide a fascinating story. It is clear that traditional, mainly unrefined diets of non-industrialized societies, historically and to this day, co-existed with extremely low prevalence of dental caries. Within that range there were, and are, quite large variations, but they are trivial compared with the contrasting experience of the disease in industrialized or industrializing societies, where refined carbohydrates, especially sugars, form a large component of the diet. If we take average DMF teeth data at 12 yr of age as an indicator, the contrasts in very low or low caries prevalence communities were and are of the order of 0 to 2 or 3 DMF teeth, whereas means of 12 have been reached in industrialized and industrializing societies. The importance of fluoride as a caries preventive agent was first observed in the 1930s in relation to its concentration in natural water supplies. This observation served as the basis for the fluoridation of deficient public water supplies, which became the first, highly effective, safe and inexpensive public health measure for caries prevention. From that beginning, a large variety of uses have developed for the topical and systemic administration of fluorides. The former approach includes professional application of fluoride as solutions, gels and pastes, and the use of rinses and fluoride-bearing dentifrices, indi- XI