FLUORIDATION EFFECTS ON PERIODONTAL-DISEASE AMONG ADULTS

Numerous studies report that water fluoridation reduces caries in chil dren, but little current evidence exists about fluoridation's effects on the periodontal health of adults. To address this issue, we estimat ed fluoridation effects on periodontal disease among 1066 Washington s tate employees and their spouses, aged 20 to 34, with current residenc es divided evenly between fluoridated and nonfluoridated communities. Subjects were interviewed by telephone to collect residence histories, personal characteristics and other data. Each subject's lifetime year s of fluoridation exposure (YFE) was calculated from the person's resi dence history and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's Fluoridation Census. Oral assessments were conducted to measure the extent of perio dontal disease. Relative to adults with no exposure, continuous lifeti me exposure reduced the probability of attachment loss from 0.87 to 0. 72. Similar benefits were obtained for bleeding gingiva and calculus. The estimates of fluoridation's benefits were not influenced by select ion bias due to subjects' nonparticipation in the oral assessments.