Dental caries and general decay among rural Alaska Native children is as much as 4 1/2 times higher than children in the general U.S. population, according to a new CDC report.
The CDC and Alaska state health officials released the report Thursday that details the findings of a 2008 investigation. The state also worked on the report.
The study found that soda pop consumption and lack of water fluoridation are primary factors associated with dental decay in both baby and adult teeth.
Brad Whistler, the state's oral health director and one of the authors of the report, said, “Most parts of rural Alaska are not fluoridated,” reports AP.
Five rural Yupik communities in a 52-village region took part in the study, three with non-fluoridated water and two with fluoridated systems.
The area was not named in the report and state and CDC officials declined to identify it at the request of the regional tribal health organization, who feared the area would be stigmatized.
Study participant Tom Hennessy, director of the CDC's Arctic Investigations program, said the results could be “applicable to a large number of rural communities in Alaska,” AP reports.
348 children between the ages of four and 15 were screened and parents were surveyed to determine risk factors.
The report found children between the ages of 4 and 5 averaged more than 2 1/2 times more decayed and filled baby teeth in Alaska villages with non-fluoridated water.
This dental deterioration was compared to children of the same age in villages with fluoridated water.
Only four communities in the region have fluoridated water systems, according to the report, and another 16 don't have residential piped water systems necessary for fluoridation.
Most of the region’s villages have piped water in homes, thus communities have the equipment in place for fluoridation.
Adding fluoride could prove cost effective, with studies showing that every dollar spent on fluoridation equals up to $38 saved in health benefits per person, Hennessy said.
87 percent of 4- to 5-year-old Alaska Natives screened had decay, compared with 35 percent for the general U.S. population for that age group, investigators found.
Alaska Native children in that category had a mean of 7.3 teeth affected by decay, compared with 1.6 teeth nationally for children of that age.
The report noted about 400 children in the 52-village region had full-mouth dental rehabilitations requiring general anesthesia in 2007 in an area averaging 600 births a year.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6037a2.htm?s_cid=mm6037a2_x
