Fluoride - an adjunctive therapeutic agent for periodontal disease? Evidence from a cross-sectional study

Objective: To assess the influence of the water fluoride level on periodontal status, by determining the periodontal health status of subjects residing in low, optimum and high fluoride areas. Study design: A cross sectional survey was carried out on 967 adults aged 35-44 years old, from the Udaipur district of India. A stratified cluster random sampling technique was implemented in order to collect a representative sample from low (3ppm) areas, based on the fluoride concentration in drinking water. Periodontal status was assessed in accordance to WHO criteria. The Chi-square test was used to compare proportions, and logistic regression analysis was used to determine the contribution of wat…