iDentistry The Journal Volume 14 No.1 | Page 28

The Journal Discussion “Prevention is better than cure” as the saying goes, has been proven to be true in different situationsand when it comes to oral health it’s the most suitable line describing the level of dental care education we want to dispense to the community. There are several ways to reduce the occurrence of oral diseases and that particularly can be achieved through conducting appropriate oral health education programmes in schools, primary health centres and through non-profit or government organizations. At an early age, children should be made aware and be educated on the subject of oral health because it would have a major impact on their health-related behaviour later in life as it is more feasible to modulate habits at young age, where as in adults established practices are difficult to modify. Billions of children in the world of different age groups go to schools; these become the ideal locations for conducting educational programmes. 85% of the population in Himachal Pradesh resides in rural areas of which more than 35% constitute children. This population is untouched by any preventive and educational dental health programmes, expressing poor knowledge about oral health practices and awareness. usually by ingestion. Once fluorosis occurs it is irreversible without any cure. Only symptomatic and supportive management is possible. According to the Research Done by Central Ground Water Board, Ministry Of Water Resources And Government Of India On ‘Ground Water Scenario In Himalayan Region’, India, Fluoride pollution is observed in spring water of Himachal Pradesh ranging from 1- 4mg/l which is above the accepted fluoride levels in drinking water – 1.5mg/l7. In the present study, out of 3024 children checked, 790 males and 570 females have good oral hygiene and 902 males and 762 females needed treatment. The percentage of children requiring treatment was as high as 55% when we had expected while screening the school children to be around 25-35%. (Table 1) According to this study (Table 2) the p value comes to 0.032 which is significant and proves that the children requiring treatment for caries is higher than those having good oral hygiene. In many places highfluorides are naturally present in earth crust leading to highwaterfluoridecontent increasing the risk of fluorosis.Maintaining a fine balance of fluorides in the body is mandatory for exploiting its advantages. World Health Organization (WHO) has fixed permissible limit of fluorides in water to 1.5 mg/L as a preventive step to contain fluorosis.Fluorosis has three clinical components: Dental, Skeletal and Non-Skeletal Fluorosis. It occurs with increasing level of fluorides in the body. Acute toxicity due to fluorides is also known and occurs as a result of sudden exposure to high levels of fluorides, 27 Vol. 14 No. 1 Jan-Apr 2018