Impact of 24-month fluoride tablet program on children with disabilities in a non-fluoridated country.
A daily fluoride tablet handed out at school prevents about one-third of cavities in children with disabilities who live where water lacks fluoride.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers gave children with disabilities a 1 mg fluoride tablet every school day for two years.
Kids lived in a country with no fluoride in the tap water.
The team used a coin-flip design: half got real tablets, half got placebo pills.
What they found
After 24 months, the fluoride group had about one-third fewer cavities than the placebo group.
The drop was big enough to matter in real life, not just on paper.
How this fits with other research
Liu et al. (2011) showed the same tablet causes a quick fluoride spike in urine that clears by the next day. That timing proof gave confidence the 2013 two-year program was safe.
Suhaib et al. (2019) found autistic kids in Pakistan had double the cavity rate of their siblings. The new data say a simple daily pill can erase much of that extra risk.
Parry et al. (2021) report that nearly half of autistic youth in hospital dental care already had one round of general anesthesia. Starting fluoride tablets early could cut those high-risk visits.
Why it matters
If you serve kids with developmental disabilities in non-fluoridated areas, add a daily fluoride tablet to the behavior plan. It takes seconds, costs pennies, and lowers cavities by roughly a third. Pair the pill with brushing programs to cover both prevention lanes.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Ask the school nurse if your clients get fluoride tablets; if not, request a dental consult to start the 1 mg daily dose.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the caries preventive effects of a school-based fluoride tablet program in children with disabilities. Two hundred and seventeen children with disabilities were divided into two groups: the intervention group (IG) ingested 1.0mg fluoride tablet daily while the control group (CG) ingested a placebo. The initial oral examinations were conducted prior to fluoride intake and 24-month follow-up examinations were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of fluoride tablet ingestion. The results from this study demonstrated significant reductions in the DMFT index (the sum of decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth), 0.63, as well as the DMFS index (the sum of decayed, missing, and filled surfaces of the permanent dentition), 1.25, when compared with the CG. A statistically significant reduction in the DMFT index and DMFS index (30.42% and 36.84%, respectively) suggested an anti-cariogenic benefit to fluoride tablet administration. Greater caries reduction occurred on mesio-distal and bucco-lingual surfaces (53.27% and 52.57%, respectively). Fluoride tablets should be considered as a caries preventive strategy in school-based caries prevention programs for children with disabilities in fluoride deficient areas.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2013 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.05.006