Salt Fluoridation to Prevent Dental Caries in Armenia

Abstract

Dental caries is considered a public health problem for many developed and developing countries. There are a huge number of affected school-aged children and adults, where the prevalence can reach from 60 to 90%. In some countries, the prevalence of dental caries can reach 100%. Dental care expenditure is a significant financial burden for many developed countries where 5-10% of public health expenditures relates to oral health. The most affected group in the community is the low and middle-income population. The social impact associated with dental caries is very high; “more than 51 million school hours are lost every year to dental-related illness”. The mean DMFT index in 2000 for children aged 12 years was 4-5 on average and for adults aged 35 years the DMFT index was approximately 14 in Armenia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), oral diseases prevention and hygiene improvement should be integrated with chronic diseases prevention and control programs (19). “The policy of the WHO Global Oral Health Program emphasizes that oral health is integral and essential to general health, and that oral health is a determinant factor for quality of life”. Thus, there is a need to develop and implement community based preventive programs to promote and improve the oral health of the population in Armenia. Fluoride is a natural element found in the earth and in different amounts in all sources of water and has caries protective effect. Fluoridated salt has the same caries protective effect as fluoridated water. Salt fluoridation, in comparison with water fluoridation, costs from 10 to 100 times less than water fluoridation. When salt fluoridation is used, it does not change the price of salt. The most appropriate method to provide fluoride to the population in Armenia is with fluoridated salt. Armenia has a local salt plant and it would be easy to implement the fluoridation program. Salt fluoridation is sustainable long-term intervention, which requires strong collaborations between internal and external institutions.