Urinary fluoride excretion of young children exposed to different fluoride regimes.
OBJECTIVE
To compare 24-hour urinary fluoride excretion in young children exposed to different fluoride regimes.


METHODS
Twenty-four-hour urine samples were collected from children aged between 1.8 and 5.2 years. Samples were collected from Cork, Ireland (n=19) where the water is fluoridated to a concentration between 0.8 and 1.0 mg/l; Knowsley, UK, where the water fluoride concentration is <0.1 mg/l (n=22); and from children in Knowsley drinking milk containing 0.5 mg fluoride in nursery school each day (n=16). The volume of the samples was measured, they were analysed for fluoride concentration and the 24-hour urinary fluoride excretion was calculated.


RESULTS
It was found that the mean fluoride excretion in response to usual conditions of fluoride intake in these children was 0.21 mg (SD=0.14) in non-fluoridated Knowsley; 0.36 mg (SD=0.11) in fluoridated Cork and 0.30 mg (SD=0.10) in the children drinking fluoridated school milk.


CONCLUSIONS
The daily fluoride excretion in these children, corrected for age and fluoride ingested from toothpaste, appeared to indicate that the fluoride intake in the children drinking fluoridated school milk was somewhere between those living in an optimally fluoridated area and those in a low fluoride area.
Ketley
Clare E
CE
Department of Clinical Dental Sciences, The University of Liverpool School of Dentistry, UK. ketley@liverpool.ac.uk
Cochran
Judith A
JA
Lennon
Michael A
MA
O'Mullane
Denis M
DM
Worthington
Helen V
HV
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005457:Fluoridation; D005459:Fluorides / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007494:Ireland; D016014:Linear Models; D008892:Milk / Q000737:chemistry; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014100:Toothpastes / Q000737:chemistry; D006113:United Kingdom
D014100:Toothpastes; D005459:Fluorides