Knowledge of dental fluorosis of undergraduate dental students at a private university in Brazil.
BACKGROUND
The understanting of the dental fluorosis process, that begins with enamel maturation, is important to Dentistry students, since fluoride has drastically decreased the incidence of caries in several population groups, with a resultant increase in fluorosis prevalence and severity, as shown in literature.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this paper is to report the changes in the level of knowledge about dental fluorosis of undergraduate Dentistry students at Guarulhos University.


METHODS
One hundred and twenty-four undergraduate students enrolled in the first and second semester (2008) and seventh semester (2008) were evaluated. The data was obtained through questionnaires with dichotomic questions (true and false) and an alternative to evaluate whether the subject had been presented in the classroom. The data obtained was submitted to statistical analysis using the Chi-square test (α=0.05).


RESULTS
When evaluating the first semester students, differences were verified in numbers of the questions assigned with the alternatives true or false, when compared with seventh semester students (p<0.001). However, there were no differences when the same questionnaire was applied to the first semester students after six months (p=0.358).


CONCLUSIONS
It is possible to conclude that the six months period was insufficient to increase the level of knowledge about dental fluorosis, and when the students beginning and concluding the dentistry course were compared, there was an increase in the number of correctly assigned true or false questions in the latter group.
Department of Restorative Dentistry, School of Dentistry Guarulhos University, São Paulo, Brazil.
Juliana De Oliveira
Jde O
Ferla
José Augusto
JA
Rodrigues
Eduardo Dos Santos
Edos S
Leonetti
Kenitiro
K
Suguio
Jamil Awad
JA
Shibli
Alessandra
A
Cassoni