DEVELOPMENTAL OPACITIES OF TEETH IN A NEW ENGLAND COMMUNITY: Their Relation to Fluorine Toxicosis

IN VIEW of the widespread interest in the use of fluorine as a prophylactic agent for the control of dental decay, a consideration of the diagnostic criteria of fluorine toxicosis becomes of unquestionable importance to the pediatrician, as well as to the dentist. There is sufficient presumptive evidence to warrant the claim that careful observation of the color and translucency of teeth may furnish the clinician valuable clues regarding the health history of the child. Enamel tissue frequently furnishes physical signs of past or present disturbances of general metabolism. The present paper deals with some of the difficulties that arise when certain opaque hypoplasias of this tissue are looked on as physical signs of fluorine toxicosis.Enamel tissue is ordinarily devoid of macroscopically detectable coloring material. In this respect it differs from the underlying dentinal tissue, which reflects to a degree the circulatory condition of the dental pulp and of