Methods and indices in measuring fluorosis: A review

Fluorosis is important to measure because it is a condition that can be used as biomarker for the level of fluoride exposure during enamel formation. Increased and decreased in fluorosis prevalence may also reflect to the different ways of measuring the disease. The choice of measuring fluorosis is depends on the objective of the assessment such as assessing public health significant of fluorosis in the population or assessing the detailed of biological effects of fluoride. These differences in requirement have led to the adoption of many indices and assessment methods of enamel fluorosis, which subsequently led to evaluation of examiner agreement between them. Several indices were developed to measure dental fluorosis in the 20th century. These include fluorosis specific indices such as Dean’s Index; the Thylstrup and Fejerskov Index; the Total Tooth Surface Index; and the Fluorosis Risk Index. Non-specific descriptive indices such as the Developmental Defects of Enamel index have also been used to record fluorosis. Fluorosis has most commonly been recorded using clinical examinations and photographs. Recent developments have seen the use of a Visual Analog Scale and automated grading systems such as Quantitative Light Fluorescence emerge as possible enhancements to fluorosis scoring. This article aims to review existing indices and new methods in measuring dental fluorosis, together with examiner reliability across different methods and indices.