Hydrochemistry of mountain rivers in the Sierra de Velasco, La Rioja, Argentina: implications on dental fluorosis through statistical modeling

URAN, G. M.; PASQUINI, A. I.; GIAMPAOLI, V.; LARROVERE, M. A.; CORTÉS MONTIEL, M. F.; PAUTASSO, R. E.

Sustainable Water Resources Management

Springer Nature Switzerland

Año: 2022

Dental fluorosis is a disease associated with prolonged intake of high concentrations offluoride, mainly by drinking water consumption. In a rural region in NW Argentina,several localities are supplied for domestic use by surface waters with variablecontents of dissolved F - (from 0.3 to 3.1 mg L -1 ) of geogenic origin. Dentalfluorosis, from very mild to severe, has been registered in the population according tothe spatial variability of dissolved F - . In this work, statistical models demonstratedthat the concentrations of dissolved F - that determine the occurrence of dentalfluorosis (and its severity), depend on the concentrations of dissolved Ca 2+ . Inchildren and adolescents, the probability of presenting this disease, at any degree,increases with age and dissolved F - ; whereas moderate to severe degree, iscontrolled by an inverse relationship between dissolved F - and Ca 2+ . This lastresult was also obtained in the group of adults, for any degree of dental fluorosis. Thus,for a particular concentration of dissolved F - , as dissolved Ca 2+ increases, theprobability of developing dental fluorosis decreases. The findings of this work could beuseful to adjust the current regulations, since guidelines of dissolved F - in drinkingwater for different degrees of dental fluorosis are not considered, nor the relationshipbetween F - and Ca 2+ .