The National Institute of Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) has given a 2-year, $2.3 mllion grant to Dr. Steven Levy of the department of preventative and community dentistry at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry to work on the Iowa Fluoride Study.
Launched in 1991 and funded by the NIDCR, the Iowa Fluoride Study recruited a cohort of nearly 1,900 women with newborns to research longitudinally the complex exposures and intakes of fluoride from water, foods, beverages, and cavity prevention products, along with their relationships to dental caries and other oral health conditions.
The study conducted dental examinations at ages 5, 9, 13, and 17 to assess dental caries prevalence and incidence, in addition to risk factors such as fluorosis. The new funding will support the next wave of dental caries exams of the 580 subjects who are still participating at age 23 in addition to continued work on the Iowa Bone Development Study.
In 1998, the NIDCR launched the Iowa Bone Development Study to better understand normal childhood bone development and relationships with fluoride and other dietary intakes and physical activity, anthropometric, and genetic factors. It assessed subjects at ages 5, 8-9, 11, 13, 15, 17, and 19.
The bone assessments in the next stage of the study will include dual energy x-ray absorptiometry of the hip, lumbar spine, and whole body; peripheral quantitative computed tomography of the radius and tibia; and multi-detector computed tomography of the tibia.
The study, “Fluoride, Dietary and Other Factors Related to Young Adult Bone Measures and Dental Caries,” will include other faculty members from the College of Dentistry as well as from the university’s colleges of public health, liberal arts and sciences, and engineering.
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