MARKETING OF DENTIFRICES CANCELS FLUORIDE STUDY

   The test marketing of fluoride dentifrices in Rochester, N. Y., has caused the cancellation of a study on caries prevention technics being carried on by the Eastman Dental Dispensary. The study had been under way for two years. The third year was to have been the study's ''critical" year, according to Basil G. Bibby, dispensary director. Under examination were two topical fluoride procedures. The dispensary had been painting the teeth of some 650 school children to check the effectiveness of varying methods of fluoride application. Early in l955, three fluoride dentifrices were marketed in Rochester. Two of the manufacturers mailed the dentifrices to every household. "Obviously, at this point we no longer had a pure test of the effect of our topical treatments," Dr. Bibby stated. "The results, of course, were indecisive since the planned period had not elapsed and fluoride dentifrices had been used by many of the school children for a number of months prior to the last examination."

J.A.D.A. 53 (Aug. 1956) 257