Dental caries experience in Australian Army recruits 2002-2003

BACKGROUND: Recent data have suggested that the trend of decreasing caries experience in Australian children is slowing with increasing dmft and DMFT scores seen in children. However, there are limited data on dental caries experience in young Australian adults. METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 973 Australian Army recruits was conducted between November 2002 and March 2003. A clinical examination with bitewing radiographs was conducted and a questionnaire was used to elicit socio-demographic information. RESULTS: Mean DMFT scores were 2.43, 3.44, 5.48, 7.02 and 10.77 for subjects aged 17-20, 21-25, 26-30, 31-35 and 36-51 years respectively. Subjects with a lifetime exposure to fluoridated drinking water had a mean DMFT of 2.80 while subjects with no exposure to fluoridated drinking water had a mean DMFT of 3.91. Multivariate Poisson regression found that age, level of educationand lifetime exposure to fluoridated drinking water had a statistically significant effect on caries experience. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that there has been a continual decline in caries experience and prevalence in young Australian adults between 1996 and 2002-2003. Lifetime exposure to fluoridated drinking water conferred an appreciable benefit for subjects in this study compared with subjects with no exposure to fluoridated drinking water.     

Contribution of changing diagnostic criteria toward reduction of caries between 1971 and 1997 in children attending the same school in Florianopolis, Brazil

AIM: To assess the relative impact of changing diagnostic criteria on changes in the prevalence and severity of caries between 1971 and 1997. MATERIAL AND METHODS: All 12- and 13-year-old children attending the same school, "Padre Anchieta Primary School", in Brazil in 1971 (n=202) and 1997 (n=175) were examined by a single dentist. The criteria for the diagnosis of caries proposed by Radike in 1968 were used in both 1971 and 1997. In 1997, a second clinical examination was conducted and the WHO criteria proposed in 1987 were used. RESULTS: Comparison of caries experience expressed as changes in the mean DMFT scores indicated a 67.7% reduction between 1971 and 1997 from 9.2 to 3.0 when Radike's criteria were used in 1971 and the WHO criteria were used in 1997. The reduction in caries was independent of the diagnostic criteria adopted in the 1997 dental examination, but the reduction of caries was smaller, from 9.2 to 6.2 (31.8%), when caries experience in 1971 and 1997 was measured using Radike's criteria. CONCLUSION: The observed reduction of caries is not a statistical artifact. However, while 47.2% of this reduction is real, 52.8% of it is a statistical artifact due to changes in the criteria for measuring caries used by epidemiologists.     

婴儿期的喂养方式对学龄前期龋病的影响

本文对363名学龄前期儿童龋病发生情况,与其婴儿期喂养方式的关系做了探讨.结果表明,母乳喂养组小儿的患龋率及受检者龋均分别为55.97%及1.57.而非母乳喂养组小儿的患龋率及受检者龋均分别为79.41%及2.69.说明婴儿期实行母乳喂养,对学龄前期龋病的防治有一定作用.     

放射性龋齿的相关因素分析

本文对１０８例鼻呖癌患者的放射龋危险因素进行调查，采用逐步回归方法，对放射龋的２４个可疑因素进行多因素分析。结果表明，对放射龋有显著作用的危险因素依次为：放疗时间、全身状况睡前进食、口腔干燥、刷牙态度。为放射龋的综合防治提供了科学依据。     

农村社区儿童口腔健康状况的调查研究

目的　调查农村地区儿童与青少年口腔健康状况 ,为开展农村社区口腔保健项目制订相应对策。方法　采用随机分层、整群抽样的方法 ,抽取两个省的二个乡镇社区 1～ 12岁儿童及 15岁、18岁青少年共计 2 793名。采用WHO的基本调查方法进行龋病与牙周病患病状况的调查 ,分析学龄前无龋儿童与高龋儿童 (龋均 >3)的分布状况 ,以及调查青少年的牙周健康状况 ,评价疾病的分布范围与严重程度 ,以便确定干预的重点。结果　学龄前儿童乳牙患龋水平很高 ,6岁儿童患龋率为 72 .9% ,龋均 3.6 4 ;其中无龋儿童为 2 7.15 % ,高龋儿童 5 2 .2 % ,97%的龋未经治疗。 7～ 12岁儿童乳牙患龋率随年龄增长逐年下降 ,至 12岁仍有乳牙龋残留。恒牙患龋水平很低 ,12岁患龋率 2 1% ,龋均 0 .38,95 %未经治疗。青少年软垢指数为中等水平 ,口腔卫生状况普遍较差 ,牙龈炎与牙石严重 ,浅牙周袋很少 ,无深牙周袋 ,未发现牙周炎问题。结论　农村儿童乳牙龋患严重 ,恒牙龋水平很低 ,大多数龋未经治疗。口腔卫生状况较差 ,牙龈炎、牙石严重。发展农村社区保健项目 ,初级口腔卫生保健应是重点。     

比较两种探针检查法对福建省12岁儿童龋病抽样调查的差异

目的:了解福建省12岁儿童龋病的患病现状,比较2种探针检查法对龋齿检出率的影响。方法:根据WHO《口腔健康基本调查方法》第3、4版,参照“第三次全国口腔健康流行病学调查”,采取多阶段分层、等容量随机抽样的方法对福建省792名12岁儿童分别以CPI探针和5号探针检查龋齿。结果:2种探针检查法得出福建省12岁儿童的患龋率分别为32.83%和56.06%。CPI探针检查法得出在不同性别及城乡之间差异均无统计学意义。5号探针检查法得出女性患龋率大于男性(P<0.01)。与福建省2000年对12岁儿童进行的口腔健康抽样调查所统计的结果相比较,患龋率降低0.13%,龋均上升为21.17%。5号探针检出的患龋率及龋均均高于CPI探针的检出率。患龋率之间的差异为23.23%。结论:5号探针的龋检出率高于CPI探针的龋检出率。     

Use of the Significant Caries Index in quantifying the changes in caries in Switzerland from 1964 to 2000

OBJECTIVES: To follow the changes in the Significant Caries Index (SiC) and the DMFT during the period 1964-2000 in children aged 12 and 15 in the Canton of Zurich. METHODS: Examinations of random samples of children in 16 communities of the Canton were repeated every 4 years from 1964 onwards using the same standards for diagnosing caries. RESULTS: In the 12-year-olds, the children in the low tertile had virtually no DMF-experience from 1980 on. On the contrary, the SiC, based on the children in the highest tertile, decreased until 1996. At the age of 15, the zero-average in the low tertile was reached in 1992 but the SiC continued to decrease until 2000. In the 12-year age group the reduction of the SiC from 1964 to 1996 was 81.3% and for the overall DMFT it was 89.7%. The corresponding reductions for the 15-year-olds, in this case from 1964 to 2000, were 77.0 and 88.4%, respectively. The DMFT-counts in the total samples had substantially higher coefficients of variation than those in the highest tertile. As a consequence, the SiC had relatively smaller confidence intervals than the average DMFT. CONCLUSIONS: The SiC is a very useful measure of dental caries experience. On the basis of the results in the 15-year-old group, the target of an SiC below 5.0 is proposed. The decline of the SiC demonstrates that even in the high-risk children caries experience has been reduced substantially.     

Association of caries and treatment experiences with subjective symptoms of temporomandibular disorders in female adolescents

A 2-year cohort study of subjective symptoms of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) was performed. A total of 229 female adolescents, all 15 years of age, completed questionnaires and underwent dental examinations at baseline, 1- and 2-year follow-up surveys. The questionnaire included questions on typical TMD symptoms; i.e. temporomandibular joint (TMJ) noise, tiredness in jaws, pain on jaw movements, and difficulty in mouth opening. The relative risk was computed to determine the relationships of the baseline number of filled teeth (FT) and decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) increment with the incidence of TMD. The percentage of subjects with one or more subjective symptoms at 17 years of age was 30.6%, significantly higher than the percentages at 15 (17.0%) and 16 (19.7%) years of age (P < 0.01). The symptom-emerging rate of TMJ noise during the 2-year period was 13.5%, which was the highest among the rates of possible subjective symptoms. Individuals with a 2-year increment in DMFT of > or =2 had a 2.14-times increased risk of experiencing mild symptoms, and individuals with baseline FT of > or =3 had 2.41-times increased risk of experiencing mild or severe subjective symptoms. The results of this study showed that TMD symptoms occurred in a relatively high percentage of female adolescents during the 2-year period and suggested that DMFT is one factor affecting the incidence of TMD.