Dental caries experience in school children and the impact of non-cavitated lesions on the caries index.

UNLABELLED The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current status of dental caries in 11 to 13 year-old schoolchildren residing in Sucre Municipality, Miranda State, and the impact of the non-cavitated lesion on the caries index. Twelve elementary schools were included in this study and a sample of 1484 children was examined using artificial light, a #5 mirror and a #23 probe. The criteria followed were those proposed by Radike (1972) as modified by Acevedo et al. (2005) in order to include initial non-cavitated caries lesions. Teeth were cleaned and dried for 5 seconds with a triple syringe. Caries prevalence was 94.07% and the average DMFS index for the total sample was 4.35 +/- 4.21. This increased significantly to 6.45 +/- 5.01, when the initial caries lesions were included (p < 0.05). According to gender, DMFS was higher in the female population (4.51 +/- 4.45) than in males (4.21 +/- 3.97), but the difference was not statistically different (p > 0.05). The same pattern was observed, when the initial caries lesions were added. The new mean DMFS was 6.67 +/- 5.15 and 6.26 +/- 4.88 for females and males, respectively. Non-cavitated lesions represent 33% of the total caries lesions recorded. CONCLUSION These results show that (i) dental caries prevalence in this population remains high and (ii) initial lesions contribute significantly to the DMFS index.