Caries risk assessment in dental students from Iasi, Romania

tor: time [1]. There is no single test that takes into consideration all these factors and can accurately predict an individual’s susceptibility to caries. The risk of dental caries can be evaluated by analysing and integrating several causative factors. These include caries experience, fluoride use, extent of plaque present, diet, bacterial and salivary activity and social and behavioral factors. In order to predict caries risk many models have been developed in recent past years, but none of them had proved really effective. Cariogram is a new way in which to illustrate the interaction between caries related factors. This educational interactive program has been developed for better understanding of the multifactorial aspects of dental caries and to act as a guide in the attempts to estimate the caries risk. This program can be used in a clinical set up or for various educational purposes [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. The main purpose of the Cariogram is to demonstrate the caries risk graphically, expressed as the ”Chance to avoid new caries” in the near future. It also illustrates to what extent various factors affect this ”Chance”. A further purpose of this program is to encourage preventive measures to be introduced before new cavities could develop. The aims of the Cariogram are: illustrates the interaction of caries related factors, illustrates the chance to avoid caries, expresses caries risk graphically, recommends targeted preventive actions, can be used in the clinic and can be used as an educational program. The objectives of this study were to assess the caries risk in dentistry students from five academic year, in Iasi, expressed by the likelihood of avoiding new caries in the future year, using the