The prevalence of dental caries (tooth decay) in early childhood is high. Early childhood caries (ECC) is associated with caries in permanent dentition and lethal systemic infections. In many developed countries, 25% of children bear 75-80% of caries lesions. Caries prevention should be targeted at high-risk individuals. Identifying high-risk preschoolers through caries risk assessment (CRA) is...

The objectives of this prospective, longitudinal, population-based study were to estimate the incidence of dental caries in the primary dentition, identify risk factors and determine the proportion of children receiving dental treatment, through a two-year follow up. The first dental exam was conducted with 381 children aged one to five years, at health centers during immunization campaigns; 18...

BACKGROUND Caries management historically has focused on the removal of cavitated carious tissue and restoration of the tooth. OVERVIEW Assessing a patient's risk of developing caries is a vital component of caries management. A comprehensive caries assessment should consider factors such as past and current caries experience, diet, fluoride exposure, presence of cariogenic bacteria, salivary...

BACKGROUND Dental caries is one of the most common chronic childhood diseases affecting a large portion of children in the United States. The prevalence of childhood dental caries in Kentucky is among the highest in the nation. The purposes of this study are to (1) compare sociodemographic differences between caries and no caries groups and (2) investigate factors associated with untreated dent...

This study aimed to analyze how the prevalence and the distribution of dental caries influence the sample size in epidemiological surveys, and how much are the costs. Secondary data of oral health surveys in 12-year-old schoolchildren from Bauru in 1976, 1984, 1990, 1994, and 2001, and from Piracicaba in 2001 and 2005 were studied. Sample sizes were estimated taking into account the mean DMFT a...

Introduction: The development of a self-limiting caries removal technique would be of great clinical importance. Smart bur II is a relatively new bur in the dental market and its manufacturer is claiming that it is the ultimate bur for selective caries removal. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate caries removal time and efficacy of Smart bur II in comparison with conventional carb...

Dental caries is the most common oral disease seen in children and adolescents. This study was conducted to assess prevalence of dental caries at different water fluoride levels in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. A total of 1800 school children aged 12-15 years were selected by stratified cluster sampling from three areas with different levels of natural fluoride concentrations in drinking...

Dental caries (tooth decay) is an infectious disease. Its etiology is not fully understood from the microbiological perspective. This study characterizes the diversity of microbial flora in the saliva of children with and without dental caries. Children (3-4 years old) with caries (n = 20) and without caries (n = 20) were recruited. Unstimulated saliva (2 mL) was collected from each child and t...

Several cross-sectional studies report that caries in primary teeth is correlated with caries in permanent teeth. This eight-year cohort study sought to determine if caries in the primary dentition can predict caries in the permanent dentition of the same individuals and, if so, with what degree of prediction accuracy. A total of 362 Chinese children, from 3 to 5 years old at the time of the 19...

Recent evidence suggests that genetic studies may contribute to a better understanding of individual susceptibility to caries. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors have been suggested to be involved in the caries process. The purpose of this study was to determine if polymorphisms in MMP2 (rs243865), MMP9 (rs17576), MMP13 (rs2252070), and TIMP2 (rs7501477) were associate...