A longitudinal clinical study of oral cleanliness and dental caries in school children

Abstract

Epidemiologists have failed to demonstrate a consistent relationship between dental plaque and caries, perhaps as a result of using two indices related to different intervals in time. The DMF caries index measures the total caries experience accumulated from the age of the eruption of the permanent teeth; indices of oral cleanliness measure a transient state. The aim of this investigation was to attempt to overcome the problem by relating the 3 yr increment in caries experience in 398 children, initially aged between 11 and 12 yr to the standard of oral cleanliness measured over the same interval at four annual examinations. Comparisons of the mean 3 yr increments in new DMF teeth revealed that children with clean teeth at every examination had a smaller increment than children whose teeth were consistently unclean. However, the differences were small and were not significant. It was concluded that it was not possible to demonstrate a relationship between the standard of oral cleanliness and dental caries.