Dental Caries and Permanent Tooth Extraction

Abstract

Dental caries is generally conceded to be the most prevalent pathological condition in our modem civilization. It is a malady which has its inception during childhood and is known to affect the greater portion of the population. An examination of the literature on caries incidence by Kloser (1) demonstrated in over 500,000 German children that 94 per cent were afflicted with the disease. More recent reports in our country by McCall and the extensive survey conducted by the United States Public Health Service (2) indicate that almost 97 per cent of American children are affected. A consideration of the first permanent molar is important in studies of dental caries because its early appearance in the mouth makes it the most vulnerable tooth of the permanent dentition. In fact, subsequent pulpal involvement and extraction is so common that certain investigators have considered it valid to regard the loss of this tooth as indicative of the degree to which an individual is susceptible to the attack of caries. On the basis of the present study, we are in agreement with this concept. The space devoted to the care and retention of the first permanent molar in our newer manuals of pedodontia indicates the growing