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Surveillance of primary dentition caries in Germiston, South Africa, 1981–97
Author(s) -
CleatonJones Peter,
Williams Shaun,
Fatti Paul
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0528.2000.280404.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dentition , dentistry , primary (astronomy) , orthodontics , physics , astronomy
– Objective: This 17‐year‐long study examined trends of dental caries rates in the primary dentition of 6843 preschool children in a South African city. Methods: Calibrated dentists did repeated cross‐sectional epidemiological surveys of dental caries in 2‐ to 5‐year‐old nursery school children using WHO diagnostic criteria between 1981 and 1997. Results: Both the percentage of children with dmft>0 and mean dmft increased between 1981 and 1989 and have slowly declined ever since in the absence of organised prevention to produce a secular trend of decreasing caries rates. The dt/dmft percentage ranged between 60% and 100% except in 1991 when it dropped to 40% and the ft/dmft percentage component rose proportionally, probably due to an economic effect. Conclusions: The percentage of children with dmft>0 and mean dmft decreased over the study period at all ages, the reason for which is unknown but is speculated to be due to a change in mutans streptococci strains.