IMPACT OF DENTAL TREATMENT ON THE INCIDENCE OF DENTAL-CARIES IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

A review of the literature on the impact of dental care on the inciden ce of dental caries in children and adults suggests that the effect is small, Dental services were relatively unimportant in explaining the recent decline in caries in 5- and 12-year-olds. An important contribu tion of the dental services to the decline in caries was a change in t he diagnostic and treatment criteria. The role of dentistry in reducin g dental caries may lie mainly in the non-personal health services, Kn owledge of the life history and patterns of caries attack rates within populations and individuals could be used as a benchmark against whic h interventions can be assessed. Different teeth and tooth sites an af fected differentially at different levels of dental caries, This truis m may appear obvious but it is not used to evaluate the effectiveness and quality of dental treatment. A working rule is that ''As caries pr evalence falls, the least susceptible sites (proximal and smooth surfa ces) reduce by the greatest proportion, while the most susceptible sit es (occlusal) reduce by the smallest proportion.'' There is a specific relationship between the mean DMFT and mean DMFS, and the percentage of caries-free subjects and the frequency distribution of subjects wit h different levels of caries. Furthermore, the best predictor of carie s at older ages is DMFT at a younger age. Caries levels follow trend l ines for each level of caries. As the mean DMFT declines so post-erupt ive time increases for initiation of caries and the progression rates of caries through enamel decreases. This is true regardless of the pre sence of fluoride.