SELECTED RESTORATION AND TOOTH CONDITIONS - UNITED-STATES, 1988-1991

The DMF index provides one source of information on past and present d ental caries experience; however, important limitations hinder its abi lity to characterize fully the impact of dental caries. The purpose of this paper is to describe a measure of selected restoration and tooth conditions that supplements information from the DMF index and to rep ort on the application of this measure as part of the Third National H ealth and Nutrition Examination Survey, Phase 1, conducted between 198 8 and 1991. Data from this survey were used to estimate the prevalence and severity of selected disaggregated physical and biological oral c onditions among dentate adults aged 18 to 74 years. Trained, standardi zed, and calibrated dentist examiners assessed 28 permanent teeth or t ooth spaces for each of 6,767 subjects. Teeth or tooth spaces were cla ssified based on criteria for: defective intracoronal restorations, cr owns, or bridges; gross loss of tooth structure associated with a rest oration; pulpal involvement; or retained roots. Approximately 40.5%, o r 61.6 million, dentate adults had at least one tooth or tooth space t hat met the criteria. Among all persons, an average of 0.9 teeth or to oth spaces met the criteria for at least one category. Adults with at least one scored tooth or tooth space had an average of 2.2 such teeth or tooth spaces. Data from this assessment supplement information ava ilable from the DMF index to provide a broader profile of the impact o f dental caries on permanent teeth of US adults.