LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF CARIES, CARIOGENIC BACTERIA AND DIET IN CHILDREN JUST BEFORE AND AFTER STARTING SCHOOL

Fifty 5-yr-old preschool children living in Akranes, a small community in West Iceland known to have a high caries prevalence, were investig ated with respect to caries, salivary counts of mutans streptococci an d lactobacilli, and consumption of cariogenic foods. Fifteen months la ter, after being in school for half a year, 43 of the 50 children were reexamined and investigated as before. Mean dmfs scores rose from 7.1 to 9.0, but the scores including initial caries rose from 9.7 to 15.3 . Mutans streptococci were carried by 84% of children on both occasion s with a mean count 2.1 and 3.6 x 10(5) cfu/ml. Lactobacillus carriage increased from 29 to 38% and the mean count from 5.1 to 13 x 10(3) cf u/ml at 6 yr. The frequency of consumption of sugar-containing foods i ncreased from 4.2 to 5.2 intakes per day and between-meal snacks rose from 3.0 to 3.7 per day. Children classified as ''misusing'' sugar wer e 59% at 5 yr and 83% at 6 yr. The mean caries score at 6 yr for child ren ''misusing'' sugar was 10.7 but only 2.0 for those not misusing su gar. Thus the deterioration in dental health appears, in these childre n, to be associated with the increased consumption of sweets and other cariogenic between-meal snacks after starting school.