Findings of clinical and radiographic caries among several adult age groups

Objective. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are age d-based variations in the association between clinically detected and radio graphically detected caries and whether the prevalence of clinically undete cted radiographic caries varies across adult age groups. Study design. The data for the analysis were from a clinical study that eva luated the efficacy of guidelines for prescribing dental radiographs. A tot al of 460 subjects had clinical examinations and interpretations made on fu ll-mouth radiographs. Analysis was conducted to determine the tooth-specifi c and subject-specific prevalences of clinically undetected caries and to e stablish whether the association between clinical signs and radiographic si gns varied by subject age. Results. In total, approximately 5.8% of clinically sound teeth showed radi ographic evidence of dentinal caries, and the prevalence increased with pat ient age. The prevalence of clinical signs of medium and large caries was 7 .8% in 12,358 teeth in which caries was both clinically and radiographicall y present However, for more than 80% of the teeth with clinically undetecte d caries, the lesions were evident on the interproximal radiographs. The as sociations between clinical and radiographic signs of dentinal caries were homogeneous across age groups. Conclusion. The findings demonstrate that adolescents and adults continue t o have medium and large caries, although the location of the caries differs by age group, with higher proportions of gingival caries in older patients .