Trends in Caries Epidemiology in Children

Abstract

Caries in permanent teeth is still the most prevalent disease worldwide. However, there are numerous reports about a caries decline with respect to caries prevalence and caries experience (DMFT or dmft scores). The most pronounced caries decline has been noticed in 12-year-old children in industrialized countries. These reports might obstruct the view on the epidemiological caries development in the primary dentition, which is not as successful as in the permanent dentition. Regarding the age groups of 3-year-old or even younger children, there are only limited data. These data show considerable differences in caries prevalence, but consistently a caries decline, even of widely varying magnitude. In 5- to 7-year-old children there is indeed an obvious trend for a caries decline over the last decades. However, this decline is only weak since around the year 2000, and in some countries there are indications for a halt or even a reversal of the caries decline in the primary dentition in this age group. The data for 12-year-old children demonstrate a distinct caries decline, which has continued through all last decades and reached DMFT values of 0.5 or less in some countries. However, parallel to the caries decline, there is an increasingly stronger caries polarization. Analytical caries epidemiology provides strong indications for an enhancement of the caries decline by placing fissure sealants. This effect seems to be particularly important in children with low SES background who benefit from this caries preventive measure to higher extents than other children.