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BMC Oral Health 2004
Grouping of tooth surfaces by susceptibility to caries: a study in 5–16 year-old childrenAbstract: Probit analysis of caries data collected from a 4-year longitudinal study of 20,000 schoolchildren aged between 5 and 16 years in 10 differing locations in the United States.The development of dental caries within the mouth followed a fixed hierarchy indicating that tooth surfaces show variation in caries susceptibility. Certain teeth and tooth sites have similar susceptibilities and can be grouped, the sizes of the groups vary. The most susceptible group consists of six tooth surfaces: the buccal pits and occlusal fissured surfaces of the first molar teeth. The second group consisted of 12 sites on the second molar and premolar teeth. The group formed by the least susceptible sites included the largest number of tooth surfaces and consists of the majority of the lower anterior teeth and canines.Variation in the caries susceptibility of tooth surfaces exists. Surfaces can be grouped according to caries susceptibility. An effect that reduces the cariogenic challenge of one of the sites within a group is likely to affect all the other sites within the particular group.The decline in caries that has occurred in industrialized countries over the past 30 years has been accompanied by major changes in the pattern of caries within the mouth. While the absolute levels of disease have declined, a relatively higher proportion of pit and fissured surfaces and lower proportion of approximal and smooth surfaces are involved. An additional feature in the pattern of dental caries is the existence of a surface hierarchy in susceptibility to caries [1-4]. These authors have reported that the most susceptible surfaces are pit and fissured followed by approximal surfaces on posterior teeth, and the least susceptible, approximal surfaces on anterior teeth.There is also a reported degree of symmetry both between the upper and lower jaws in the posterior sextants [5] and left and right side of the risk of caries. The concept is so well accepted that some survey systems for recording dent
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