Early childhood caries--incidence and need for treatment
Dimitrova, M.M.; Kukleva, M.P.; Kondeva, V.K.
Folia Medica 42(3): 46-49
2000
ISSN/ISBN: 0204-8043 PMID: 11347337 Document Number: 521300
The peculiarities of early childhood require specific approaches to dental caries treatment. The necessity of discussing this problem has justified the undertaking of this study. The aim was to determine caries incidence rate and the need for its treatment in children aged 12 to 47 months. The study included 370 children from Plovdiv. It was conducted in accordance with the World Health Organization requirements for epidemiological study of dental caries. Three age groups were formed: group I (12-23 months), group II (24-35 months), and group III (36-47 months). Dental caries on a cavitation level was diagnosed by means of a probe and a mirror. The indicators of caries incidence--total and separately by active and treated caries, as well as the percentage of surfaces with active caries were determined. Caries incidence rate in group I was 0.54, in group II--1.45 and in group III--1.85. A rapid increase of these values was observed between I and II group--P < 0.001. In all age groups the active caries incidence, as well as the percentage of surfaces with active caries were considerably higher than that of treated caries incidence, P < 0.001. In the studied populations dental caries is treated only in a very small number of cases. Further studies are necessary for determining the causes for this--causes attributable to the parents, as well to the practising dentists.