An epidemiologic study of dental caries in race and geographic area.

It has been believed that differences in dental caries experience exist between whites and blacks, and between persons living in southern and northern states. Blacks have been reported to have lower caries experience than whites.' Caries experience of blacks in the North is similar to that of whites in some reports,2'3 but in the South, caries experience of whites often has been reported as twice as high as that of blacks.4-7 Most previous studies were conducted in one geographic area, which made a comparison of geographic differences in caries experience difficult. A few studies considered more than one geographic area." 8'9 A geographic and racial pattern emerged, even though the studies lacked standardization of examining criteria. Because of the limitations of the studies reported, an investigation was made using the same examiner and identical examining procedures in two different geographic areas to verify the racial and geographic differences presented previously.