Dental caries is an infectious microbiologic disease of the teeth that results in localized dissolution and destruction of the calcified tissue. Dental caries is a mulitifactorial disease, which is caused by host, agent, and environmental factors. Cariogenic micro-organisms enter the dental biofilm early in life and can subsequently emerge, under favorable environmental conditions, to cause dis...

A shift in caries prevalence from occlusal surfaces to approximal surfaces has been demonstrated by epidemiological studies. Two recent meta-analyses evaluated the performance of visual examination and radiography for carious lesion detection, and reported low sensitivity but high specificity for early approximal caries detection. This suggests that the conventional methods have a higher risk o...

BACKGROUND Asthma has been associated with a great number of negative health outcomes. This study was undertaken to detect the association between asthma and dental caries in the primary dentition. METHODS Data were obtained from a cohort of 1160 Mexican children aged 4-5 years. We used the questionnaire of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies Diseases in Childhood. Asthma was clas...

PURPOSE Reports from most industrialized countries suggest that dental caries in children has been declining over the last 50 years. However, this trend may be reversing, especially in younger children. The aim of the present study was to compare caries levels and patterns of 3- and 4-year-old Head Start children observed in 1999 with those observed in 1991. METHODS Clinical dental caries dat...

The microbial and dietary factors that drive caries have been studied scientifically for 120 years. Frequent and/or excessive sugar (especially sucrose) consumption has been ascribed a central role in caries causation, while Streptococcus mutans appeared to play the key role in metabolising sucrose to produce lactic acid, which can demineralise enamel. Many authors described caries as a transmi...

OBJECTIVE The object of this conference paper was to review and discuss caries risk assessment in general practice from the questions i) 'Why', ii) 'When', and iii) 'How'. METHOD Narrative review. RESULTS i) Patient caries risk assessment is the basic component in the decision-making process for adequate prevention and management of dental caries and for determination of individual recall i...

Numerous lines of evidence have conclusively established the role of sugars in caries etiology and the importance of sugars as the principal dietary substrate that drives the caries process has not been scientifically challenged. While sugars appear to differ little in acidogenic potential, sucrose has been given special importance, as the sole substrate for synthesis of extracellular glucans. ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate dental emergencies treated at a hospital clinic and emergency department (ED) to: (1) analyze emergency types; (2) determine reasons for seeking hospital care; and (3) examine trends compared to previous studies from this institution. METHODS Records of 2,683 emergencies from 1995 to 2003 were reviewed. Demographics, reason for seeking care...

Primary teeth play an important role in mastication, speech and occlusion of permanent dentition. Due to high prevalence of dental caries in primary teeth, it is essential to educate parents about prevention and management of dental caries of children. The objective of this study was to determine the pattern and prevalence of caries in primary teeth among children reporting to Khyber College of...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of early childhood caries (ECC) among children in Beijing, China, has been increasing continuously though slowly. However, there is limited information about ECC in Beijing. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors of dental caries among preschool children in Beijing. METHODS For this case-control study, using a convenience sampling method, 787 children age...