Study on screening of high-caries-risk children by using number of DMFT at 6 years of age

Abstract

This study was carried out to contrive a screening level and select high-caries-risk school-children by using the number of dmft in the deciduous canines and molars at 6 years of age. The screening level was established at 9 dmft by analyzing the longitudinal caries data from 119 primary schoolchildren in Tomisato, Chiba Prefecture. Thirty-three percent of the high-caries-risk children, selected by the application of this screening level to the other three primary schools, were predicted that the mean number of DMFT would be 6 or more at 11 years of age. However, this screening level was not available for the two schools which had been adopting a fluoride mouth rinsing program because of their low caries experience at 11 years of age.