Longitudinal study of dental caries in individuals in Jönköping, Sweden, aged 15 years in 1973 and 20 years in 1978.
The aim of this investigation was to study caries development between the ages of 15 and 20 yr in the same individuals. Data concerning 100 adolescents constituted the basic material. Eighty subjects could be re-examined 5 yr after the first examination. The mean number of teeth per subject was 27.1 both in 1973 and in 1978. Four subjects (4%) in 1973 and three subjects (2.4%) in 1978 showed no decayed and/or filled proximal tooth surfaces. The prevalence of intact tooth regions was higher in the mandible than in the maxilla. Only one of the 73 subjects who were free from caries in the mandibular incisor/canine region at the basic examination developed new carious lesions in this region during the next 5-yr period. Analysis of the frequency distribution of the different caries diagnostic groups revealed that 32 subjects (40%) showed no change during the 5-yr period while 47 (58.7%) now belonged to a higher caries prevalence group. 3538 (80.7%) proximal surfaces were diagnosed as intact at the basic examination. The number of intact surfaces 5 yr later was 3107 (70.9%). In individuals with low and high numbers of decayed and/or filled surfaces, respectively, there was a tendency towards a more pronounced individual caries progression in the group that showed the highest caries prevalence at the basic examination than in the group showing a low caries prevalence.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors