Surveillance of primary dentition caries in Germiston, South Africa, 1981-97.
OBJECTIVE
This 17-year-long study examined trends of dental caries rates in the primary dentition of 6843 preschool children in a South African city.


METHODS
Calibrated dentists did repeated cross-sectional epidemiological surveys of dental caries in 2- to 5-year-old nursery school children using WHO diagnostic criteria between 1981 and 1997.


RESULTS
Both the percentage of children with dmft>0 and mean dmft increased between 1981 and 1989 and have slowly declined ever since in the absence of organised prevention to produce a secular trend of decreasing caries rates. The dt/dmft percentage ranged between 60% and 100% except in 1991 when it dropped to 40% and the ft/dmft percentage component rose proportionally, probably due to an economic effect.


CONCLUSIONS
The percentage of children with dmft>0 and mean dmft decreased over the study period at all ages, the reason for which is unknown but is speculated to be due to a change in mutans streptococci strains.
Cleaton-Jones
P
P
Dental Research Institute of the Medical Research Council and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. 078cleat@chiron.wits.ac.za
Williams
S
S
Fatti
P
P
D001741:Black or African American; D017677:Age Distribution; D044383:Black People; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous; D014172:Transillumination; D014504:Urban Health; D044465:White People