MIH is an important clinical problem that often concerns both the general dental and specialist paediatric dentists; the present 'best clinical practice guidance' aims to further help clinicians dealing with the condition.

Multivariate models and baseline caries prevalence performed better in pre-school children than in schoolchildren/adolescents. Baseline caries prevalence was the most accurate single predictor in all age groups. The heterogeneity of populations, models, outcome criteria, measures and reporting hampered the synthesis of results. There is a great need to standardize study design, outcome measures and reporting of data in studies on caries risk assessment. The accuracy of prediction models should be validated in at least one independent population.

Tooth-coloured restorative materials are being used increasingly more often in Class II preparations in permanent teeth. Using a practice-based study design, we aimed to assess the survival time of Class II restorations and to identify factors relevant to their longevity. Class II restorations (n = 4,030), consisting of resin composites (81.5%), compomers (12.7%), amalgams (4.6%), and glass-ionomer cement restorations (1.2%), were placed in 1,873 patients with a median age of 15 yr. In total, 92.7% of restorations were placed due to primary caries and 5.8% were replacements. After an average follow-up period of 4.6 yr, 61.6% of the restorations were successful, 11.2% had failed, and 27.2% were not available for evaluation (owing to patient drop-out). The mean annual failure rate was 2.9% for resin-composite restorations and 1.6% for amalgams. For resin-composite restorations, secondary caries was the most common reason for replacement (73.9%), followed by loss (8.0%), fracture (5.3%), and marginal defects (2.4%). Multilevel Cox-regression analyses identified young age of the patient, high previous caries experience, deep cavities, and saucer-shaped preparation technique as predisposing to shorter longevity of resin-composite restorations. One brand of resin composite had a shorter survival time than the others.

Summary. Objectives. To explore a possible relationship between the caries experience and pattern in the primary dentition at 5 years of age and the permanent dentition at 10 years of age. Further, to examine the possibility of predicting children in a caries-risk group at 5 years verified at 10 years of age. Materials and methods. A sample of 186 children (90 males) were clinically examined as 5-year-olds and re-examined as 10-year-olds by calibrated dentists. A five-graded diagnostic system including enamel caries was used. Bitewing radiographs were taken. A true risk group of children at 10 years were defined as those with at least one dentin or filled lesion on the mesial surface of 6-year molars, and/or on incisors, and/or total DMFS (decayed, missing, and filled surfaces) more than 1 SD above the mean. The prediction was measured in terms of OR (odds ratio), sensitivity/specificity, and receiver operating characteristic curves. Results. Statistically significant correlations ( r = 0·5) were found between the caries experience in the two dentitions as well as between the primary second molars at baseline and the permanent teeth at 10 years. 'Primary second molars' and 'all primary molars' were the most powerful predictors for allocation into the risk group (24% of the sample). The highest achieved sum of sensitivity and specificity, 148%, was attained at a cut-off point above two carious surfaces in enamel and/or dentin in primary second molars. Conclusions. Statistically significant relationship in disease between the dentitions was found. More than two surfaces with caries experience in primary second molars are suggested as a clinically useful predictor at 5 years of age for being at high risk at age 10.

The results suggest that immigrant groups in western societies require different information packages, modified strategies for forming oral hygiene habits and attitudes related to dental care of children, and encouragement to exercise discipline on factors known to be risks for oral health. These strategies must recognize that immigrants and western natives attach different levels of importance to oral health and dental parameters. It should be paid extra attention to some caries high-risk subgroups.

No abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare two dental erosive wear scoring systems, the Visual Erosion Dental Examination (VEDE) and Basic Erosive Wear Examination (BEWE). Seventy-four tooth surfaces (photographs) and 562 surfaces (in participants) were scored by 5 (photographs) or 3 (in participants) clinicians using both scoring systems. The surfaces in the photographs were scored twice. The level of agreement was measured by weighted kappa (ĸ_w). Inter- and intraexaminer agreement showed small variations between the examiners for both systems when scoring the photographs. Slightly higher mean ĸ_w values were found for VEDE (ĸ_w = 0.77) compared with BEWE (ĸ_w = 0.69). When scoring the surfaces in the clinical examination the mean ĸ_w values for the two systems were equal (ĸ_w = 0.73). Interexaminer agreement using VEDE was calculated to see how differentiation between enamel and dentine lesions influenced the variability. The highest agreement was found for score 0 (sound, 86%) and score 3 (exposure of dentine, 67%), while the smallest agreement was shown for score 1 (initial loss of enamel, 30%) and score 2 (pronounced loss of enamel, 57%). The reliability of the two scoring systems proved acceptable for scoring the severity of dental erosive wear and for recording such lesions in prevalence studies. The greatest difficulties were found when scoring enamel lesions, especially initial lesions, while good agreement was observed when examining sound surfaces (score 0) and dentine lesions (score 3).

The study aimed to investigate caries prevalence in children using a severity grading diagnostic system, and to evaluate the influence of different diagnostic thresholds on the caries data. A group of 513 children, aged 5, 12 and 18 years, were examined clinically, and with available bitewing radiographs, by four calibrated examiners. The inter- and intra-examiner reliability, assessed by a weighted kappa, varied between 0.80 and 0.95. The mean dmft/DMFT values were 3.8, 5.8 and 11.0 for the three age groups respectively, and the corresponding dmfs/DMFS values were 5.4, 9.9 and 22.6. The d/D-component constituted the major part of the dmf/DMF index in all age groups, and enamel lesions accounted for 59%, 89% and 86% of the d/D-component in the three age groups respectively. It is concluded that enamel or initial caries lesions contributed substantially to the total caries prevalence, illustrating the importance of using diagnostic criteria that include all stages of clinical caries if a total picture of the caries situation is needed.