The oral hygiene, gingival condition, pocket depth and loss of attachment were studied during a period of 5 years in a group of patients (114) who had been treated with fixed dental protheses. Eighty-four per cent of the subjects had received periodontal therapy prior to the prosthetic treatment. During the study the subjects participated in an oral hygiene programme. Crown margins were located sub-gingivally, at the gingiva, and supra-gingivally. Initially 65% of the crown margins were sub-gingival compared to 41% 5 years later. When the crown margins were located sub-gingivally there was an increase in Gingival Index scores 2 and 3, in pocket depth, and in loss of attachment compared to a supragingival placement. However, most of the alterations were small.

There has been a highly significant increase in caries experience among 5-year-olds (P < 0.001) and a levelling off among 12-year-olds over the past 3 years. Considering the association between caries prevalence at age 5 and caries experience at 12 years of age, there is a need for reassessment of the caries preventive programmes for children in Norway.

Four consecutive years of increase in caries experience among 12-year-old children after 15 years of decline and evidence of stability or increase of the caries increment from 12 to 18 years of age among Norwegian teenagers give cause for concern.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate factors related to the caries decline in children between 1966 and 1983. The decline started in the late sixties for the 8– to 11– and the 17–year–olds, and after 1971 for the remaining age groups. Regression analyses confirmed a significantly different start of the decline. Fluorides in school–based programmes, lozenges, and toothpaste, as well as education and sale of antibiotics were significantly (p≤0.01) related to the caries decline in partial correlation analyses. Fluoride toothpaste was only significantly related to the decline in the last part of the period of observation. Supervised fluoride rinsing and brushing programmes at school may explain most of the decline before 1971. The later decline may be related to all fluoride agents and to education. Use of fluorides and other preventive efforts aimed at pre–school children may have contributed to the continual decline in the number of fillings in the permanent teeth of the youngest cohorts.

No abstract