Dental caries experience in high risk soft drinks factory workers of South India: A comparative study.

Background: The consumption of soft-drinks has been associated with dental caries development. Objective: The aim was to evaluate dental caries experience amongst the workers working in soft-drink industries located in South India and compare it with other factory workers. To evaluate the validity of specific caries index (SCI), which is newer index for caries diagnosis. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study carried out among 420 workers (210 in soft-drinks factory and 210 in other factories), in the age group of 20-45 years of Udupi district, Karnataka, India. Index used for clinical examination was decayed, missing, filled surfaces (DMFS) index and SCI. Results: The mean and standard deviation (SD) of decayed surface (5.8 ± 1.8), missing surface (4.3 ± 2) and filled surface (1.94 ± 1.95) and total DMFS score (12.11 ± 3.8) in soft-drinks factory workers were found to be significantly higher than the other factory workers. The total SCI score (mean and SD) was found to be significantly higher in soft-drinks factory workers (5.83 ± 1.80) compared with other factory workers (4.56 ± 1.45). There was a high correlation obtained between SCI score and DMFS score. The regression equation given by DMFS = 1.178 + 1.866 (SCI scores). Conclusion: The caries experience was higher in workers working in soft-drinks factory and this study also showed that specific caries index can be used as a valid index for assessing dental caries experience.

Comprehensive review of caries assessment systems developed over the last decade

Introduction:World Health Organization (WHO) in the year 2007 recognized the growing burden of oral diseases worldwide and emphasized the need to scale up action based on comprehensive data collection systems. In view of the global epidemic of untreated caries in children there is an urgent need to establish a scoring system that both assesses and quantifies various advanced stages of caries. Furthermore, the available data are not readily comparable due to the different scoring systems used. The DMF index despite having limitations has been widely utilized in oral epidemiological surveys. It is recommended by the WHO for measuring and comparing the experience of dental caries in populations. The path of future research in caries epidemiology will depend on finding an ideal caries index. Objective:This review is prepared to present and critically evaluate various new caries assessment systems that have been developed in the last decade. Literature review: A literature search was done to find out major caries assessment systems developed over last decade, it revealed there were five new indices developed to assess caries. These indices were critically evaluated to list their strengths and limitations. Conclusion:There are many promising new caries indices purposed, but still there is a need for further studies to evaluate their validity and reliability before they can replace DMFT index.