Dental caries status of young children in a suburban community of Mexico City.

One hundred and thirty-four children, 6 to 7 yr of age from a public school in Tepepan, Mexico were examined for the prevalence and severity of dental caries. Average deft score was 6.08 and defs was 12.15. Average DMFT and DMFS scores were .57 and .99 respectively. It was observed that 66% of primary teeth with carious lesions required one surface restoration and 11% three or more surface restorations. In the permanent dentition 99% of the affected teeth required one surface restoration. A comparison of the results with those of the Mexico City public school children survey (1980) showed that the Tepepan children had a similar caries level in primary teeth and a lower caries level in permanent teeth. Although the Tepepan group showed fewer carious lesions, their caries index and unmet restorative index are still high, especially for primary dentition, so an intensive educational, preventive and restorative program is required.

Determination of caffeine in tea by high-performance liquid chromatography and a modified digestion procedure.

A more rapid and efficient method of sample preparation was needed for caffeine determination than the ones currently available. A variation of the existing AOAC method for coffee was developed using a Tecator digestion block normally used in determining nitrogen. Replicate samples were analyzed varying the digestion time and MgO content. The analysis parameters yielding the best results were chosen for the final method.