Journal List > J Korean Acad Oral Health > v.39(3) > 1057645

Lee, Lee, Oh, Ju, and Park: The utility of dental health capacity of the first permanent molars as an oral health indicator among children and adolescents

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the dental health capacity of the first permanent molars as a disease-oriented index, and to assess the value of this metric as a health-oriented index.

Methods

This study used data from 29,630 participants (6-, 8-, 10-, 12-, and 15-year-olds) in the 2010 Korea National Oral Health Survey. The dental health capacity of the first permanent molars (DHC of 1st molars), functioning teeth index (FS-T), and tissue health index (T-Health) were measured. To assess whether the dental health status was properly reflected, the correlation of DHC of 1st molars with three indices (number of sound teeth, FS-T, and T-Health) was analyzed. Also, in order to evaluate whether the dental caries status was properly reflected, the correlation of dental caries presence with DHC of 1st molars was analyzed. The DHC of 1st molars was measured using Clune’s method.

Results

FS-T and T-Health were affected by permanent teeth eruption, and these indices became stabilized after eruption was complete. The DHC of 1st molars remained stable regardless of eruption of permanent teeth. The DHC of 1st molars was positively correlated with the number of sound teeth, FS-T, and T-Health. The DHC of 1st molars was highly correlated with the decayed-missing-filled teeth index in all ages. Among individuals with dental caries, the percentage of those with caries in the first molars was more than 88%. The DHC of 1st molars showed relatively high correlation with high caries risk.

Conclusions

The dental health capacity of the 1st permanent molars has good utility not only as a disease-oriented index that is associated with dental caries but also as a health index among children and adolescents.

References

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Table 1.
Change of dental health indices according to age among children and adolescents in Korea
Age (yrs) FS-T T-Health DHC of 1st molars
Mean±SE Mean±SE Mean±SE
6 6.86±0.04 27.32±0.18 99.67±0.02
8 13.04±0.04 51.39±0.16 98.75±0.04
10 20.93±0.06 82.04±0.24 97.50±0.05
12 26.12±0.03 101.71±0.13 96.52±0.06
15 26.90±0.02 102.80±0.11 95.26±0.08

DHC of 1st molar: dental health capacity of the first permanent molars.

Table 2.
Correlation between dental health capacity of the first per manent molars and dental health indicators
Age (yrs) Sound Teeth Sound Surfaces FS-T T-Health
6 −0.008 0.012 −0.084** −0.065**
8 0.237** 0.267** −0.002 0.096**
10 0.216** 0.229** 0.007 0.093**
12 0.505** 0.511** 0.179** 0.349**
15 0.612** 0.613** 0.337** 0.579**

Pearson’s correlation coefficient, **P<0.01.

Table 3.
Correlation for dental health capacity of the first permanent molars, with the number of decayed, filled, missing and DMF teeth (surface among permanent teeth
Age (yrs) DS FS DMFS DT MT FT DMFT
6 −0.764** −0.622** −0.926** −0.726** 0.003 −0.596** −0.911**
8 −0.588** −0.761** −0.935** −0.567** −0.043** −0.736** −0.924**
10 −0.619** −0.714** −0.916** −0.520** −0.107** −0.666** −0.838**
12 −0.556** −0.604** −0.827** −0.470** −0.330** −0.523** −0.701**
15 −0.481** −0.573** −0.770** −0.394** −0.378** −0.485** −0.648**

Pearson’s correlation coefficient, **P<0.01.

Table 4.
Relationship between the DHC of 1st molar level and high caries risk group
DHC of 1st molars level High caries risk group Total Pie (Ø) P-value
Yes No
6 yrs High 19 (0.4) 5,298 (99.6) 5,317 (100) 0.979 <0.001
Low 469 (100) 0 (0) 469 (100)
8 yrs High 60 (1.4) 4,146 (98.6) 4,206 (100) 0.974 <0.001
Low 1,526 (100) 0 (0) 1,526 (100)
10 yrs High 308 (7.4) 3,852 (92.6) 4,160 (100) 0.850 <0.001
Low 1,534 (95.9) 66 (4.1) 1,600 (100)
12 yrs High 377 (8.0) 4,321 (92.0) 4,698 (100) 0.699 <0.001
Low 1,222 (78.6) 333 (21.4) 1,555 (100)
15 yrs High 428 (9.9) 3,913 (90.1) 4,341 (100) 0.568 <0.001
Low 1,135 (64.6) 623 (35.4) 1,758 (100)

*Values mean number (%), P-value determined by chi-square test.

Table 5.
The caries experience rate of first molar among people who experienced dental caries
Age (yrs) 6 8 10 12 15
First molar’s 469/488 1,526/1,586 2,564/2,661 3,517/3,793 4,020/4,562
caries experience (96.1) (96.2) (96.4) (92.7) (88.1)

Values mean number (%).

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