Dental caries in Danish children and adolescents 1988-1997.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the occurrence of dental caries in Danish children and adolescents from 1988 to 1997. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data collected by the Danish National Board of Health. RESULTS: The earlier trend of a marked annual decline in caries now appears to have halted, especially in respect of the permanent dentition of 7-year-old children. The distributions show marked positive skewness for all age groups, which may give rise to considerations of implementing high risk strategies in order to obtain further reductions in DMFS in the population. CONCLUSION: Calculations indicate, that the effect of a hypothetical high risk strategy on the occurrence of caries at the population level will be limited.