Caries Incidence in School Children Included in a Caries Preventive Program: A Longitudinal Study

Several epidemiological studies (Okawa, et al., 1992; Marthaler & O’Mullane, 1996; BeltranAguilar, et al. 1999; Vrbic, 1996; Brown, et al., 2000; Carvalho, et al., 2001; Estupinan-Day, et al., 2001; Bonecker, et al., 2003) on dental caries experience in children and adolescents have been carried out around the world for the last three decades. Most of the reports agree that caries has been reduced, and these data have been confirmed by the Global Data Bank of the World Health Organization; however, the distribution and severity of dental caries varies in different parts of the world and within the same region or country.