• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.337-347
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• 2009

Dental caries during infantile and early childhood period is a complex disease resulting from multiple caries factors. Streptococcus mutans(S. mutans) plays a critical role in the initiation of caries, and its early transmission through mothers provides a strong etiologic factor for future development of caries in the primary dentition. Therefore, early detection of caries risk factor is important for prevention of caries. Recent studies about etiologic factors of caries have brought advent of various tools for caries risk assessment in order to predict progress of caries more accurately. Cariogram is a common tool for caries risk assessment, which illustrates present caries risk assessment and correlation of caries risk factors for an individual graphically. The aim of this study was to assess if there is any correlation in the level of S. mutans and caries activity and to verify the effect of caries risk factors between children with age ranging from 3 to 5 years with severe early childhood caries(S-ECC) and their mothers using caries-related salivary test and Cariogram. The results of this study were as follows. 1. Children with S-ECC had a statistically higher level of Streptococcus mutans compared to caries-free children(p<0.05). 2. There was significant correlation between mothers and their children in the aspect of the level of Streptococcus mutans(p<0.05). 3. When caries activity was assessed using Cariogram, significant correlation between mothers and their children was found(p<0.05). 4. When each caries risk factor was evaluated for its affect on caries activity, host was more influential factor compared to microorganism and diet in children. Based on these results, we could conclude that assessing the level of S. mutans can be an effective tool for predicting possibility of caries formation in future. Since prediction of future caries progression and evaluation of caries risk factor became possible with Cariogram, we may conduct early and preventive measures for treatment of caries.

• Proceedings of the KACD Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.293-293
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• 2007