Significant Caries Index: A Better Indicator for Dental Caries

Sir, Dental caries is one of the oro-dental diseases which is highly prevalent in India.1,2 DMFT index has been widely used to assess the caries status among individuals by computing the mean number of Decayed (D), Missing (M) and Filled (F) teeth in a population. This index however does not reflect the true picture since there are both individuals with considerably higher DMFT values as well as caries-free individuals in the same population. Significant Caries index (SiC) is a better indicator in this case because it records the individuals with the highest DMFT values. The Global Goals for Oral Health in the year 2000 proposed to reduce the SiC index among the 12-year-olds to less than 3 DMFT by the year 2015, globally. The present study was done as a part of the School Health Programme in selected government schools in south Bangalore where students of classes 1 to 10 were examined as part of annual health check-up which included dental examination and questions on oral hygiene habits. DMFT score for permanent teeth and dmft score for temporary teeth were calculated for each child. SiC index was calculated, according to the WHO formula,3 for the 12-year-old population by calculating the average DMFT score of one third of the 12-year old children having the highest DMFT values, to assess whether this was in line with the proposed global goals for oral health. Read More...