Trends in untreated caries in primary teeth of children 2 to 10 years old

This article is the second in a series of three that focus on recent changes in the caries status of children and adolescents in the United States.

This study is based on analyses of data regarding untreated carious primary teeth among children 2 to 10 years of age from the first and third National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, or NHANES I and NHANES III. The NHANES is conducted periodically by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Overall, the number of carious primary teeth among children 2 to 10 years old decreased from 1.42 as measured in NHANES I to 0.63 as measured in NHANES III. The number of carious primary teeth in children 2 to 10 years old also decreased across four demographic variables: age, sex, race and poverty level.

The number of untreated carious primary teeth among children has declined. Since the 1970s, the absolute difference in untreated caries between disadvantaged children in the United States and the rest of the U.S. child population has narrowed, although not to the same extent as in permanent teeth.

On average, children of preschool and elementary-school age have less untreated caries than in the past. More often, dentists do not need to treat on a first visit. This provides more opportunity to introduce these children to preventive dentistry at an early age.