Caries prevalence and distribution in 3-20-year-olds in Jönköping, Sweden, in 1973, 1978, 1983, and 1993

Four cross-sectional studies were carried out in 1973, 1978, 1983, and 1993 to collect clinical and radiographic epidemiological data on the dental health status of the inhabitants of Jönköping, Sweden. The aim of the present paper was to use these data to analyze trends in the development of caries among children and adolescents between 1973 and 1993. Approximately 500 randomly selected individuals evenly distributed among the age groups 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 years participated in each study. The main results show that the numbers of caries-free individuals increased in all age groups. In 1993, the mean number of decayed and filled tooth surfaces in the primary (dfs) and the permanent (DFS) dentition in all age groups was less than half of that found in 1973. Most of this decrease took place during the first 5 years, i.e., between 1973 and 1978. Between 1978 and 1983, only minor changes were observed. There was a further reduction of approximately 30%-50% in dfs/DFS between 1983 and 1993 in 3-, 5-, 10-, and 20-year-olds. The frequency distributions of dfs/DFS for 5- and 15-year-olds revealed an increasing skewness over time: in 1993, a large majority of the children and adolescents had a low or moderate caries severity while only a small group had high scores of dfs/DFS.