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Updated: Jul 3, 2026
Oral Health Assessment by Lay Personnel for Older Adults
Published on: February 2, 2020
Comparison of ranking dental status using the Significant Caries Index and the Significant Filled and Sound-Teeth
1Istanbul University, Cerrahpasa, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Public Health, Istanbul, Turkey. necminamal@yahoo.com
Objective:
The objective was to test whether the ranking of countries was different using the SFS-T (Significant Filled Sound-Teeth Index) or the Significant Caries Index (SIC).
Method:
This study compared the country rankings using the SiC and the SFS-T indices in 12 year olds in a range of countries. The SFS-T is the one-third of the population with the lowest filled or sound teeth and is a measure of functional status. We used the SiC and DMFT data from the WHO database for 12 year olds. SFS-T index values were estimated for the 12 year olds for 16 countries.
Results:
The ranking by SiC index scores was lower for developed countries than for developing countries.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that it may be more useful to use the SFS-T index than the SiC index in studies comparing dental status between countries.
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