[A study of caries activity test. 1. Comparison of MSBB test, Cariostat test, RD test]

In the present study, experiments were performed using three variations of the caries activity test: the modified MSBB test (MSBB test), Cariostat test and Resazurin Disk test (RD test). The subjects of experiment I consisted of 147 patients treated in Nippon Dental University Hospital and first- and second-year students of Affiliated School of Dental Hygiene. Those of experiment II consisted of 25 men and women, aged 14 to 28 years. Experiment I was performed to determine the influence of the subject's concept of dental hygiene, DMF rate, presence or absence of regular brushing and skill in brushing, on the scores of MSBB and Cariostat test, and to determine whether or not there was a correlation between these two test. In experiment II, the correlation between the MSBB and Cariostat tests was studied, using the RD test as a standard. In experiment I, a comparison of MSBB scores before and after practice in dental hygiene revealed significantly decreased caries activity in the first-year students. Similar results were obtained by the Cariostat test. There was a positive correlation between the scores of the MSBB and Cariostat tests. The second-year students, who were considered to have a relatively good sense of oral hygiene, had the lowest scores. Experiment II revealed a correlation between the scores of the RD and MSBB tests.