Assessment of dental restorative status

Class I and Class II restorations on selected teeth of children aged 7-13 years were recorded in order to find which types of restorations were suitable for clinical evaluation of amalgam restorations with regard to frequency and anticipated observation period. Restorations suited for amalgam evaluation were found to be MO type restoration on all first molars and occlusal, palatal, and occlusal/palatal restorations on maxillary first molars and buccal pit restorations on mandibllar first molars. For the age group 7-11 years, the MO type restoration in the first molars will reflect the caries situation; the DO type restoration on maxillary first molars will serve this purpose for an age group approximately 2-4 years older. Thus selected recording of restorations must be considered age dependent in order to give a representative reflection of the caries experience. The most striking difference between the groups with high and low restoration frequency was a 2-year delay in the group with low frequency as compared with the group with high restoration frequency.