[WHO epidemiologic studies in Hungary in 1985 and 1991]

In accordance with the Cooperative-Medium Term Program between Hungary and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, the basic oral health survey took place in 1985 at 17 examination sites (8 urban and 9 rural areas). A total of 2684 persons in the groups 7 (894), 12 (893) and 35-44 (897) years of age were examined. At 12 years of age, 92.5% of the children had dental caries with an average DMFT of 5.00, of which 2.5 had untreated caries (DT), and 2.0 were filled (FT). At 35-44 years of age the average DMFT per person was 15.8 of which 10.2 were missing. The number of extracted teeth in this age group must be characterized as very high, even though the percentage of edentulous persons was very low (0.3%). In this age group deep pockets (CPITN 4) were found in 8% of the persons. Due to the national oral health preventive program, which had been launched in 1986, at the second pathfinder survey (1991) we found favourable changes concerning the oral health condition. The geographical location of the examination sites was the same. A total of 2651 persons in the age groups 6 (898), 12 (898) and 35-44 (855) years were examined. Among 12 years old children the caries prevalence was 89.64%, the mean number of DMFT has decreased from 5.0 to 4.29, of which 2.03 had untreated caries (DT) and 1.93 were filled. Thus according to WHO criteria dental caries at 12 years of age has become moderate in Hungary.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)