[The prevention of caries in Alta Val di Cecina--Volterra: a longitudinal study]

The authors present the results of three years' activity relating to "caries' prevention" in comparison with data concerning the research of previous five years. The average and standard deviations of DMFT values with regard to the permanent teeth and dmft concerning the deciduous ones, obtained from the dental visit of 222 children attending the 1st and the 3rd class of the primary school and 1st class of the secondary school, has demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of caries, compared with data concerning 749 pupils of the same standards in the period from 1984 to 1988. This fact confirms that the programme defined by U.S.L. n. 15 "Alta Val di Cecina", including sanitary education for children of primary school with their parents and teachers, besides dental examinations to the filter classes, is a valid instrument to obtain the reduction of carious' pathology in evolutive age.