[Dental caries (DMFT) in adults in Switzerland 1988]

In 1988, 864 adults were examined for dental and periodontal conditions in 47 dental offices in Switzerland according to WHO methods. Among the 57 offices selected at random 10 dentists were unwilling to cooperate. Within each office, 36 patients were chosen by a randomizing mechanism. 51 percent of the selected patients presented themselves for the examination whereas 14 percent refused to participate in the study; of the remaining subjects one third could not be reached during the three to five days available for contacting them and two thirds were unable to come to the respective dental office at the preset day of examination. The DMF data obtained were similar to the results of previous local surveys, part of which were based on random samples. Up to age 74, it was concluded that the data of the present survey are fairly representative of the Swiss resident population. In the age group 75 and above, the number of missing teeth (MT) was too low, mainly due to edentulous persons, institutionalized and other, being obviously underrepresented. The Swiss DMFT of 22.3 in the age group 35-44 was almost the highest mean among 26 European countries. However, prevention efforts at school age, already obvious in the age group 30-34, will substantially improve the results at age 35-44 by the year 1998. The number of DT was 1.0 and 1.3 for the ages up to 29 and below 1.0 in the older groups. Up to age 54, FT was the most important component of the DMFT while in the older groups, MT was highest.