A Caries Susceptibility Classification of Tooth Surfaces by Survival Time

A. Hannigan, D. M. O'Mullane, D. Barry, F. Schäfer, A. J. Roberts

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Individual tooth surfaces have vastly different susceptibilities to caries and this susceptibility also varies over time. The aim of this study was to develop a method of grouping tooth surfaces into a caries susceptibility classification based on their survival experience. The data used in the study were from a 3-year caries clinical trial. The definition of survival time was taken to be the time from the start of the trial to when a surface is recorded as decayed or filled. Cluster analysis was used to divide the tooth surfaces into groups in such a way that surfaces in the same group have similar survival time distributions. The 13 groups identified were ordered from 1 to 13 starting with the group with the shortest survival time, i.e. the occlusal surfaces of the four first molars. Approximately 80% of symmetrical pairs of tooth surfaces were in the same group. The groups obtained using cluster analysis were compared to groups defined using dental/anatomical criteria. It is concluded that the cluster analysis method developed for grouping the tooth surfaces cn provide a useful descriptive measure of caries susceptibility which can be applied to data from any longitudinal study of caries.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)103-108
Number of pages6
JournalCaries Research
Volume34
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2000

Keywords

  • Caries susceptibility
  • Classification of tooth surfaces
  • Survival analysis

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