FINDINGS IN A DENTAL SURVEY OF 354 PREPARATORY SCHOOL BOYS

¹ Andover, Massachusetts

1. A report of the physical and roentgenological findings at an initial dental examination of 354 boys ranging from 12 to 16 years of age and belonging to a higher economic level than that of the general population has been presented. No attempt has been made in this paper to correlate various parts of the data or to investigate causes of caries susceptibility, but mention has been made of facts which indicate that members of the low economic group showed a greater number of unfilled lesions in the dentin and a greater number of total present caries than did those of the higher income group.

2. The incidence of extracted teeth, 0.15 per boy, was found to be very low.

3. The number of unfilled lesions in the dentin was approximately two and

4. The average number of filled surfaces was about eleven per boy.

5. About 18 per cent of the students were found to require immediate dental care.

6. Normal occlusion was found in 53 per cent of the boys examined and 12 per cent were advised to have orthodontic treatment.

7. From this data it would appear that the inclusion of a careful dental examination as a part of the yearly routine medical examination of preparatory school boys is a valuable procedure.