DENTAL CARIES EXPERIENCE AMONG WASHINGTON-BORN AND REARED FRESHMAN STUDENTS AT THE STATE COLLEGE OF WASHINGTON IN 1950

¹ Washington Agricultural Experiment Stations and School of Dentistry, University of Washington, Seattle and Pullman, Wash.

Freshman students at the State College of Washington were given a dental examination by means of posterior bite-wing roentgenograms only. The dental caries experience of 699 students, 611 of whom had lived at least the first 7 years of their lives in one county, was expressed in terms of DMF posterior teeth, missing teeth, number of fillings, number of fillings containing residual caries, and number of fillings showing recurrent caries.

Washington State College freshmen were shown to have a mean posterior DMF rate of 14.64. The examination of each student was performed by bitewing survey of 20 teeth only. On a similar age group, Oregon reported a mean DMF count of 14.12 following examination of 28 teeth per subject by instrumental means, supported also by bite-wing survey. The higher Washington count is suggestive of a greater incidence of dental caries within the State of Washington than in the State of Oregon.

More than 50 per cent of the fillings examined were reported to be associated with either residual or recurrent caries.

The posterior bite-wing roentgenogram was shown to be a possible research tool in evaluation of the relative dental caries experience of population groups.

The dental caries experience of students living east and west of the Cascades was given, those living east of the mountains showing only slightly less tooth involvement.

Two areas within the State were chosen as centers for further investigation on adolescent children.