Caries Process and Prevention Strategies: Epidemiology
Learning Objectives

Upon the completion of this course, the dental professional should be able to:

• Discuss the need for epidemiological studies.
• Apply the results of oral epidemiology studies to clinical practice.
• Be familiar with the prevalence, incidence, and trends of dental caries in the United States.
• Describe the value of the DMF index in measuring oral disease.
• Use the DMF index to measure the prevalence of dental caries.
• Understand the results of the NHANES surveys that are related to dental caries.
• Identify the factors that may or may not affect the DMF scores in adults.
• Calculate a DMFT, DMFS, dmft or dmfs index score from a patient tooth charting.