Korean National Oral Health Survey Data on the Symmetry of Primary Dentition Surface Caries

Objectives: This study evaluated the intraoral symmetry of dental caries in primary teeth as part of a study of caries patterns in primary dentition. Study design: The data for 4,800 5-year-old and 4,379 8-year-old children in this study were from the 2012 Korean national oral health survey. Pearson correlation coefficients of the decayed and filled surface (dfs) values ranged from 0.436 (lower primary canines) to 0.835 (upper primary central incisors) for the right and left primary teeth and from 0.084 (right primary central incisor) to 0.457 (left primary second molar) for the upper and lower primary dentition (P< 0.01). Results: The upper and lower dfs values differed significantly (P< 0.05) when the right and left primary second molars were excluded. The left or right primary data without caries ranged from 56.4% (lower of first and second primary molars) to 99.7% (lower primary central incisors). The bilateral caries among cases with one or more in the right or left primary teeth ranged from 25.0% (lower lateral primary incisor) to 72.7% (upper primary central incisors). Conclusions: These results suggested that dental caries in primary teeth show bilateral symmetry and differences in the degree of symmetry according to the teeth set or surface set of the homologous teeth.

Caries pattern, Primary dentition, Symmetry

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