The relationship between restorative treatment provided and a one year increment of the F component in the DMF index

There is considerable debate over the estimate of true increment of caries in an adult population derived from a conventional epidemiological study. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the increment of restorative treatment provided by dentists for caries with an estimate of what would have been recorded in a conventional epidemiological study as FT(S). The two types of increment were calculated from data collected for 3,920 regularly attending adults over the age of 25 years receiving dental treatment from 24 general dental practitioners. The adults were treated by their dentists prior to baseline so that, in the dentists' opinions, there were no caries lesions requiring restoration. All treatment carried out over the next 12 months together with the reasons for this, were recorded by the dentists. The increments for all restorative treatments and those considered by the dentist to be related to caries were calculated and compared with the conventional epidemiological FT and FS increments, calculated as changes from sound at baseline to restored for both teeth and surfaces. The results showed that the epidemiological FT and FS increments under-estimated both the total restorative treatment and that provided for caries by the dentists.