Prevalence and Incidence of Dental Caries in Canada - Research Paper Example

In Canada, the incidence of caries depends upon the location of residents. According to Canadian studies of ECC, the prevalence of caries is less than 5% among the general population (Derkson and Ponti, 1982; Weinstein et al, 1996). On the other hand, in urban areas of Canada, the prevalence of ECC in pre-school is 6-8% while in the most disadvantaged populations like Aboriginal populations of the Northwest Territories, 65% of 4-year-old children are affected (Locker and Matear, n.d.). Reports from various First Nations communities in Canada reveal similar statistics on ECC (Albert et al, 1988; Houde et al, 1991; Peressini et al, 2004).

Report of 1988 establishes the prevalence ECC to be 50% among 260 children belonging to the age of 25-30 months, residing in the Keewatin district of Northwest Territories (Albert et al, 1988). Houde et al (1991) reported the prevalence of ECC to be 72.2% among 244 Inuit children belonging to the age of 2-5 years residing in the Kativik region. Peressini et al (2004) reported the prevalence of ECC as 52% in the First Nations population of children belonging to the age of 3-5years in the District of Manitoulin, Ontario.

Assessment of dental caries status of primary teeth and tooth surfaces is performed using the decayed (d), missing tooth because of caries (m) and filled (f) tooth/ teeth and surfaces (dmft ⁄ s) indices. High dmft indices are also displayed by the Aboriginal population as compared to controls and other populations in Ontario. Pesressini et al (2004) reported a mean dmft score of 7.5 for ECC-cases while the non-cases had a mean dmft of only 0.8. Similar results were also reported by Lawrence et al (2009) in a study of oral health inequalities between young Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children living in Ontario, Canada.