2.2 Classification and Prevalence of Dental Caries
1.Challenges on Caries Management in Children
2.Classification for dental caries in primary teeth
Key points:
Dental caries can be classified by the severity of the lesion, site of the lesion, rate of lesion progress and hard tissue affected.
The severity the lesion:
Enamel/cementum caries
Superficial dentin caries
Deep dentin caries
Site of the lesion:
Occlusal surface
Interproximal surface
Cervical surface
Smooth surface (Labial/buccal/lingual)
Rate of the progression:
Acute caries/active caries
Chronic caries
Arrested caries
Recurrent caries
3.Special terms of dental caries
Key points:
(1) Early childhood caries (ECC)
The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) defines early childhood caries (ECC) as the presence of one or more decayed (noncavitated or cavitated), missing (as a result of caries), or filled tooth surfaces in any primary tooth in a child 71 months (6 years) of age or younger.
Severe early childhood caries (S-ECC)
In children younger than 3 years of age, any sign of smooth-surface caries is indicative of severe early childhood caries (S-ECC).
Nursing caries
Breastfeeding more than seven times daily after 12 months of age is associated with increased risk for ECC. Nighttime bottle feeding with juice, repeated use of a sippy or no-spill cup, and frequent between-meal consumption of sugar-containing snacks or drinks (e.g., juice, formula, soda) will increase the risk of caries.
Circular caries
Decay at the labial/proximal surfaces of primary anterior teeth, progress to extensive circular lesion aaround the crown. Coronal middle 1/3 to cervical 1/3 is prone to the circular caries. There is early carious involvement of the maxillary anterior teeth, the maxillary and mandibular first primary molars, and sometimes the mandibular canines.
(2) Rampant caries
Rampant caries has been defined by Massler as a “suddenly appearing, widespread, rapidly burrowing type of caries, resulting in early involvement of the pulp and affecting those teeth usually regarded as immune to ordinary decay.”
4. Prevalence, Age and Site Specificity of Caries
Reference material
Several studies in the United States report caries prevalence in children age 4 years and under as ranging from 38% to 49%. Vargas and colleagues reported that 27.4% of a sample of 3889 children from 2 to 5 years of age had at least one decayed or filled primary tooth. Fifty-seven percent of the children with proximal lesions in primary molars in the primary dentition developed additional primary molar proximal lesions in the mixed dentition. Children with faciolingual decay (nursing caries) were at the highest risk of any group for developing additional caries lesions.

