Radiographic dentinal caries and its progression in occlusal surfaces in Dutch 17-year-olds: a 6-year longitudinal study.

In this study, the status of 705 occlusal surfaces of first and second molars of 90 17-year-olds was analysed longitudinally in a 6-year follow-up, using a combination of clinical and radiographic information. Clinical data were derived from an epidemiological project. Each of two examiners judged all bitewing radiographs. The overall Cohen's kappa for interexaminer agreement of radiographic assessments was 0.77. Between the age of 17 and 23 years, about one third of sound occlusal surfaces developed a new dentinal radiolucency, and over 70% of existing radiolucencies showed progression, both irrespective of the presence of a sealant. In both examination years, almost 20% of the restored surfaces showed signs of a dentinal radiolucency. It was concluded that at the age of 17 occlusal surfaces are still highly susceptible to new dentine caries and further progression of dentinal radiolucencies already present. Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel