The pattern of caries in a group of 5-year-old children and in the same cohort at 9 years of age.

A group of 1,006 children examined at 5 years of age was followed up after a further four year period. Thirty seven per cent of the group had some caries experience at the age of 5 years. Four years later this proportion had increased to 52 per cent. There was little caries in incisor teeth at the age of 5 with the disease affecting mainly primary molars, (especially second primary molars) and occlusal surfaces. Primary molars continued to experience new attack in the subsequent four years, with lesions affecting more first primary molars and more approximal than occlusal surfaces during this period. New caries was seen most often in children with previous disease experience but children with a lower dmfs of between 1 and 5 at 5 years experienced a similar increment to those with more extensive caries (dmfs > or = 6). In contrast, few lesions were seen in the children who had been caries free at 5 years. Children in the study had taken part in a trial of a lower fluoride toothpaste (550ppmF) especially formulated for young children. There was no difference in relative pattern of disease in test and control groups but the trend seen at the end of the trial for children who had used the test paste to have slightly higher levels of disease than those who had used a standard control paste (1,055ppmF) was seen again four years later.