Caries Prevalence in Hispanic Children using ICDAS and QLF-I

Objective: Report the caries prevalence data at baseline data from a 4 year longitudinal study in rural schools in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico with both the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) and the Quantitative Light Induced Fluorescence with modified ICDAS criteria (QLF-I) criteria. Methods: 626 children provided informed consent and 569 children were enrolled and examined with the ICDAS and the QLF-I at baseline. Results: The enrolled children (49% female, 51% male) ranged from 5-13 yrs old (mean 9.6) and were mostly Hispanic (91%). ICDAS scores (0-6) were assessed on 64675 surfaces or 113.7 mean surface/child (SD=16.5). 90.7% of the surfaces were ICDAS 0. Children on average presented 0.2 surfaces sealed (SD=0.8) and 4.4 surfaces filled (SD=5.9). Distribution of ICDAS scores(%)(SD)decreased with severity (ICDAS scores >= than 1=10.5 (9.6); >= than 2=5.4 (6.0); >= than 3=2.4 (3.8); >= than 4=1.9 (3.3); >= than 5=1.5 (2.8); and >= than 6=0.5 (5.9). 10222 surfaces were scored by both ICDAS and QLF-I (exclusions for QLF-I included interproximal surfaces). For ICDAS scores 0, 3 and 5/6 QLF-I scored less surfaces on those codes (8.7, 10.8 and 1.1% respectively); for scores 1, 2, and 4, QLF-I scored more surfaces on those codes (24.3, 26.4 and 108.3% respectively). Most of the differences were within one score. Conclusions: It is likely that QLF-I is recording lesions at a lower threshold than ICDAS.

Supported by NIH/NIDCR RO1DE017890-01