Risk indicators associated with root caries in independently living older adults

Key Points

• A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals.

• The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Neither those subjects who wore dentures, nor those who harboured caries-associated microorganisms had a higher prevalence of root caries.

Main

Hayesa M, Da Mataa C et al. J Dent 2016;51: 8–14

This study found that those subjects with 'poor plaque control (OR 9.59, 95% CI 3.84–24.00), xerostomia (OR 18.49, 95% CI 2.00–172.80), two or more teeth with coronal decay (OR 4.50, 95% CI 2.02–10.02) and 37 or more exposed root surfaces (OR 5.48, 95% CI 2.49–12.01)' were more likely to have had root caries. An odds ratio (OR) of greater than 1 is when that exposure is associated with the condition. A large confidence interval (CI) indicates a low level of precision with the OR (see above CI for xerostomia). This study reported baseline findings from a cohort of independently living older adults (n = 334) living in the Republic of Ireland (70% of the public water supply is fluoridated between 0.6 and 0.8 ppm). Of note, neither those who wore dentures (multivariate testing only), nor those with high numbers of mutans streptococci and lactobacilli spp (<10⁵ or > 10⁵ CFU/ml saliva measured using commercial dip-slides), buffering capacity (buffer strips), and the 'level of education' were associated with caries.