Dental Caries

After completing this course, you’ll be able to:

1. Identify 3 prerequisites for production of dental caries.
2. Discuss the epidemiology of dental caries.
3. Describe the prevalence of dental caries in various populations groups.
4. Discuss how various dietary factors affect the incidence of dental caries.
5. List, in the order of importance, cariogenicity factors of 6 dietary habits.
6. List 4 basic rules for promotion of dental health.
7. Describe how various carbohydrates serve as substrate for the production of plaque and organic acids.
8. Identify foods that exert a protective effect against the action of cariogenic substance in the diet.
9. List foods to be avoided by children between meals.
10. Describe the “nursing bottles caries” and its causative factors.
11. Discuss recent clinical studies that disprove the connection between sugar consumption and caries.
12. Describe the demineralization process of tooth root, its susceptibility to caries organisms and the role of fluoride in the inhibition or reversal of this process.
13. Identify various cariogenic bacteria.
14. Describe how fluoride helps protect teeth against caries.
15. Discuss how community water fluoridation can help prevent and control dental caries.
16. Discuss 3 common dental indices used in oral health surveys and provide a clinical interpretation of their significance.