News Release

Oral conditions, dental caries know no borders

Peer-Reviewed Publication

International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research

Even with dramatic advances in the armamentarium for fighting oral and dental diseases, such as dental caries and periodontal (gum) disease, these conditions remain prevalent in many parts of the world, without regard for geopolitical boundaries.

Today, during the 35th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research, in a session entitled "Prevalence of Oral Conditions/Dental Caries", scientists from the US, Canada, Mexico, Haiti, and Germany will present findings from studies measuring everything from community-based beverage interventions in Native American toddlers, to severe early childhood caries among Aboriginal children in Canada, to the relationship between mothers' oral health and high levels of tooth decay in their children, to the correlation between socio-economic status and oral hygiene in Mexican pre-schoolers, to the high levels of periodontal disease in Haitian teens, to tooth loss in Mexican and German adults, to the urgent need for caries-preventive treatment in pregnant women, to dental trauma as a significant health issue in Canadian adults, and to controlling sugar consumption in rural Haiti.

The consensus was that people with less education and of lower socio-economic status remain at the greatest risk for adverse oral conditions, and the investigators pledged to press forward to find ways to address these disparities.

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This is a summary of Sequence #68, "Prevalence of Oral Conditions/Dental Caries", being presented from 2 to 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, 2006, in Pacific Hall of the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, during the 35th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research.


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