An Analysis On Chinese Literatures About Dental Caries In 1950-2005

Objective: A large amount of studies about cause, diagnosis, treatment,prevention and epidemiology of dental caries were carried out by Chinese scholarsin 1950-2005. However, there is no any research to analyze the literatures aboutdental caries completely so far. In this study, a retrospective analysis on Chineseliteratures about dental caries from 1950 to 2005 was carried out. The leadingachievements about cause, diagnosis, treatment, prevention and epidemiology ofdental caries in China are Summarized. Then, the prophylactic effects of fluorid, pitand fissure sealant were systematically evaluated with evidence-based medicinemethods.Methods: The literatures published from 1950 to 2005 about dental caries werecollected and classified according to publishing time, research direction(epidemiology, cause, diagnosis and treatment, prevention and epidemiology) andresearch institution. The literatures about cause, epidemiology, diagnosis andtreatment, prevention were subdivided further and the achievements weresummarized. The quality of clinical studies on dental caries were evaluated by Jadadscale. The clinical studies on prevention with fluoride and pit and fissure sealant were systematically evaluated with evidence-based medicine methods.Results: 4770 Chinese literatures about dental caries were published from 1950to 2005. The literatures before 1980 weren't much. After 1980, the number ofliteratures raised obviously. After 1990, the number of literatures raised more rapidly.Among the themes of the literatures about dental caries, epidemiological was themost frequent theme and prevention of dental caries was next to the most frequentone. The authors of 4770 literatures were distributed in 2343 research institutions.The average literatures number per institution was 2.04. The suffering rate of dentalcaries decreased from 1950'to 1970', increased in 1980', and decresed from 1990'.The differences of regions, ages, cities and countries, races resulted in thedifferences of the suffering rate of dental caries. There were relationship between theoccurrence of dental caries and many factors, which includes foods, fluorine content,oral health, feeding patterns, system health, family factors, artifcal teeth, and so on.Bacterium, host and foods played main roles on the etiology of dental caries.Streptococcus mutans was the main pathogen of dental caries. The studies ondiagnosis of dental caries focused on the diagnosis of early and proximal dentalcaries. Improvement of materials and techniques were the focus the treatment ofdental caries. Atraumatic restorative treatment and chemo-mechanical cariesremoval technique were some optional methods to temporary tooth caries, rootcaries and the patients of dental fear and anxiety. Fluoride, pit and fissure sealant,natural drugs, immunization were the main methods to prevent dental caries. Floride,pit and fissure sealant were effective to prevent the occurrence of dental caries. Therisk of dental caries which applied floride was 56% of that which didn't appliedfloride. The risk of dental caries which applied pit and fissure sealant was 19% ofthat which didn't applied pit and fissure sealant. The average quality of clinical studies on dental caries were still weak, and only 1.44% of literatures were highquality.Conclusion: There are considerable studies about dental caries from 1950 to2005 in China, and a large amount of achievements were obtained. But the averagequality of clinical studies on dental caries were still weak. In the future, much moreattention should be given to the design of study. Floride, pit and fissure sealant wereeffective to prevent the occurrence of dental caries.