DPBRN Prevalence of Questionable Occlusal Caries Lesions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the process involved when making decisions about the diagnosis and treatment of questionable lesions, as well as determine if there is any association between lesions progression (or depth, if opened) and clinical characteristics and baseline risk assessment.

The term"questionable" is defined as a tooth with no cavitation (no continuity break in the enamel) and no radiographic radiolucencies, but the presence of caries is suspected due to roughness, surface opacities, or staining. The characteristics of these lesions and the patient's baseline caries risk were examined.

There have been very few studies regarding questionable lesions, virtually no clinical evaluations of the progression of questionable lesions over time, and no studies depicting the prevalence of these lesions. Since carious lesions have the ability to arrest and possibly reverse, determining how often these lesions are being seen in practice and learning more about their characteristics and patient risk assessment are important steps in order to manage these lesions without unnecessary surgical intervention.

The participants directly involved in this study were the patients who have sought dental treatment in the DPBRN practitioner-investigators' practices.

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients needed to have at least one permanent tooth with a questionable lesion. This means that subjects were at least 6 years old because that is when the permanent first molar typically erupts.

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients under 6 years old
• patients 6 years old and older who do not have a questionable lesion

• HealthPartners Institute for Education and Research
• Kaiser Permanente
• Permanente Dental Associates Group, Oregon
• National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)