Prevalence of Dental Caries Using Novel Caries Assessment Index - CAST

• Main Authors: Aeeza Malik, Malik Saleem Shaukat, Ambrina Qureshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dow University of Health Sciences 2014-04-01
• Series: Journal of the Dow University of Health Sciences
• Subjects: dental caries; primary prevention; prevalence.
• Online Access: http://www.jduhs.com/index.php/jduhs/article/view/102

Objective: To assess the caries experience among patients visiting a public sector hospital of Karachi, Pakistan, using novel caries detecting index - CAST (Caries Assessment Spectrum and Treatment). Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in a public sector tertiary care hospital located in Karachi city of Pakistan, over a period of one month. The single examiner was trained and calibrated to perform the dental examination under standardized conditions to record the dental caries status of each subject using CAST- index. A structured and validated proforma was used to gather and record the data. Data entry and analysis were performed using SPSS 16 and descriptive statistics were executed (frequencies and percentages)to record the prevalence of carious lesions. The p-value was set at 5% and the power of the test was kept at 80%. Results: A total of 100 subjects were recruited out of which 63% were females and 37% were males with mean age of 31+17 years. Majority of the teeth examined (84.08%) were recorded as sound, whereas, the rest 16%represented the previous, present and predicted stages of dental caries. The overall Prevalence of dental caries was found to be 8.28% in which the enamel and dentinal carious lesions were 4.21 and 4.07% respectively. Conclusion: CAST has introduced a new paradigm by reassessing the pathogenesis of dental caries. It has not presented an overestimated caries prevalence suggesting the potential of CAST Index for scoring the whole spectrum of dental caries, precisely.