SALIVARY REDUCTASE ACTIVITY AND DENTAL CARIES PREVALENCE IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

미취학아동의 타액환원효소활성과 치아우식증 이환실태에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study was to do an epidemiological survey of the salivary reductase activity and dental caries prevalence of the large group of preschool children and analyze the validity of the salivary reductase activity test as a caries activity test. One thousand and forty-four preschool children were examined for caries experience and salivary reductase activity by dental survey and the Resazurin Disc Test. 39.8% of children showed low salivary reductase activity, 39.4% showed middle, and 20.8% showed high. Salivary reductase activity increased as age increased. All indexes of caries experience were high when salivary reductase activity was high. There was positive relation between salivary reductase activity and caries experience. The salivary reductase activity of children with no caries experience was lower than that of children with caries experience. The salivary reductase activity of children with low caries experience was lower than that of children with high caries experience. It seemed that the salivary reductase activity test had basic validity as a caries activity test. However, the test's ability to select the small risk group of high caries susceptibility should be enhanced.