A Critical Evaluation of the Concept of Bilaterality of Caries and its Statistical Analysis

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Abstract
Caries bilaterality consists of symmetry of caries rates and association of caries incidence of the 2 sides of the dentition. Although they may occur frequently together, the presence of 1 does not imply the presence of the other. There are 4 possibilities: symmetry with association, symmetry only, association only and neither symmetry nor association. Symmetry is present if the caries rates of the 2 sides were not significantly different, and no symmetry was claimed if the difference was not significant. The existence of association was tested by a chi-square test, and the extent of association was measured by the coefficient of association[image] The patterns of symmetry and association differed between surface pairs of different teeth and between surface pairs of the same tooth.

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