The importance of oral hygiene on variation in dental caries in adults

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Abstract
The aim of the present study was to analyze the relative importance of oral hygiene and other selected independent variables on the number of carious surfaces in a random sample of 35-year-old Oslo citizens. In addition to oral hygiene status (OHI-S), the independent variables frequency of tooth cleaning, regular dental visits, years at school, sex, and number of filled and missing surfaces were included in the analyses. Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) was used for statistical evaluation of the results. The results indicate that oral hygiene status was the most important predictor in explaining variation in the number of carious surfaces. The total explanation factor was, however, low (R2 = 0.146).