Use of the Kaplan-Meier estimate to reduce biases in estimating the rate of caries progression

Abstract
An important determinant of how often to perform dental radiography is how rapidly dental caries progress [in humans]. Estimates of the rate of progression of dental caries have been biased by the elimination of filled lesions and nonprogressing lesions (i.e., censored data) from the analysis. The use of the Kaplan-Meier estimate to incorporate information from these cases is illustrated, and the effect of using this information on estimates of the rate of progression of approximal caries is demonstrated.

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