Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
College/Unit
School of Dentistry
Department/Program/Center
Dental Practice & Rural Health
Abstract
Sex disparities in dental caries have been observed across many populations, with females typically exhibiting higher prevalence and more affected teeth. In this study we assessed the sex disparities in two Northern Appalachian populations from West Virginia (WV, ) and Pennsylvania (PA, ) by comparing caries indices between males and females across four phases of dental development: primary dentition in children aged 1–5 years, mixed dentition in children aged 6–11 years, permanent dentition in adolescents aged 12–17 years, and permanent dentition in adults aged 18–59 years. No significant sex differences were observed for children aged 1–5 years. Contrary to national and international trends, WV girls aged 6–11 years had 1.5 fewer affected teeth than boys . However, by ages 12–17, caries indices in the WV girls matched those in boys. In both WV and PA adults, women and men had similar total counts of affected teeth (i.e., DMFT), although women had more dental restorations and men had more current decay . These results suggest that in some Appalachian populations, young girls benefit from protection against caries that is lost during adolescence and that adult women utilize dental health care to a greater degree than men.
Digital Commons Citation
Shaffer, John R.; Leslie, Elizabeth J.; Feingold, Eleanor; Govil, Manika; McNeil, Daniel W.; Crout, Richard J.; Weyant, Robert J.; and Marazita, Mary L., "Caries Experience Differs between Females and Males across Age Groups in Northern Appalachia" (2015). Faculty & Staff Scholarship. 2333.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/faculty_publications/2333
Source Citation
Shaffer, J. R., Leslie, E. J., Feingold, E., Govil, M., McNeil, D. W., Crout, R. J., Weyant, R. J., & Marazita, M. L. (2015). Caries Experience Differs between Females and Males across Age Groups in Northern Appalachia. International Journal of Dentistry, 2015, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/938213
Comments
Copyright © 2015 John R. Shaffer et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.