2025 Volume 75 Issue 1 Pages 22-30
During formal dental health check-ups at 18 months old, children without caries are classified into type O1, with a low risk of future caries, and type O2, with a high risk of caries. Health guidance should be provided to guardians based on the risk level. This study aimed to establish the current status, review status, and issues of caries risk indicators and criteria used for this classification through a questionnaire survey involving 87 cities in Japan with public health centers. Overall, 63 public health centers responded, and more than 70% cited uncleaned teeth, snacking (including sweetened drinks), and breastfeeding/bottle feeding as risk factors. Many centers have detailed conditions for determining the risk related to snacking and/or breast-/bottle feeding. Many have also already reviewed their judgment criteria. In recent years, numbers of childcare hours have increased, making it difficult to evaluate the provision of snacks at childcare facilities. There are comments suggesting the need to respond to recent changes, such as the increasing use of fluoride gel, changes in the quality and quantity of children’s drinks, and ideas about parenting. Some comments also suggested that it was necessary to focus on disparities in parental awareness, knowledge, and health behaviors. Respondents said that comparisons between municipalities are difficult because there are no unified criteria for evaluation. Therefore, we suggest that it is necessary to review the judgment criteria to reflect both regional characteristics and changes over time, and create standard indicators to facilitate comparisons among municipalities.
