Abstract
The present investigation was undertaken to study the relation of attrition in deciduous dentition to dental caries, gingivitis, oral cleanliness, maloccluded teeth, and interdental spaces in 178 nursery school children aged 2 to 6 years in Sendai. These subjects were dentally examined and divided into 5 age groups at one year intervals, and the correlation coefficients between attrition score and deft, defs, GI, DI-S, number of maloccluded teeth, and number of interdental spaces were calculated in each age group.
There was no significant correlation between attrition score and deft, defs, GI, DI-S, or number of maloccluded teeth. However, a significant positive correlation was found between attrition score and number of interdental spaces in the 5-year and 6-year age group.
We therefore suggest that the children aged 5 and 6 years with marked attrition may have more interdental spaces than those with slight attrition, but there may be no relation between attrition and dental caries, gingivitis, oral cleanliness, and maloccluded teeth.
