Dental caries in one- and two-year-old children living in Sweden. Part I--A longitudinal study.

There are few epidemiological studies on caries prevalence in young children. The aim of this study was to describe the caries prevalence in 1- and 2-year-old children. All 1-year-old children, living within the area of four child welfare centres, were invited to participate. 632 children out of 671 invited were examined for dental caries. Among the children examined 120 (19%) were immigrants. One year later 326 of the 632 previous examined children were selected for a second examination of dental caries. Fifty-four children (18.1%) were immigrants. At the age of one and two years 0.5 and 7.7 per cent respectively of the children had caries. In 2-year-old children with caries the mean number of decayed tooth surfaces was 6.3. About fifty-two per cent of this group of children were immigrants. In 2-year-old immigrants 22.2 per cent had caries compared to 4.5 per cent in non-immigrant children (p less than 0.001). This study shows that, as early as at one and two year of age, a group of children have developed a number of carious lesions. Further studies in infants on predisposing factors related to early caries activity are urgent in order to find measures for effective preventive care.