Type of Study
The article written by Honkala et al. (2011) discusses dental caries lesions using a clinical study as the main type of research. ICDAS is one of the possible indexes that could be used to detect the nature of lesions, and the chosen study helps to identify the problems that could be associated with permanent and primary molars with ICDAS among a certain group of children (Honkala et al., 2011, p.1). The study was conducted by four professional examiners at the University of Tartu Dental Clinic in 2008. The authors gave important descriptions and explanations to prove the importance and worth of this project in the sphere of dental public health.
Summary
Nowadays, a number of people suffer from dental caries diseases and lesions and want to have enough information about the nature of lesions, the importance of index identification, and the type of teeth that should be analyzed. The authors clarify that they want to use a mixed dentition stage that usually includes children between 2 and 12 years. It is the period when permanent teeth could erupt, and primary teeth exfoliate. Participants of the study were chosen in regards to their county and school size. The parents of 485 children were informed about the possibilities of their children participating in the clinical examination. There were 221 boys and 264 girls aged between 7 and 9 years. The authors discussed ICDAS as one of the recommended methods with the help of which it was possible to investigate caries in dental studies. T helped to detect the enamel caries lesions in order to plan further therapies and provide patients with effective recommendations (Honkala et al., 2011, p.4). All statistical data and findings were organized with the help of Excel software and investigated with the help of SPSS and SAS programs. The main findings of the project indicate that despite the fact that ICDAS codes are hard to distribute, this method is one of the most effective ways to get enough information about the caries process and investigate enamel caries lesions.
Benefits of the Article
The chosen article is based on a clinical study conducted by the authors at the University of Tartu Dental Clinic. In addition to the fact that real people with real problems were involved in the study, the authors relied on past studies. Still, the studies of such authors as Shoaib, Deery, Ricketts, and Nugent (2009) were not copied or paraphrased. They were just taken as the basis for further investigations and conclusions. Other benefits of the article include the possibility to understand why people should know the importance of indexes and why the type of teeth is important for understanding the peculiarities of measuring dental caries processes. The authors also wanted to underline the importance of a geographical location and its impact on measuring dental caries among children of a particular age.
Recommendations
Though the authors did not give certain recommendations on further investigations, it is possible to say that the topic of measuring dental caries in mixed dentition with the help of ICDAS can be discussed and investigated further. It is possible to choose a new age group of people from different schools and compare the results to prove the importance of location and age among patients, who want to know about the methods for measuring dental caries.
References
Honkala, E., Runnel, R., Honkala, S., Olak, J., Vahlberg, T., Saag, M., & Makinen, K.K. (2011). Measuring dental caries in the mixed dentition by ICDAS.International Journal of Dentistry, 2011. Web.
Shoaib, L., Deery, C., Rickett, D.N.J., & Nugent, Z.J. (2009). Validity and reproducibility of ICDAS II in primary teeth. Caries Research, 43(6), 442-448.