[Caries occurrence and periodontal condition in 100 dental students in their clinical semester. A clinical study].

The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of caries and periodontal condition of 100 randomly selected clinical dental students (73 males, 27 females) in the age range of 22-37 years (means = 26.1 +/- 3.3 years). The statistical analysis revealed the following results: DMF-T Index (Klein & Palmer 1940) = 12.61 +/- 5.41 Plaque Index (Silness & Löe 1964) = 0.37 +/- 0.23 Gingiva Index (Löe & Silness 1963) = 0.39 +/- 0.20 Periodontal pocket depth = 1.65 +/- 0.27 mm. In relation to the results of other studies, clinical dental students had a decreased DMF-T Index and were in a better state of oral health and restaurations as compared to other groups of the same age. Female students had significantly less carious teeth, plaque and gingival disease than the male students. Increasing age had a highly significant correlation to DMF-T Index. Gingiva Index and pocket depth, whereas Plaque Index was correlated to a lesser degree. Plaque was confirmed as the essential factor of gingival disease.