Differential Unmet Needs and Experience of Restorative Dental Care in Trajectories of Dental Caries Experience: A Birth Cohort Study.

Dental caries is a chronic and cumulative disease but little has been reported on the continuity of the disease and its treatment through life. Group-based multi-trajectory modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories of untreated carious tooth surfaces (DS), restored tooth surfaces (FS), and teeth extracted due to caries (MT) from ages 9 to 45 years in a New Zealand longitudinal birth cohort, the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study (n = 975). Associations between early-life risk factors and trajectory group membership were examined by specifying the probability of group membership according to a multinomial logit model.

Oral Health-Related Quality of Life from Young Adulthood to Mid-Life.

Quality of life varies with time, often worsening, and is affected by circumstances, events, and exposures at different stages of life. Little is known about how oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) changes during middle age. We investigated OHRQoL changes from age 32 to 45 years among participants in a population-based birth cohort, along with clinical and socio-behavioural associations.

Long-Term Survival of Enamel-Defect-Affected Teeth.

There has been considerable research focussed on the occurrence and aetiology of developmental defects of enamel, but less is known about the extent to which enamel-defect-affected teeth may be at greater risk for dental caries. The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study is a prospective cohort study of 1,037 children born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1, 1972, and March 31, 1973. Participants were examined for the presence of developmental defects of enamel at the age of 9 years and then repeatedly for the occurrence of dental caries through to the age of 45 years.