ABDPH Dental Public Health flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

DMFT index

Counts decayed, missing (due to caries), and filled permanent teeth per person; used to summarize caries experience in populations.

dmft index

The primary-dentition equivalent of DMFT, counting decayed, missing, and filled primary teeth; used in children under about six years.

DMFS index

Counts affected tooth surfaces rather than whole teeth, giving finer resolution of caries experience; permanent dentition has up to 128 surfaces.

Dean's fluorosis index

Ordinal scale from 0 (normal) to 5 (severe) classifying enamel fluorosis; widely used in community fluorosis surveys.

Community Fluorosis Index

Population mean of Dean's fluorosis scores weighted by frequency; values above 0.6 are generally considered a public health concern.

Root caries index

Proportion of exposed root surfaces that are decayed or filled; identifies root caries burden in older adults with gingival recession.

ICDAS

International Caries Detection and Assessment System scoring caries from 0 (sound) to 6 (extensive dentin cavitation), enabling early lesion detection.

PUFA index

Records pulpal involvement, ulceration, fistula, and abscess to quantify severe untreated caries sequelae in community surveys.

Significant Caries Index

Averages DMFT among the one-third of a population with the highest scores, highlighting caries polarization and high-risk groups.

Early childhood caries

Presence of one or more decayed, missing, or filled primary tooth surfaces in children younger than six years of age.

Community water fluoridation

Adjusting community water fluoride to about 0.7 mg/L; reduces caries roughly 25% and is cost-saving in larger communities.

Fluoride varnish concentration

Five percent sodium fluoride varnish contains about 22,600 ppm fluoride; applied professionally at least every six months for caries-active patients.

Basic screening survey

Visual, noninvasive community survey recording untreated caries and treatment need without radiographs; used for population-level oral health estimates.

Herd immunity threshold

Approximately 1 minus 1/R0; the coverage level needed to interrupt transmission of an infectious agent in a population.

Sensitivity

True positives divided by true positives plus false negatives; the probability a test correctly identifies those with disease.

Specificity

True negatives divided by true negatives plus false positives; the probability a test correctly identifies those without disease.

Positive predictive value

True positives divided by all positive test results; depends on disease prevalence in the screened population.

Negative predictive value

True negatives divided by all negative test results; rises as disease prevalence in the screened population falls.

Number needed to treat

One divided by the absolute risk reduction; the number of patients who must be treated to prevent one additional adverse outcome.

Absolute risk reduction

The control group event rate minus the treatment group event rate; the arithmetic difference in risk attributable to an intervention.

Attributable risk

Incidence in the exposed minus incidence in the unexposed; estimates the excess disease burden associated with an exposure.

Age-adjusted rates

Rates standardized to a reference population to remove confounding by age structure when comparing communities with different age distributions.

Incidence versus prevalence

Incidence counts new cases over a period; prevalence counts all existing cases at a point or interval and reflects incidence times duration.

Relative risk

Incidence in the exposed divided by incidence in the unexposed; directly estimable in cohort studies but not in case-control studies.

Odds ratio

Ratio of odds of exposure among cases to odds among controls; approximates relative risk when the disease is rare.

Epidemiologic triangle

Model of disease causation comprising host, agent, and environment; transmission occurs through contact, vehicle, or vector pathways.

Primary prevention

Measures applied before disease onset, such as water fluoridation, sealants, and fluoride varnish, to reduce incidence.

Secondary prevention

Early detection and prompt treatment of existing disease, such as screening and early restorative care, to halt progression.

Tertiary prevention

Rehabilitation and limitation of disability after disease has occurred, such as prosthodontic rehabilitation and periodontal maintenance therapy.

Screening program criteria

Justified when the condition is important, has a detectable latent stage, an acceptable test, and effective early treatment is available.

Logic model

Framework linking inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impact; process evaluation assesses activities while outcome evaluation assesses results.

PRECEDE-PROCEED model

Planning framework identifying predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors, then proceeding through implementation and evaluation phases of health programs.

Cost-effectiveness analysis

Compares intervention costs with a health outcome, expressed as cost per outcome unit such as cost per caries-free year.