Risk Factors for Caries Development

Certain factors can increase or reduce the risk for development of caries in an individual.

Parameter	Positive Factor (Reduced Risk)	Negative Factor (Increased Risk)
health	good	serious systemic diseases
medications	none	medications with saliva affecting drugs or medicines containing sucrose
working hours	regular working hours	shift work
mental status	relaxed	stressed
fluoride supplementation	present	no fluoride
DMFT	low	high
number of caries	none or few	many
location of any caries	on surfaces at risk	on surfaces not normally affected
carious lesions	hard and pigmented	soft and whitish
saliva secretion	normal	decreased
saliva buffering capacity	normal	decreased
diet	well balanced	deficient
sucrose	low intake especially between meals	high intake of snacks
microflora	low numbers of S. mutans and lactobacilli	high numbers of S. mutans and lactobacilli
oral hygiene	good	large amount of plaque

Quantitation of bacteria - Streptococcus mutans:

(1) S. mutans reflect a caries producing microflora

(2) high levels in saliva: > 1,000,000 per µL saliva

(3) low levels in saliva: < 100,000 per µL saliva

(4) high levels in dental plaque: > 10%

(5) low levels in dental plaque: < 1%

Quantitation of bacteria – lactobacilli:

(1) lactobacilli reflect a caries-promoting diet

(2) high levels: > 100,000 per µL saliva

(3) low levels: < 1,000 per µL

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Purpose: To identify the factors which may affect a person's risk for developing dental caries.