Table 4.
Estimates of early childhood caries (ECC) experience (case status, defined as one or more decayed, missing, or filled tooth surface (dmfs) due to dental caries) and burden (dmfs) overall and according to participants’ demographic characteristics in the ZOE 2.0 study, North Carolina, 2016–2019. Two thresholds of caries lesion detection according to the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS) are used—ICDAS ≥ 3 (established ECC) and ICDAS ≥ 1 (classic ECC).
| Established ECC, Defined at the ICDAS ≥ 3 threshold | Classic ECC, Defined at the ICDAS ≥ 1 threshold | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dmfs > 0, n (row %) | dmfs, mean (se*) | dmfs>0, n (row %) | dmfs, mean (se*) | |
| Entire Sample | 3465 (54) | 8 (0.6) | 5882 (92) | 15 (0.7) |
| Sex | ||||
| male | 1748 (55) | 8 (0.5) | 2935 (92) | 16 (0.6) |
| female | 1717 (53) | 8 (0.7) | 2947 (92) | 15 (0.7) |
| Age (years) | ||||
| 3 | 673 (45) | 5 (0.4) | 1347 (90) | 13 (0.6) |
| 4 | 1836 (55) | 8 (0.6) | 3084 (92) | 15 (0.7) |
| 5 | 956 (61) | 11 (0.8) | 1451 (93) | 17 (0.9) |
| Race | ||||
| African–American | 1622 (52) | 7 (0.5) | 2845 (92) | 14 (0.6) |
| American–Indian or Alaskan Native | 127 (68) | 15 (1.6) | 180 (97) | 22 (1.3) |
| Asian | 24 (75) | 16 (3.3) | 32 (100) | 23 (3.5) |
| Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander | 4 (100) | 21 (6.7) | 4 (100) | 30 (8.0) |
| White | 725 (52) | 8 (0.6) | 1251 (90) | 15 (0.9) |
| >1 race | 426 (51) | 7 (0.6) | 741 (89) | 13 (0.7) |
| other | 534 (62) | 11 (1.0) | 825 (95) | 18 (1.1) |
| Hispanic ethnicity | ||||
| yes | 788 (61) | 11 (1.0) | 1209 (94) | 18 (1.2) |
| no | 2643 (52) | 7 (0.5) | 4604 (91) | 14 (0.6) |
| missing | 34 (48) | 8 (2.4) | 69 (97) | 16 (2.4) |
ECC, Early Childhood Caries; ICDAS, International Caries Detection and Assessment System; dmfs, decayed, missing, filled/restored tooth surfaces due to caries. *se—linearized standard errors accounting for the clustered nature of the data (i.e., attendance in 34 different public preschool programs).