The relationship between caries and dental recall frequency in preschoolers

Objectives: This retrospective study examined the relationship between the frequency of dental recall examinations and development of new caries in pre-school children from an urban and a suburban dental practice. Methods: A search of records for patients who were aged 21-59 months at initial exam was made for those who had recall exam 24±4 months later. 394 subjects were found aged correctly at initial exam. In one office, 123/166 (74%) had at least 1 recall exam approximately 2 years later, 88/228 (39%) in the other office, for n=211 subjects. Data from charts were age, gender, race, method of payment, dmfs at initial visit, number of recall visits over the last 24±4 month period, final dmfs and length of time between initial and final recall exam. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed in a backwards stepwise fashion, controlling for initial caries, age, time between first and final visits, insurance status and race, with new caries/no new caries as the dependent variable and number of recall visits as the independent variable. Results: Presence of new caries was not related to frequency of recall exams. Subjects who were initially caries free were more likely to remain caries free (p< .000), with an odds ratio of 13.4 (95% CI of 6.3 to 28.9). Conclusions: An effort to demonstrate that regular recall visits results in a lower new caries rate was unsuccessful. Possibly frequency of recall visits does not affect development of new caries, or possibly presence of initial caries was so highly predictive of future caries that smaller effects could not be perceived. Future studies should examine larger numbers of children with pre-existing caries to determine if frequency of recalls is associated with no new caries in that subpopulation.