Clinical and microbiological characteristics of the Eastern Island students.

In Chile exist little information about the occurence of S.mutans and S. sobrinus and the clinic situation of etnics groups.
The aim of the study was to asses the prevalence of dental caries and the occurence of S.mutans and S. sobrinus in  Eastern Island students.
Methodology  One of the three schools of the Eastern Island was chose and 116 children between 6-15 years old (average age 10.09) were examined, which represent 17% of  total number of student from the island. The sample was  53% males and 47% females. Dental status was recorded as DMFT by WHO caries diagnostic criteria by a calibrated examinador(Kappa 0.8), also a saliva samples of  23 Rapa Nui students were taken. The cultive, biochemical test and  PCR for the caracterization of S.mutans and S.sobrinus were done.
Results  53,5% of the children have history of caries, the mean value of the DMFT score was 1,43 (SD 2,6) with a range of 0 and 8 ( 95% CI 1,06 to 1,81).The Significant caries index was 3,69.
The samples of S.mutans  and S.sobrinus were isolated in 56,2% and 13,2% respectively, the mean average was 3,3 X105 S.mutans and 7,2X104 S.sobrinus.
Conclutions The caries experience was low in Estern island students. S. mutans and S. sobrinus were isolated.