ABSTRACT
In 1976, the US Congress required federal agencies to collect, analyze, and publish health, social, and economic data on Hispanic Americans, but much of their health status remains largely undefined. In considering dental caries, it is usual to differentiate the deciduous—primary or milk teeth—from the permanent ones. It is also necessary to distinguish caries scores obtained at a single examination, known as prevalence, from caries rates determined by two or more examinations over a defined time and known conventionally as caries incidence. The prevalence of caries in Mexican–American adults in the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey study is quite different from that reported by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I general-population results ten years earlier. Decayed-, missing-, and filled-teeth scores were lower. A significantly higher percentage of adult Mexican Americans had gingivitis than did Southwestern residents.
