Abstract:

Dental caries is a dietary and host-modified biofilm disease process, transmissible early in life that, if it is not treated in a timely and appropriate manner, can destroy progressively and irreversibly the enamel of teeth1. It is considered a worldwide public health problem, affecting 90% of the population of Latin America. Therefore, it is necessary to detect and to examine the factors that can increase the risk of illness. The level of risk is not constant in all periods of life; consequently, the risk can be modified by coordinating preventive actions among families, communities, and oral health services. There have been numerous attempts to classify patients according to their level of risk, by identifying each of the aspects that can indicate whether a patient is susceptible to caries. Hansel2 in 2002, conducted a computer evaluation of caries risk in 446 school children, ages10 to 11 years old and created a software to establish the relationship between variables such as plaque index, depth of injury, history of caries, presence and appearance of injured dental organs, dietary habits, salivary flow, and sources of fluoride, and the risk of caries clinical examination.
Although current computer programs do not consider the patient monitoring and follow up of the disease, an interactive computer program could yield information about oral health of children and especially facilitate future follow-ups. One such interactive program which does this is Assessment System Risk Factors Caries-2(ASRIFAC Version 2). In Spanish it is called “Sistema de Evaluación de Factores de Riesgo para Caries" (SEFRIC-2). It aims to generate a resource that is fast, illustrative, simple, and comprehensive.
SEFRIC-2 was developed to update SEFRIC-1. It was created in 2009 to determine the susceptibility of caries risk in patients seeking treatment at the pediatric dentistry clinic of the Autonomous University of Baja California. The server is the core of the system where the database is stored. A questionnaire is performed and the answers are evaluated by the Dental pediatrician within three levels of risk: high, medium, and low. The software immediately displays several graphs that are shown and explainedsimply to the parents, so they can know the importance of reducing the risk factors for caries, and to treat caries in a timely manner to prevent further injury.
So far it has been applied in 129 patients. 69 patients were female; 60 patients were male. The patients' ages ranged from 2 years to 14 years. Of these patients 24 were in the high risk category; 50 were in the medium risk category; and 55 were in the low risk category for caries.
We conclude that SEFRIC-2 is an interactive and educational program with graphic information results which illustrates the risk factors of dental caries. Additionally, It will help educate the parents about the importance of follow-up dental care, and how to avoid further injuries.

References:
[1] Fontana M., Young D,. Wolff M, Evidence-Based Caries, Risk Assessment, and Treatment, Dental Clinics of North America, Volume 53, Issue 1, Pages 149-161
[2] Hänsel Petersson G, Twetman S, Bratthall D. Evaluation of a computer program for caries risk assessment in schoolchildren. Caries Res 2002;36:327-40

Keywords:

Caries, computer program, risk factors.