Both overall caries prevalence and dmft index were relatively low. The results of this study substantiate previous reports in the international literature for clinical, behavior, socio-demographic, and socio-economic variables that contribute to dental caries in Mexican children.

We observed a low percentage (17.8%) of subjects affected by severe lesion of dental caries (groups III & IV). Well-defined arrays of variables were associated with caries severity.

Objectives Developing and testing a clinical-behavioural scoring system for assessing children's oral hygiene. Materials and Methods One clinical variable (the presence of dental plaque, measured using Silness and Löe's index) and one behavioural variable (self-reported tooth brushing frequency) were combined into secondary data analysis of research databases for 3-6-year-olds and 6-13-year-olds in a Mexican community. The combined scoring is an ordinal scale that depicts suitable, moderate and inadequate hygiene. Blinded dental examiners also collected dmft/DMFT data in standardised conditions. Data was analysed 14