Feasibility of the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS-II) in Epidemiological Surveys and Comparability with Standard World Health Organization Criteria

TLDR

The study assessed the feasibility of ICDAS‑II for epidemiological surveys and its comparability to WHO criteria. A cross‑sectional study of 252 children aged 36–59 months in Amparo, Brazil, examined by two examiners with both ICDAS‑II and WHO criteria measured dmft/dmfs, caries prevalence, and examination time. ICDAS‑II produced comparable caries data to WHO when using a cut‑off of score 3, required twice the examination time, and additionally captured non‑cavitated lesions.

Abstract

This study evaluated the feasibility of using the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS-II) in epidemiological surveys and compared ICDAS with WHO criteria. Two hundred and fifty-two children (36–59 months old) in Amparo, Brazil, were each examined by 2 examiners using ICDAS-II or WHO criteria. Dmf-t, dmf-s, caries prevalence and examination time were calculated using both systems. ICDAS-II was comparable to standard criteria when the cut-off point was score 3. Examination by ICDAS-II took twice as long as by WHO criteria. In conclusion, ICDAS-II, besides providing information on non-cavitated caries lesions, can generate data comparable to previous surveys which used WHO criteria.