The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will hold a Consensus Development Conference on Diagnosis and Management of Dental Caries Throughout Life on March 26-28, 2001. The conference takes place in the William H. Natcher Building auditorium on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland and concludes with a news conference at 1:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 28, 2001.

Although great strides have been made in dental health in recent decades, dental caries, or tooth decay, remains common in the United States. Nearly 20 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 4 have had tooth decay and almost 80 percent of young people have had a cavity -- a late manifestation of tooth decay -- by age 17. More than two- thirds of adults ages 35 to 44 years have lost at least one permanent tooth due to decay, while one-fourth of those ages 65 to 74 have lost all of their natural teeth.

Water fluoridation, dental sealants, and regular professional dental care are among the safe and effective, though underused, measures currently available for preventing and treating dental caries. Scientific research continues to fuel remarkable progress in our understanding of the best ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent dental caries.

This conference will examine the current state of dental caries research to help health care providers and the general public make informed decisions about this important health issue. During the first day-and-a-half of the conference, experts will present the latest dental caries research findings to an independent, non-Federal consensus development panel. After weighing all of the scientific evidence, the panel will draft a statement that will be presented to the conference audience on the third day. The panel's statement will address the following key questions:

--What are the best methods for detecting early and advanced dental caries (validity and feasibility of traditional methods; validity and feasibility of emerging methods)?

--What are the best indicators for an increased risk of dental caries?

--What are the best methods available for the primary prevention of dental caries initiation throughout life?

--What are the best treatments available for reversing or arresting the progression of early dental caries?

--How should clinical decisions regarding prevention and/or treatment be affected by detection methods and risk assessment?

--What are promising new research directions for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of dental caries?

The panel will present its draft statement to the public for comment at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 28. Following this public comment session, the panel will release its revised consensus statement at a news conference at 1:00 p.m. and take questions from the media.

The consensus statement is the report of an independent panel and is not a policy statement of the NIH or the Federal Government.

The primary sponsors of this meeting are the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the NIH Office of Medical Applications of Research. Cosponsors include the National Institute on Aging and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Additional information about this conference, including the meeting agenda, local area hotels, and directions to NIH, is available at the NIH Consensus Development Program Web site at http://consensus.nih.gov.