Sir, the study by C. M. Pine et al. (BDJ 2006; 200: 45–47) presents data from 5-year-old children from Scotland. The study population included 3,273 (46.8%) who had no caries experience and 3,691 who had caries of which 224 (6%) had all carious teeth restored. This dataset was used to present evidence that the proportion of children with sepsis increases with the number of untreated carious teeth. There is no problem using this dataset for this purpose because very few carious teeth were restored in these young children. However, the authors also conclude that this disadvantage can be mitigated if more of the caries experience is treated and write in their discussion that the reduced level of fillings and extractions in these children is a significant contributor to their oral sepsis. This conclusion is not and cannot be supported by their data.
The data presented are from a cross-sectional survey conducted in 1999/2000 in Scotland on children with a mean age of 5.3. In this population the proportion of dmft that is ft is reported to be 6% in children with sepsis and 10% in children without sepsis.
