| Summary: | Abstract Dental caries affects the majority of adults worldwide. Particularly behavioural and genetic factors associated with caries in adults need to be studied further. The main aims of this study were to examine the prevalence of the different stages of caries in an adult population, to study behavioural and clinical factors affecting various stages of caries and to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to determine possible genetic backgrounds for different caries phenotypes. An additional aim was to generate a simple questionnaire for assessing the need for operative treatment due to caries. The study population consists of a sub-population of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 (NFBC1966) members who participated in an oral health examination in Oulu (n=1961) at 46–47-years of age. Another study population was used in validation study. The questionnaire was validated among a random sample of 40-year-old residents of Vaasa, Finland (n=45). The results showed that in NFBC1966 although extensive caries lesions were rare, initial caries lesions were present in almost the whole population. The enamel caries lesions were most common among the participants who had a considerable amount of visible plaque on their teeth and had a high number of restored teeth. Regarding restorative treatment, only 8% of restorations were indirect, and these were mostly among those subjects who had low need for restorative treatment. In GWAS, novel gene variants were detected which were associated with severe caries manifestation among females and another gene variant associated with dentin caries lesions among males. The validated questionnaire recognized subjects as being in need of operative caries treatment moderately. Results of this study can help allocate dental health resources for oral health promotion and caries prevention of adults Tiivistelmä Hampaiden reikiintyminen koskettaa lähes koko maailman väestöä. Aikuisväestön hampaiden reikiintymiseen liittyvien suuhygieniatottumusten ja geneettisten tekijöiden ...
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