Dental Public Health & Epidemiology
The protection and preservation of the general public's oral health is the aim of the dentistry profession. Every dentist, dental hygienist, dental assistant, and dental lab technician is part of a team of medical professionals battling illnesses that endanger the general public's health. Although the three components of DMF represent distinct facets of a person's experience with dental caries, DMF assesses the whole cumulative experience with the disease at any one moment. D is the number of adult teeth having untreated decay. The F component shows how many teeth have been filled or fixed, indicating familiarity with dental care. Although teeth can be lost for reasons other than decay, M is theoretically a measure of teeth removed due to decay.