Abstract
The aim of this thesis was to perform an update on caries disease and to identify the most relevant indicators which can be used in caries risk assessment. At the same time, this work provides an overview of the current recommendations and strategies for caries prevention, as well as an updated review of literature about pit and fissure sealing on primary and permanent molars among children and adolescents.The first part was a cross-sectional study exploring the caries risk assessment in a theoretical approach in order to define innovative and more efficient risk indicators. Clinical indices displaying evidence of caries together with sociocultural factors and bacterial measurements with or without caries have been analyzed by multiple correspondence analyses, multiple linear regression and partial least squares multiple regressions.The results outlined different priority indicators between children and adults.In a second part, a split-mouth randomized clinical trial was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of fissure sealings in preventing dental caries in primary dentition. After a 2-year follow-up, there was no difference in caries incidence between sealed and control molars, with a larger-scale randomized clinical trial, taking into account the most prominent caries risk indicators.