Jaafar characterized the impact on School Dental Services as ìshort-termî and ìlong-term.î He found that prevalence of the dmf and DMF teeth in 6-year-old
preschool children had declined from 9 .7 percent in 1971 to 9. percent in 19 . The mean df index declined only slightly from 6. to 6.2. However, in 12-year- old schoolchildren where dental nurses were deployed, the prevalence of DMF teeth declined from percent to 72.1 percent; and the mean DMF index declined from .7 to 2. 7ómeeting the World Health Organization goal of a DMFT of three or less at age 12, despite the shortage of dentists. There were essentially no changes among 16-year-olds. Of particular note was that the components of the DMF shifted from a largely decayed component of the DMFT in 1971 to a lled component in 19 , indicating that the capacity to repair increased but not the capacity to prevent new carious lesions.