The aim of this study is determine the caries risk in 5year old children born prematurely compared to full-term children. The type of study we will be a retrospective cohort study.

Our project will consist of:

1. A thorough literature search on publications related to our project. From the searches completed already we have found conflicting conclusions. An example of a paper which shows there is a relationship is 'National Pathfinder Survey on children's oral health in Italy: Pattern and Severity of caries disease in 4 year olds. Campus et al: Caries res 2009;43:155-162'. An example of a paper, which shows there isn't a relationship is 'Dental caries in pre-term and low birth-weight children and related factors. Ghasempour et al: J contemp Dent Pract.2009:10.'

2. From the papers collected in the literature search, we can compare how each of the studies were conducted and compare the anaylsis undertaken; and therefore how valid there conclusions are.

3. We will then be able to choose the appropriate confounders.

3. Obtaining the ALSPAC data would allow us to identify our variables, which will also include confounding factors. We would then anaylse the data using logistic regression, adjusting for the confounding variables, using the data package STATA.

4. We would then discuss our results, and draw a conclusion showing our outcome in the context of the existing literature.

Time-permitting we will further our research to investigate gestation as a continuous variable, following a similar outline to above.