Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the patterns of dental caries experience on the tooth surface of Korean adolescents of the ages of 12 and 15 years. Methods: The raw data from the 2012 Korean National Oral Health Survey were reviewed, and the records of a total of 10,542 adolescents were analyzed in this study. The surfaces of the 28 permanent teeth were categorized into the occlusal, smooth, and proximal surface types. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, multidimensional scaling analysis, and cluster analysis were performed to analyze the data. Results: The analysis of the relationship of the dental caries experience on the tooth surfaces between the oral quadrants revealed that the correlation between the surface relationship of the left and right teeth was higher than that between the upper and lower teeth, in all of the quadrants. As a result of multidimensional scling analysis, the adolescents aged 12 were classified into six clusters: occlusal surface of mandibular first molars, occlusal surface of maxillary first molars, smooth surface of maxillary first molars, smooth surface of mandibular first molars, occlusal surface of mandibular second molars and the rest of tooth surface. Similarly, the dental surfaces of the 15-year-old adolescents were classified into seven clusters: occlusal surface of the mandibular first molars, occlusal surface of the maxillary first molars, smooth surface of the first molars, occlusal surface of the mandibular second molars, occlusal surface of the maxillary second molars, smooth surface of the mandibular second molars, and the surfaces of the. The patterns of caries experience are usually clustered on the same types of tooth surfaces; for example, patterns on an occlusal surface clustered with those on another occlusal surface, or patterns on a smooth surface with those on another smooth surface. Conclusions: Knowledge about the caries patterns on the tooth surfaces might be useful for the prevention and management of dental caries.

Keywords: Adolescent, Cluster analysis, Dental caries, Pattern, Permanent dentition