Dental caries prevalence among primary male schoolchildren in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Aims: The aim of the study was to assess caries prevalence among 6–9-year old children in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and to compare between results based on nationality, grade levels, and location of residence. Materials and Methods: A total of 1844 male students from 17 public male primary schools in Riyadh city were examined according to the World Health Organization diagnostic criteria. The decayed-missing-filled teeth (dmft) index and its components were measured. One-way analysis of variance, Student's t-test, and Chi-square test were used to determine the significance differences, at α = 0.05. Results: The overall mean of the decayed teeth (dt) for all children was 3.15 (standard deviation [SD]: 3.36) which increased to 4.57 (SD: 3.14) when excluding children without active caries. The mean dmft score was 4.30 (SD: 3.87) which raised to 5.37 (SD: 3.60) following excluding caries-free children (dmft = 0). The caries prevalence was 80.15%. Although the non-Saudi children showed slightly fewer values compared to Saudi children, there were no statistically significant differences in all values (P > 0.05). The dmft index score was higher for second grade (4.42, SD: 3.78), followed by third grade (4.26, SD: 3.54) and first grade (4.24, SD: 4.19). However, there were no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05). The dmft values ranged between 2.69 (SD: 3.25) for Central and 5.0 (SD: 4.13) for West of Riyadh. The ascending order was Central