Dental caries prevalence in individual tooth in primary and permanent dentition among 6-12-year-old school children in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Background: Prevalence of dental caries not only varies according to age, gender, and arch but also according to the involvement of individual tooth. The study on individual tooth will help in providing incremental dental care and reducing burden of dental caries in this group of population. Objective: To find out the prevalence of dental caries in individual tooth among 6-12-year-old school children in Shimla city, Himachal Pradesh. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among 1,200 school-going children over a span of 5 months from 11 government schools in Shimla city, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India. Examination was performed using a mouth mirror and blunt sickle-shaped explorer under natural light, according to World Health Organization (WHO) oral health survey 1997. Results: Females were having higher prevalence of dental caries than males of the same age-group in both primary and permanent dentition (79.3% vs. 74.9%). First molars were most affected with dental caries than other teeth in both the dentitions (78.69% and 48.93%, respectively). Dental caries prevalence was high in mandibular arch than in the maxillary arch i.e. (80.0% vs. 77.38%) in permanent dentition and (51.3% vs. 46.56%) in deciduous, dentition respectively. Statistically, this difference was significant (Fischer's exact test P < 0.05). Conclusion: High prevalence of dental caries among government school children in Shimla city is a cause of concern. There is utmost necessity of regular periodic check-up, application of preventive measures, and treatment modalities as soon as teeth erupt in the oral cavity.