Prevalence Of Dental Caries Among Primary School Students In Madurai City, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract

Aim: Dental caries is an important public health issue,influenced by various socio–demographic factors. The occurrence of carious teeth in school children is very much of concern as it will restrict their daily activities at the schools and homes instigating reductant loss of study, work and play hours.Therefore, the present study was aimed to determine the prevalence of dental caries amongprimary and middle school going childrenin Madurai city. Materials & Methods: For this study, an overall of 40 Corporation schools were randomly selected from the Madurai city. About 3380 children aged between 6-10 years were selected from these schools.Assessment of dental caries prevalence was performed using WHO Basic Oral Health Surveys – Oral Health Assessment Form for the Children (2013). Each child was examined in their respective school by dental surgeons. Result: Out of the 3380 school children that wereexamined, 1475 were boys and 1905 were girls.43% school children had dental caries.Prevalence of dental caries was highest among the10-year-old school students (22.70%) and the lowest in 6- year-olds (17.62%). The dominance of dental caries was higher in girls (55.21%) than boys (44.78). Conclusion: The overall prevalence of dental carieswas 43% and it was higher in 10years old when compared to other age groups.Increased prevalence suggeststhat furtherfollow ups and likewise improving the awareness among teachers, parents and students are necessary too.Also, immediate oral health promotion strategies such as an increase in school dental health programmes are recommended.