THE COMPARISON OF ORAL HEALTH PROBLEMS WITH OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS IN URBAN SCHOOL CHILDREN OF 10-14 YEARS.- A GROUP SCREENING

Abstract

The overall health, well being, education, learning abilities, development of children, families and communities can be affected by oral health.However in the developing nations the importance of oral health in comparison to general health is minimal. Hence the present study was considered to evaluate and compare the oral health problems in relation to general health problems of the same children by a group screening method. A total of 592 children in the age group of 10–14 years were selected from class 6-class 10, the focus initially was on General Health screening, Vision Screening, oral health screening, tonsillar and auditory screening of students. Among these children 296 indiviulas were apparently healthy with no undiagnosed health aliments; the remaining children were having some health problems. In the present study 50% of children were apparently healthy, 19.9% had oral health problems, which was considerably higher than other health problems. In the present study the comparison of oral health problems occurence with general health problems shows statistically insignificance, In the present study the comparison of oral health problems occurrence with tonsillar, auditory and vision problems shows statistically significance. Based on these findings it can be suggested that in urban school children the undiagnosed oral health problems is higher than any other health aliments, which recommends promoting awareness on the oral health and importance of regular dental check up.