Abstract
The prevalence and incidence of dental caries in a population is influenced by a number of risk factor such as sex, age, socioeconomic status, dietary patterns and oral hygiene habits. Thus the present study was designed to assess the prevalence of dental caries in 18 to 30 year old individuals associated with their socio-economic status in an outpatient population visiting a tertiary care dental hospital in Chennai. To determine the prevalence of dental caries in the specific age group of 18 to 30 years associated with varying socio-economic status. This study is to show how the socio-economic status of the individual will affect their dental caries occurrence. The study group comprised of 100 patients that visited a tertiary care dental hospital in Chennai as outpatients. The data obtained are their dental caries indices (DMFT), sex and economic status. The results later will be analyzed based on their income categories and dental caries indices. In medium socioeconomic status patients, most of the patients had DMFT score of 0. There were no DMFT score more than 1 from this range of socioeconomic status patients. From the data collected, the average DMFT score for low income patients is 3.4 and average for the medium income patients is 0.0. More campaigns and programs need to be done in order to raise awareness in low income family regarding the oral hygiene and thus decrease the DMFT score in community. Health workers and dental profession have the most important role in community to change the quality of dental health in developing countries such as India.
Highlights
Oral health is a vital part of general wellbeing
This study is to show how the socio-economic status of the individual will affect their dental caries occurrence
The results showed that the DMFT scores increased as the socioeconomic levels increased
Summary
Oral health is a vital part of general wellbeing. Despite huge efforts to increase awareness of oral health on a world scale, dental caries and disease of periodontium continue to plague many populations around the world. Older populations.[2] Schwendicke reviewed that people with lower educational level or occupational background, or lower income were more likely to have higher risk of dental caries incidence.[3]. There is a complex relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) of societies with oral health. Hobdell showed that there is a noticeable relationship between oral diseases and SES, and the constant caries lesions development is thought to be a good measurement for socioeconomic development.[4] Previous studies have shown that societies that show a low SES have poorer oral health status than to those with a higher SES and that oral health worsens continuing from higher SES to lower SES.[5] SES includes educational level, monthly house income and residential area and is considered to be one of the strongest determinants of dental caries. Education, and occupation, the three important determinants of health, are not likely to have a direct effect but serve as proxies for other determinants.[8]
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