Relationship of Oral Hygiene Practices and Dental Caries among School Children of Sullia taluk, Karnataka, South India

Abstract

Objective: we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of dental caries, treatment needs and oral hygiene practices school going children of Sullia taluk. Materials and methods: A total of 1800 school children constituted the study sample. Each age group consisted of 600 children. Information on oral hygiene methods was collected. Dental caries was recorded using dft/DMFT as per WHO 1997 guidelines. Results: The prevalence of dental caries was found to be 33.6% in Sulliataluk. The prevalence of dental caries was found among 5 year old 31.0%, 12 year old 32.8% and 15 year old 37.0% respectively. Prevalence of dental caries among tooth brush using 32.6% and finger users 42.8%. This observation was statistically significant (Plt;0.05). The percentage of caries affected children was low among tooth paste user (30.5%) and those who brush their teeth twice daily (10.6%). The prevalence of dental caries found to be slightly higher among urban (34.2%) and mixed diet group (34.9%) compared to rural (33.3%) and vegetarian group (32.9%). In all the age groups the decayed teeth accounted for the greatest percentage in both deciduous and permanent dentition. The greatest treatment need for study population was one surface restoration. Conclusion: Prevalence of dental caries for the entire study population was 33.6% and the treatment need among the study population revealed that greatest need was for one surface restoration followed by other treatment.