Assessment of Prevalence of Dental Caries among School Going Children

Abstract

Background: Dental caries is an infectious microbial disease of multifactorial origin in which diet, host, and microbial flora interacts over a period of time in such a way so as to encourage demineralization of the tooth enamel with resultant caries formation. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the prevalence of dental caries among school going children.

Materials & methods: A total of 500 school going children within the age group of 8 to 15 years were enrolled. Complete demographic and clinical details of all the patients were obtained. Age and gender-wise distribution of all the patients was done. All the patients were categorized according to socio-economic status. Prevalence of dental caries was recorded.

Results: Dental caries was found to be present in 238 children. Overall prevalence of dental caries was found to be 47.6 percent. Among these 238 patients with dental caries, 139 were males while 99 were females. 39.9 percent of the patients belonged to the age group of 11 to 12 years while 35.4 percent of the patients belonged to the age group of 13 to 15 years.

Conclusion: Significant proportion of school going children is affected by dental caries.