Dental caries in relation to socio-behavioral factors of 6-year-old school children of Udaipur district, India

BACKGROUND: Based on the previous national oral health survey in India, some variation was observed in oral health status and behavior between the urban and rural population. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the dental caries experience in deciduous dentition of 6-year-old urban and rural schoolchildren of Udaipur district and to evaluate the influence of socio behavioral characteristics on dental caries experience. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A combination of multi stage and cluster sampling procedure was executed to collect a representative sample of 875, 6-year-old school children. Clinical examination for caries was conducted using dmft (decayed, missing and filled teeth) index. Socio - demographic information was collected prior to clinical examination in addition to information on oral health behavior by personal interviews. RESULTS: Only 7.8% children reported of brushing their teeth twice or more than twice daily. Rural children visited the dentist less often than the urban children (P < 0.05). Greater proportion of boys (62.2%) experienced caries than girls (55.1%), decayed component constituted a major contribution for dmft. Multivariate analysis demonstrated the influence of gender, urbanization, tooth brushing frequency, dental visits, parent's education and occupation on caries occurrence. CONCLUSIONS: Rural children and boys experienced greater caries than their urban and girl counterparts. Caries experience was related to the parent's occupation and education. Moreover, caries occurrence was influenced by brushing frequency and dental visiting habits.