Prevalence of dental caries among school children of Bharatpur city, India

BACKGROUND: Healthy teeth and oral tissues and the need for oral health care are important for any section of society. 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. Dental caries, the product of man's progress towards civilization, has a very high morbidity potential and thus, is coming into focus of the mankind. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of dental caries among 12-15 year old government and private school children of Bharatpur city. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on total 1400 school children, of which 700 school children were from government schools and 700 were from private schools. Simple random sampling methodology was used to select the sample. The subjects were examined for dental caries according to WHO 1997 assessment form. Significant Caries Index was also used to assess the prevalence of dental caries. RESULTS: The prevalence of dental caries was found higher among government school children, that is, 53%, when compared to private school children, that is, 47% and this difference was found to be statistically significant. The mean decayed, missing, and filled teeth were found to be higher in government school children (7.61 ± 2.86) as compared to private school children (4.76 ± 2.42). CONCLUSION: Dental caries was found to be the major public health problems among both the government and private school children of Bharatpur city, which need immediate attention. Regular dental checkups and practice of routine oral hygiene procedures will enable them to lead a healthier life.