Caries Risk Assessment of 12–13-year-old Government and Private School Going Children of Mysore City Using Cariogram: A Comparative Study

AIM: The aim of this study is to assess the caries risk assessment of 12–13-year-old government and private school going children of Mysore city using Cariogram. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional examination was carried out on a total of 104 government and private schoolchildren aged 12–13 years. Ten factors from the Cariogram software(D Bratthall, Computer software, Malmo, Sweden) were included from study participant's records to complete the Cariogram. The percentage of “chances of avoiding new lesions” (caries risk) among government and private school study participants were obtained from Cariogram, and the participants were classified into five risk groups. Statistical analysis was performed using the software program Statistical Package of Social Science (version 17.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago IL, USA). RESULTS: Findings revealed that there is slight difference in caries risk among government and private schoolchildren, where 48% caries risk development and 52% chance to avoid dental caries were showed in government schoolchildren, and 51% caries risk development and 49% chance to avoid dental caries were showed in private schoolchildren, according to Cariogram. Decayed, missing, and filled teeth component, mutans streptococci, and Lactobacillus counts were slightly higher in private schoolchildren compared with government schoolchildren. CONCLUSION: The private schoolchildren had less favorable values than government schoolchildren for most of the caries-related factors. Cariogram can be the most modest and reliable tool for caries prediction, thus aiding in identifying different risk groups in a community so that appropriate preventive strategies can be provided to overcome new carious lesion formation.