Prevalence and Comparison of Dental Caries experience among 5 to 12 year old school children of Chandigarh using dft/ DMFT and SiC Index: A Cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Dental caries is the most common chronic disease of childhood that interferes with normal nutrition intake, speech, and daily routine activities. Dental caries affects people of all ages with the highest priority risk group being school-going children. Hence, this cross-sectional study helps to determine the prevalence and to compare the dental caries experience among 5- to 12-year-old school-going children of Chandigarh using dft/DMFT and SiC index. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study was conducted among 3354 school children in the age group of 5 to 12 years. The subjects were selected from four randomly selected schools in Chandigarh. Independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to compare the mean difference at 5% significance level (P < 0.05). RESULTS: The prevalence of dental caries was found to be 46.9% with a mean dft and DMFT score of 1.36 ± 2.16 and 0.28 ± 0.80, respectively. The SiC index score for primary and permanent dentition were 3.53 ± 2.53 and 0.85 ± 1.20, respectively. The dft scores declined progressively as the age advanced whereas the DMFT scores increased from 5 to 12 years. CONCLUSION: Caries prevalence was high in primary than permanent dentition. Comparison between dft/DMFT and SiC indices indicated there is a subgroup that presented with a higher caries rate.